The weather was behaving for a change when BPG U11s faced Hampton Wick’s U9 boys last weekend for a friendly local derby. It would be an interesting match, not least because playing a boys’ team would be a first for some of our newer players.

Lizzie was awarded the honour of captain this time around, thanks to her initiative in warming the team up before the game, and she chose to field after winning the toss. Our seasoned openers, Erin and Imogen, opened the bowling, with Imogen facing the added pressure of bowling to her brother – and apart from a very well-struck 6, the girls set the pace nicely with some accurate bowling.

Some of our newer players then got to illustrate the progress they have made in training, with fantastic wickets for Jocelyn and Vivie, and tight bowling from Lexie, Georgie, Bea and Grace. Lizzie (2 wickets, -4 runs, 3 overs), Libby (1 wicket, 5 runs, 3 overs) and Erin (1 wicket, 2 runs, 3 overs) closed out the bowling and the statistics show how they all rose to the challenge.

With a target of 267, our openers, Imogen and Erin, took to the field. Unfortunately, Erin fell to an early wicket, but the partnership put 17 runs on the board by the end of their spell. The batting progressed nicely, albeit losing as many wickets as their opponents, but the girls’ earlier tight bowling and fielding and some great calling and running between the wickets meant that the girls were the victors in the end with a final tally of 284 runs.

As always, thank you to our umpire, Ted, and to BPG U13s’ Paige in her first outing as scorer (and to Duncan for stepping in when our scorer had to dash off to a dance class… places to go and all that…). This was a great experience for some of the girls who hadn’t had much match experience before now and they performed (and behaved) impeccably. This team is growing from strength to strength and it is lovely to watch!