Bushy Park Girls U15 Middlesex Indoor Tournament Saturday 21st January 2017

On one of the coldest days of the year those of us who thought an indoor tournament was going to be the warmer option were mistaken.  The Play On sports venue in Whitechapel was our destination for the afternoon and I strongly suspect it may have been slightly warmer outside than in.  Most of the 9 Bushy Park girls representing the U15s (more than half the girls helping out from our lower age groups) had some experience of this fast paced indoor game from previous years so were already aware of the finer details and unlikely to get caught out with the ball being mostly in live play as we have in previous years.

The first of our four games was against North Middlesex and the girls.  The opening five overs saw some solid bowling and not too many runs given away however, the first breakthrough came with a run out off Paige’s bowling.  Abi and Pubidika closed the innings down not giving away any runs with North Middlesex setting 39 for Bushy Park to chase down.  Millie and Paige settled the nerves with a solid opening, Millie smacking the opening delivery for 4.  Emma and Pryia followed with more confident batting and chipped away at the 39.  Pubidika and Hannah struggled to hit anything as was mostly no balls and wides however, leaving our final pair of Abi and Jess with 10 to win which they easily knocked off and ended our innings with 48.

The second game was against Ealing and a much tougher opponent and we fielded first again.  Molly stepped in this game and a catch taken from her bowling was the first wicket in the fourth over.  Jess had a great direct hit run out off Pubidika’s bowling in the final over to hold Ealing to a score of 43.  Sadly, the girls missed out on the run chase and ended their innings on 25.  A loss that could be chalked up to Ealing’s very impressive fielding.

After a pep talk from Mark and Ted about the importance of calling and not getting out (minus 5) and some refreshments (I think a couple of large bags of haribos may have disappeared during this half hour break)

Next up was Harrow Alliance when once again we put them in to bat.  The girls seemed to be renewed and Priya had an excellent over with two run outs both direct hits one from Millie and the other from Abi.  Hannah also bowled well in this game keeping the scores low with Harrow Alliance finishing on 32.  The runs were knocked off fairly quickly by the Bushy Park girls with Millie and Abi the final pair bringing the match to a close on 54.

The final game of the afternoon was against North London who proved too strong for us.  Notable efforts in the field in this match came from Molly who took a great catch off Pubidika’s bowling and Emma who had a very economical over but North London still managed to score 71.  Jess and Pubidika opened and scored a respectable 17 with just one run out, Emma and Molly did particularly well not to get any outs.  We ended the innings on 24 after a brave attempt at the end by Millie and Abi giving it all but sacrificing wickets to try and get the runs.

At the end of the day it was a great experience for the girls and roll on the summer and hopefully warmer weather.