Petersfield Girls under 13’s in the Cove Girls competition

Petersfield Girls under 13’s in the Cove Girls competition 6th May 2013 A hot and sunny Bank Holiday Monday saw the new Petersfield girls team take part in their 1st games of the season at Cove cricket club with the young team promoted from the under 11 to the under 13 tournament on the morning of the competition. With a new team, led for the 1st time by Emily Anscombe, the hope was to gain valuable experience and show progression throughout the afternoon. The 1st game against Hartley Wintney started slowly with Petersfield posting 124 for 3, and despite Anscombe taking 2 wickets with the 1st two balls of the innings their opponents played steady cricket to reach 136 for 3 and win by 12 runs. Next up were the larger and older hosts, who backed by some tight, quick bowling kept Petersfield to 116. However a more spirited bowling and fielding performance, which gave an insight into our performances to come, kept the Cove team to only 124 in reply, a 2nd loss but this time by only 8 runs. Boyed by this performance and their growing confidence the girls then played Hartley Wintney in their rematch. Again some spirited bowling and fielding especially from Eleanor Duggan and Keziah Rose was matched by some good batting from the opponents who scored 149 for 3. A change in the order saw Olivia Wadey open the batting with Lauren Norris and continue her six count with the two biggest sixes of the day, one of which not only cleared the boundary, but the protective fence and landed in a neighbouring garden which was described as immense by the opposing coach! This set the tone for the game which left Anscombe and Stone requiring 9 runs to win from the last over. Anscombe proceeded to hit 2 boundary fours from balls 1 and 4 and the pair completed the sensible single needed from the last ball to win by 1 run. This then set the team up for their last match against the unbeaten Cove side. The team again started well with Wadey, Anscombe and Norris all bowling accurately and Ella Williams really growing into her role as the younger team’s wicket keeper. Continued wicket taking kept Cove to 136 for 3. With Lorna Williams drafted in to help face the faster Cove bowlers Petersfield then made short work of that target with a near faultless batting display posting 166 for the loss of only 1 wicket with 5 of the 6 batters hitting boundaries including two 6’s from the fastest Cove bowler from Rose and Williams Senior. This left Petersfield in 2nd place on the day with 2 wins and 2 losses. There were some great individual firsts and bravery shown during the day against older opposition but a special mention should go to Olivia Wadey as our leading run scorer and Emily Anscombe as the leading wicket taker and young leader of this team.