#SheffieldShhhhh

This weekend we kicked off our Indoor BUCS campaign in style, with 3/3 WINS in a bid to reach the BUCS Nationals for a third year in a row.

To mark the new year, BUCS decided that while Sheffield Hallam classed as the North West/Midlands, we, despite being situated in the same city, were practically located in Scotland. Thrust into a new league with almost entirely new opposition we had no idea what was instore as we travelled up to Durham, particularly that taxis don’t like to operate before 11am on a Saturday. Once the taxis had finally been booked we headed to Chester-le-Street to make our mark on the Scottish and extremely Northern teams…

1st GAME: SHEFFIELD vs ST ANDREWS

St Andrews - 75-5 off 10 overs

Sheffield - 76-1 off 5.4 overs

Our first game was against St. Andrews, who for some reason still unknown seemed to think they could beat us fairly easily. Captain Millie Boddington called and won, yes won, the toss putting St Andrews in to bat and the game got underway. Any thoughts St. Andrews had of winning must have faded quickly, as Boddington went around the wicket to the left hander and bowled her on just the 5th ball of the innings. Soon after fell the wicket of the girl who can only have played for Australia, due to her insistence to wear a cricket Australia cap, indoors, in winter, as she too went bowled this time to Hannah Lautch. At this point St Andrews were struggling on just 9-2 off 2 overs however the next pair in managed to hang on for a while, taking them to 31 in the 5th over before Sonia Twigg took the third wicket of the game, another bowled, on the first ball of her second over. After some fancy footwork from Boddington and two run outs within two balls of each other from Boddington and Lautch, St Andrews finished on a very achievable 75-5.

Boddington and Lautch then headed off to bat, to be met by a rather interesting field leaving them all the space in the world to score the runs needed to win the game. After getting the chase off to a great start in the first over, the batters got a bit giddy and Lautch was run out as they tried to complete a second run. Zara Aslam headed in to bat with absolutely no fielder to be seen near her favourite back corner and set to work quickly. Some big hitting from Boddington earning her a 6, excellent shot placement from the pair and a few extras for good measure, the target of 76 was reached in record time with 5.2 overs still scheduled to be bowled.

2nd GAME: SHEFFIELD vs DURHAM

Sheffield - 114-4 off 10 overs

Durham – 96 all out off 9.5 overs

Unlike the other opponents to be faced that day, Durham were not new faces, having been our opposition in the Super 8’s of last year’s BUCS Nationals in Leicester. Back in March, despite making a strong start in the first half of the bowling innings, the team struggled to finish them off and a few bits of bad luck saw the team face defeat, finishing second to Durham in the group and qualifying for the semi-finals as runners up. Determined to go through the group stages as winners once more, the team needed to take revenge for Leicester and beat Durham. Things weren’t looking good at first, as Durham won the toss and put us in to bat. Boddington and Lautch took to the crease once more to set a good total to be defended.

This time the field was different, but Boddington and Lautch found the new gaps with ease, scoring a huge 13 runs from the first over. Lautch got lucky as she was dropped at mid-off in the second over and the pair continued to score quickly, reaching 34 by the end of the third. Not long after being gifted a second chance however, Lautch was caught stepping out of her crease and stumped by the Durham keeper. Boddington and Aslam continued to find the gaps, even hitting a few boundary shots here and there to take the score to 56-1 in the fifth. Soon after Boddington scored the necessary 25 for retirement and newbie Eliza Goode took her place at the crease. After Zara Aslam was bowled in the 6th over, Sonia Twigg stepped in, and the new pair looked to get up and running, quite literally, as soon as possible. Despite Durham’s desperate efforts to limit our scoring, Goode and Twigg got off to a flying start, scoring a 3 off every single ball of the over, before Twigg was run out in the 9th. Billie Santos came and went, and Boddington padded up once more to finish the job. A good last over for Sheffield saw 17 runs scored and the total to chase shoot up to 114 for Durham.

As the Durham opening pair took to the crease it was clear for all to see they had just one thing in sight, the back wall, as they attempted hit boundary upon boundary. The Durham score increased quickly to 34-0 off 3 overs, but rather than panic the Sheffield girls turned it up a gear with Boddington putting on an excellent fielding display and earning two direct run outs from two consecutive balls. This undoubtedly marked the turning point in the game as the new batters began to struggle, attempting to walk down halfway down the pitch to a slower ball from Billie Santos, who quickly gathered the ball off the batter’s pad and sent the bails flying at the keeper’s end. The score was now 55-3 off 6 overs, and with the total beginning to slip out of reach, the next batter to fall followed suit, walking down the pitch only to be bowled by Lautch’s ‘gentle pace’. Some more fine fielding earnt another run out in the second to last over, meaning Durham needed 32 runs from 6 balls with just one wicket remaining. The last over wasn’t without drama, with Boddington throwing in a few extra balls to keep us on the edge of our seats, before taking a caught and bowled on the second to last ball of the game to finish Durham off, all out for 96.

3rd GAME: SHEFFIELD vs EDINBURGH

Edinburgh - 98-4 off 10 overs

Sheffield - 100-2 off 7.3 overs

Unbeknown to Sheffield, we’d managed to earn quite a name for ourselves throughout the day as it seems the Scotland and Northern league had never before encountered support or noise. Still unhappy about what they believed to be a shock loss in the first game of the day, St Andrews teamed up with Scottish rivals Edinburgh to try and out shout the balcony, but little did they know what they were up against…

To add to the surprises of the day, Captain Bod called and won the toss once again putting Edinburgh into bat. To follow the general theme of the day, Edinburgh, much like all the other teams in the league, attempted to play outdoor cricket indoors, focusing on the back wall wherever possible. Unfortunately for Edinburgh their game plan never quite came off, ad Boddington bowled the opening batter on the third ball of the over and innings. The excellent bowling display continued, with Twigg taking a wicket from her first ball and Boddington having further success from around the wicket, bowling the leftie who’d taken a dislike to her for some strange reason. Another fine fielding display from Boddington left Edinburgh on just 55-4 off 6 overs, only managing to increase this to 87 by the time the last over had come around. Boddington finished the last over off with a dot ball, setting us 98 to win off our 10 overs.

Having been outperformed in both the cricket and the shouting so far, Edinburgh attempted to up their game to no avail, as Boddington and Lautch continued to look for and find the gaps, guiding us to 24-0 off 2. Countless field changes later and still the batters found the new gaps every time, propelling the score to 43-0 off 4. So close to retirement, Boddington went for the boundary and picked out the fielder, leaving Zara Aslam to pick up where she left off. Aslam weighed in on the boundary count with a four and Lautch finally reached retirement for the first time this season leaving only 17 runs required to win. Eliza Goode starred briefly, before a very sharp catch from the Edinburgh fielder dismissed her, leaving Twigg and Aslam to score the 8 runs needed from the last few overs. The Scottish cheers faded, and it all became too much for the Edinburgh bowler, who finished the run chase for us with three wide balls.

Sheffield go into the second round of BUCS at Headingley on the 19th of November victorious and ready for more, let the countdown begin…