UNDEFEATED CHAMPS OF THE NORTH & SCOTLAND

This weekend saw us heading slightly less up north to Headingley for our once yearly trip, to see if we could finish the job and qualify for BUCS Nationals for a record third year in a row. Faced with Newcastle, Leeds Beckett and Leeds University in a brutal move making us play three games back-to-back, the bar was set high…

SHEFFIELD VS NEWCASTLE

Three years in and I’m starting to think Headingley don’t own a central heating system as we arrived to sub-zero temperatures. The cold looked to be getting the better of the girls, as despite Millie Boddington managing to win the toss for the second week in a row, the bowling got off to a shaky start, with a helping of extras getting Newcastle to 54-0 off four overs. The breakthrough came as Boddington took a direct run out chance to get the first wicket, and it didn’t stop there. The next ball brought another wicket, with Boddington taking a catch at mid-off from Hannah Lautch’s bowling leaving the score at a much more manageable 79-2 off 7. The fielding stepped up a gear from here on out, with the black and gold girls earning another run out at the strikers end soon after. Two run outs in the final over left Newcastle on 107-5 off their 10 overs, still setting a large total for the Sheffield girls to chase.

Boddington and Lautch got the chase off to a good start, scoring 13 runs for no wickets in the first over. Newcastle changed their three-one field pretty quickly, testament to the pairs ability to hit any gap they were faced with. Unfortunately, Lautch soon went bowled, leaving Zara Aslam to join the chase in the second over. Newcastle added to the total a fair few extras themselves as the score rocketed to 50-1 off 4 overs. Extras continued to score well as the score reached 79-1 off 6 with neither of the batters seeming close to retirement. In fact, it took until the score was at a huge 98 for Boddington to even reach the figure needed for retirement. Even more surprisingly, the score of 98 was brought up in the 7th over as the batters knocked off the runs required at an alarming rate. Eliza Goode stepped in to take Boddington’s place as her and Aslam took Sheffield over the line, scoring 110-1 off just 8 overs!!

SHEFFIELD VS LEEDS BECKETT

Shockingly, Boddington managed to win the toss again, putting Leeds Beckett in to bat first. Whatever she said in her team talk must have worked, as the bowling performance stepped up considerably restricting Leeds Beckett to just 3-0 off two overs, and 6-0 off three. Lautch then bagged herself another wicket with an ankle height Boddington catch dismissing the batter who wanted nothing but to hit the back wall. Beckett’s struggle continued, only managing to reach 24-1 at the halfway point. The pressure on the batters started to build, with Apoorva Aji’s next over going for just three runs, leading to a silly run from the batting pair that was punished by a run out at the striker’s end. Aji stepped up to bowl the second to last over, which saw Lautch take an absolutely incredible catch as she leapt into the air and plucked the ball out the air one handed. Leeds Beckett finished on just 59-3 off 10 overs, never really getting going.

Boddington and Lautch continued as they had done in the first game, earning 10 runs off the first over. The run chase was happening and happening quickly, before a controversial LBW decision dismissed the skipper in the third over. Aslam stepped to the crease once more and continued where Boddington had left off, with the batting pair requiring just 20 runs from the last 6 overs to snatch victory. The controversial LBW decision proved not to be the only talking point of the game as a laughing fit struck the bowler, gifting us 17 runs in extras as the girls even managed to complete two runs from a wide ball. Dropping the ball in to the back corner Lautch finished it off, making it two wins from two for Sheffield.

SHEFFIELD VS LEEDS UNIVERSITY

Boddington won the toss AGAIN making it three from three in terms of toss wins, but could it be three out of three game wins too…

The umpires rushed us on to the pitch as they were adamant the game needed to be over within the hour as the hall was only booked till 5. With Kev wanting the game wrapped up so he could get back to the in-laws too, the pressure was on to wrap things up quickly and get back to Sheffield to hopefully begin the celebrations. The girls set to the mission like ducks to water, with Aji bowling the opening batter in the second over. Another run out in quick succession left Leeds on 20-2 in the third over. Lautch the stepped up to bowl, claiming herself another wicket as Aji took a sharp catch at point. Lautch then took another wicket in the over, bowling the batter who had no idea what to do with the ball that came her way, and leaving just two wickets to take to finish Leeds off. Another run out later and just the number six batter remained. A bewildered Boddington went in to bowl as the girl stood directly in front of her stumps and refused to move, but it wasn’t long before the ball clattered into her pads without any resistance dismissing her LBW and finishing of Leeds innings in just 13 minutes.

Boddington and Lautch made lightning work of the chase knocking off the 37 required runs in just 7 minutes and 2.3 overs. With the whole match lasting just 20 minutes the girls were off the pitch with 40 minutes to spare and plenty of time for pictures. 3/3 from the day, 6/6 from the campaign leaving us undefeated champions of the BUCS Northern & Scotland League and on our way to Nationals!