After their first league win last week an unchanged Womens Softball team welcomed Heathcoat to the Station Ground for their final competitive fixture of the season.
The team lined up as: as Sophie Whiteley*, Lisa May+, Vanessa Wilson, Lucy Wells, Sureka Khan, Katherine Harget, Lucy Harget and Natasha Carbines.
Keeping to last weeks winning formula Carbines and Wilson opened the batting and made a solid start. Wilson struck a nice four through the covers whilst Carbines clobbered a couple to the leg side boundary. The Heathcoat skipper did bounce back with a smart caught and bowled to end the first four overs with the score at 27-1.
Whiteley and May were next in and got away with one early – the ball was skied; dropped and then a run-out missed with both batters at the same end! Whiteley then decided boundaries were the way to go and struck four of them in her next five balls, including one big six towards the road – much to the delight of the home spectators. She was bowled a few balls later trying to repeat the shot, keeping the Heathcoat wicket tally moving.
Next to the crease were Wells and K Harget and the latter soon got going with a couple a sweetly hit boundaries. Wells was then run out at the strikers end and a smart caught behind made it two wickets in an over. Two more Harget boundaries and some quick running ended the third set of overs with the score at 104-4.
As is often the case with Khan and L Harget, the final four overs were non-stop action!
Harget was unlucky to play the ball onto her own stumps; the faintest of touches resulting in Umpire Slaviero raising the finger – and getting an evil stare from Harget for his troubles. Twenty-four runs came from the next ten balls with some brutal hitting from both batters, including a six from Harget which was just dropped over the boundary. A couple of balls later the ball was destined for six again before being excellently caught on the rope. The batting pair did not let up though and two more fours kept the runs flowing going into the final over. There was an element of luck to the next wicket as a trademark drive down the ground from Harget flicked the hand of the bowler and went onto the stumps, running out Khan in the process. The final ball was Heathcoats eighth wicket, as middle stump was knocked back bringing an end to a thrilling innings with Thorverton finishing on 144-8.
With a healthy start of forty runs the Heathcoat batters took to the crease to face Khan and Harget. The bowling was hard to get away and with some tight fielding the first four overs were restricted to eighteen. Wells took over the bowling and took a wicket in her first over, caught by Whitely at mid-wicket. A couple of boundaries were found but then only three runs from the next two overs from Wells and Harget to leave the score at 77-1 at halfway. The Heatchoat captain came to the crease and struck the ball well but the Thorverton boundary riders were perfectly placed and managed to reduce the pair largely to singles off the bowling of Whiteley and May. There was still some nerves in the Thorverton side at the lack of wickets but this soon changed as the ball was thrown to Carbines. Her second ball took a big edge and was plucked by a stretching May behind the stumps – the newly donned keeping gloves potentially making the difference! The next ball needed no assistance as it clean bowled the Heathcoat batter to leave Carbines on a hattrick. It wasn’t to be, but it only took a couple of balls before she had another, once again caught by Whiteley at mid-wicket, making it three wickets in the over for just two runs. The following two overs passed by for eleven runs before Wilson got in on the act, a third catch for Whiteley at mid-wicket! There were two final boundaries for Heathcoat but it was too little too late and the innings finished on 130-5.
Thorverton – 144 runs scored + 5 wickets taken = 169
Heathcoat – 90 runs scored + 8 wickets taken = 130
Thank you to Heathcoat for an enjoyable match, Ben Slaviero and Malcolm Cloete for umpiring, Alex Jopling, Fardin Kibria and Jason Van Der Meulen for scoring and all those who came down to support.
Two great results in the final two league games for the Womens Softball side which really shows the development over the season. Training continues for the next two weeks before a friendly against Exwick on 23rd August.
We then host our own Softball Festival on Sunday 4th September, where we may be hosting up to eight teams for a day of games!
Thorverton Cricket Club 