South-East Stars v Western Storm
RFH Trophy, Beckenham, 22 July
For anyone unfamiliar with the cream of English poetry, the preceding line runs: ‘Rain, rain, go away’.
At Beckenham it stayed away for two balls of the Storm innings, then the players scurried for shelter. It was a relief to see them reappear, allowing the score to mount to 182-4. Then the rain came good and proper.
Storm were delighted to welcome back their two new England caps, Danielle Gibson and Lauren Filer. Sadly for spectators the early finish prevented them from seeing their new fast bowler in action.
She may even be thankful for missing out. As Ryana MacDonald-Gay came in to bowl the second over, she took a nasty tumble. Fortunately she recovered quickly, and, as she warmed to her task, produced some testing balls. Freya Davies too tempted the openers, Alex Griffiths and Emma Corney into the odd injudicious swish. 19-year-old Corney has been producing the goods in this series; since the start of May she hasn’t had a failure. Today, following a 69 against Vipers, she batted for 90 minutes, accumulating 48 before she mistimed a skier to Bryony Smith at mid-off.
Griffiths was more productive, but fell for 27, turning a ball from Alexa Stonehouse into Paige Scholfield’s hands at mid-wicket.
Storm’s batting has been iffy this series, but Fran Wilson (23) and skipper Sophie Luff (34*) made sure they kept the scoreboard ticking over. Wilson fell to a fine catch at backward point by RMG. Gibson’s entry at No 5 added more impetus. It needed Davies to return for a second spell to get her out, and that was from a catch by Alice Davidson-Richards at long-on. ADR had a big say in affairs: apart from the catch she took the wickets of Corney and her old team-mate Wilson.
A lot of Stars’ outfielding was very fine; balls lassooed an inch from the boundary rope, the catches caught and throws that zoomed into Kira Chathli’s gloves above the bails. Tazmin Brits took two painful blows to the hand as she stood her ground at extra-cover to fierce shots.
That fourth wicket was nearly our lot for the day. The forecasters had got things exactly right, so the game ended frustratingly in the early afternoon, with what you might call a no-score draw.
If I offered £1 millon for an invention that permitted outdoor play during rain, costing no more that £50,000 to install, I suspect my money might be safe.
Teams:
South East Stars:
Bryony Smith (captain), Alexa Stonehouse, Kira Chathli (wk), Tazmin Brits, Alice Davidson- Richards, Paige Scholfield, Jemima Spence, Kalea Moore, Ryana MacDoanald-Gay, Freya Davies, Danielle Gregory
Western Storm:
Alex Griffiths, Emma Corney, Fran Wilson, Sophie Luff (captain), Danielle Gibson, Niamh Holland, Katie Jones (wk), Sophia Smale, Lauren Filer, Chloe Skelton, Phoebe Graham
Score: Storm 182-4 (36 overs, run-rate 5.05) Stars dnb
2 points each
Afterthoughts
We have got used to seeing the eight regional teams well stocked with full England caps. It’s especially gratifying to see so many of this year’s Under 19 squad finding a place in the teams. Appearing at Beckenham were Niahm Holland and Sophia Smale for Storm and RMG and Stonehouse for Stars.
It was excellent seeing James Tredwell, the former Kent and England off-spinner, standing in this game. I’m sure he will have been impressed by the performances of the five Kent players in the home team.
We should be grateful for small mercies. Of the four games in this round two failed to start, and the other, at Arundel, managed only 26 overs.
