We were welcomed by our old rivals at their ground and there were some familiar faces from the thrashing they gave us last season. We knew to consider this very much a practice game to get us ready for the League games which start next weekend.

Skip won the toss and we opted to field knowing that they would clock up the runs and hoping that we would then get the full 16 overs to chase them if wickets didn’t fly as they had done last year.

Megan opened the bowling in her formidable style keeping Suzy on her toes keeping wicket.

First wicket was taken by Ella with a tasty ball smack on the stumps which saw off Epsom’s captain.

Epsom looked strong with some great batting and we could only watch as the 4’s & 6’s seemed to defeat our fielding efforts

We changed ends and keeper at 8 overs with Emma taking the helm.

Some determined bowling from Lucy as she persevered and kept her head after a run of wides which also cursed Skip’s first over. Great encouragement from the field paid off with a marked improvement in our bowling and a second wicket – bowled by Charlotte and a gift of a ball which even Suzy was able to catch. Alas this wasn’t repeated when a few balls later another catch came her way – and the drop was a surprise to no one!

We ended the first innings with 136 to chase.

Ella and Collette made a great opening batting duo and looked strong from the off. A surprise wicket to Epsom after Collette swiped her own stumps (we think) just as she was getting into the swing of it. Gabriella took to the crease and, with what seems to be her signature shot, caught Epsom snoozing a few times. Some fantastic batting from both Ella and Gabriella saw the runs racing up.

With Ella retiring on 43 we were nearly on 100 runs. Skip started to get excited that a win was within our reach. The run rate slowed as Suzy took it easy with some singles before heeding Skip’s wise words to ‘go for it’. The inevitable catch from the bowler followed which opened up the opportunity for Megan to see us home with some big hits. Epsom stepped up their game with some tight fielding and bowling to deny us anything more than singles until the 15th over when between them Gabriella and Megan took some cracking shots over the boundary and got us to 137 with an over to spare.

Happy ladies all round with an unexpected win which even made our lovely Lucy smile ?