Bath Wanderers v Gunnersbury WCC 1st XI - League
20th May 2007

Finally after seeing our first league game curtailed by the typical English weather the time came for us to start our campaign back in the Premier League and where better to do so than away at Bath! So it was early starts all round as we set off out down the M4 keeping our fingers crossed that the sun stayed out! Once everyone had made it to a chilly but dry Bath we quickly got ready to start the first warm-up of the year with more enthusiasm than in living memory and with Beth Morgan winning the toss (this has to be a good sign for this season as she couldn't win to save herself last year!) and choosing to have a bowl first things were all going to plan!

Things continued to go to plan too out in the middle with Sarah 'Barts' Bartlett bowling with plenty of pace and moving the new ball all over the place making both Bath openers play and miss on many occasions. At the other end a welcome return to action from Rahdi 'Monty' Nanalal saw her hitting the spot right from the off troubling the batters, great to see this opening partnership flourish again! It wasn't long before Barts had got her reward for a great opening burst when she clean bowled Steph Davies with a ball that moved sideways and keeping up the pressure she was able to force Hannah Lloyd into playing a slightly uppish drive which was taken diving acrobatically by Jenny Halstead at extra cover, 22 for 2 what a great start! The important thing now was to keep this intensity up and force home our advantage, replacing Rahdi was Binaisha 'Binny' Shah who bowled well with not much luck as Bath looked to rebuild their innings. Beth tried a few different bowlers to try and break the partnership that was being built and despite some tight bowling and good fielding which was keeping the score down it took until just before drinks for Rahdi to find a way through taking the wicket of Becky Williams to leave Bath on 84-3 after 25 overs, the only problem was that at the other end Bath's number 3 Elwin Campbell was quietly setting about building a big score.

After drinks the game was nicely in the balance and had a few decisions gone our way things may have been so different, but as it was Elwin and Jan Godman put together a fourth wicket partnership of 139 which despite the best efforts of all our bowlers just could not be broken! Perseverance did eventually pay off when Barts bowled Jan with her on 49 and a run-out with one ball to go after great work on the boundary by Robyn Kemp-James meant a final score for Bath of 235 for 5, in no small part due to an unbeaten 112 from Elwin! This though was still a decent score to have kept them to as on a wicket that didn't offer too much threat and with a lightening outfield Bath would probably been hoping for a score around 250, credit must go to all fielders who kept going for the whole 50 overs and the number of miss-fields could be counted on one hand, a great effort with the teams commitment summed up by Barts when she pushed her way through the non-striking batter and dived full length for a catch that just evaded her leaving her face down on the grass….it was off her own bowling though!

Feeling nice and refreshed after tea there was a feeling of optimism amongst the side as Beth and Jenny strode out to open, Jenny playing her first game for Gunns was quickly into her rhythm picking up on anything short or wide and making the most of some wayward bowling from the Bath openers. Beth at the other end was playing just as well and it was great to watch from the sidelines as they started to pick up singles and boundaries at ease going along at over 6 runs an over, even starting to worry the Bath coach as he walked round the boundary getting noticeably quieter and quieter. It took a sloppy dismissal to break the partnership when Jenny's eyes lit up at the sight of a full-toss from Lisa Pagett but she only managed to hammer the ball straight down the throat of the Jackie Hawker at midwicket leaving her to walk back to the pavilion wishing it had gone even half a meter either side as she would've been able to add to her score of 34. As is so often the case when a partnership is broken it wasn't long before Beth also found herself on the way back, after adding only 2 runs for the second wicket she was trapped infront and watched as the umpires finger was raised. Still with the score on 85 for 2 after 22 overs we were will on course to get to their score and with Chander Kaul and Barts at the wicket anything was possible. After riding out a period of pressure and playing themselves in both Chander and Barts started to get the scoreboard ticking along with a mixture of delicate and brutal shots taking the score to 133 with over 15 overs to go….game on!

Or maybe not, Chander managed to find the fielder at long-on and not long after Barts going for the big shot only to see her stumps shattered. This left the job to Emma 'Cazza' Jones and Angie 'Kiwi' Symonds but a spell of fast and accurate bowling from Anya Shrubsole saw the end of Angie and Tor Begg in quick succession helping take the target further out of our reach. Danni Warren walked out to the middle to try and keep Cazza company with the target to get as many runs as they could towards our bonus points, she managed to survive the last couple of balls of Anya's over leaving Emma to score some at the other end. The ploy of frustrating the Bath bowlers worked well as an increasing annoyed Anya chucked a few wides and byes in along with a nice stare for Danni! Emma managed to get the ball to the boundary a couple of times and despite being run-out off the last ball of the game the pair had moved to score up to 179 for 7 of off the 50 overs.

Despite losing the game by 56 runs we can take a lot of positives from a match in which we more than competed at times and that in the end we were a batter or two short of really threatening to chase down our target! Things bode well for the rest of the season!