Gowerton Girls’ impress in their first ever cricket tournament.
Gowerton’s under 15 girls travelled to play in the inaugural South West Wales under 15s schools indoor softball cricket competition at Swansea University.
The girls had been attending practice and skills sessions weekly since Christmas and for all but one of them these were to be their first ever competitive games.
The other schools competing included; Ysgol y Strade, Bryngwyn, Dyffryn Amman, Bae Baglan, Cwmtawe, Bryntawe, Cwm Brombil, Bishopston and Gwyr.
There has been a keen interest in school for girls’ cricket and that meant that we had enough players for two teams-Gowerton Reds captained by Charlotte Foden and Gowerton Blues captained by Jess Parker.
The Blues played first against Bishopston and the girls were clearly very nervous and lost by 52 runs. Maisie Bagley (11), Scarlett Jones (10) and Lucy Lewis-Hopkin (9) were the top scorers. Maisie and Gracie-Mae Bennett took a wicket each.
Next up the Reds took on Cwmtawe and in the most exciting game of the group stages lost off the final ball of the game by 2 runs. Beth Thornton and Holly Rees both scored 12. Daisy Smith and Holly both took a wicket apiece.
The final group game saw the two teams playing against each other and the improvement in all of the girls was clear to see after having played a game each.
Batting first the Blues scored an impressive 103 for 6 with Maisie Bagley (24), Lucy Lewis-Hopkin (16), Jess Parker (12), Gemimah Brown (11) and Poppy Ottesen (10) all on top form with the bat. Beth Thornton and Charlotte Foden with two wickets apiece and Holly Rees and Daisy Smith with one each all did their best to stem the flow of runs.
In reply, the Reds got off to a great start with Charlotte (13), Beth (12), Sophie Hadfield (11) and Daisy (10) all impressing with bat. But Gemimah with 3 wickets supported by Scarlett Jones and Maisie with one each restricted them to 270 for 8.
The impressive effort in their innings with the bat, meant the Blues just pipped Cwmtawe to finish runner-up in the group and qualified for the semi-finals. The Reds qualified for the 5th/6th play off.
In the semi-final, the Blues were pitted against the winners of the other group Cwm Brombil. The majority of their team have been playing cricket for several years meaning that they had swept all before them in winning their group easily. A tough challenge was expected, and things didn’t look great at the end of our innings when having lost 13 wickets our net total was only 16. But don’t doubt the tenacity of our girls, they produced a fantastic bowling and fielding performance that meant that the match was in the balance when captain Jess Parker bowled the last ball. Lucy Lewis-Hopkin held on to a fantastic catch that meant we were victors and through to a deserved rematch with Bishopston in the final. The stars with the ball were Jess, Gemimah Brown and Katy Riley with two wickets each, but they were really well supported in the field by their team-mates who added 4 run outs.
In the play off for 5th place the Reds played Dyffryn Amman. Dyffryn Amman batted first and with Charlotte Foden and Sophie Hadfield taking a wicket each and the rest of the team fielding well and contributing 6 run outs Dyffryn were restricted to 66 for 8. The Reds batters always had things under control with Cailin Donnan (14), Imogen Rees (10) and Godwina Nmosi (9) leading the way and they came out on top by 22 runs.
The final saw a rematch of the first game of the day with the Blues taking on Bishopston. Gowerton scored 67 for 9 with Jess Parker (10) and Maisie Bagley (9) the top scorers. The improvement in Gowerton’s bowling and fielding during the day meant that Bishopston were restricted to 82 for 9 and were able to lift the trophy thanks to a 15 run win. Scarlett Jones took 3 wickets and Gemimah Brown, Jess Parker and Katy Riley added one each.
At the end, the girls were a little disappointed not to have gone one step further, but their improvements on the field had been significant and just as importantly their sportsmanship and behaviour had been of the very highest standard and they were rightly proud of what they had achieved and excited about opportunities for the future with all 16 girls being young enough to play again next year.
