credit: Mark Locket Photography

SEASON REVIEW

This year has been a really positive year for the girls, from the winter training all the way through to the end of the season. One of the most impressive things with this squad has been the togetherness and team ethos that has been created by the girls and coaches, which has been a delight to witness by all involved. This togetherness and unity within the squad was evident throughout the winter training sessions, in which the girls put a lot of hard work into developing technical and tactical skills ready for the season.

This led nicely into the early stages of the seasons, where we held T20 days against the Youth Development Under 15 Girls side as well as against Cornwall and Wales. These perfectly allowed the girls to put the skills that we had worked on during the winter into practice, and the girls came out on top in both with four wins out of four.

We then moved into playing the Royal London ECB Girls U15 County Competition. Playing first, away to Cornwall, the girls batted exceptionally well, scoring 248 off 40 overs and proving that when we bat the full amount of overs we can outscore any team we play against. The girls also bowled extremely well, winning the match by 160 runs and, in the process, demonstrating a complete all-round performance that consisted of a multitude of positive individual and team performances.

The girls then had games against Somerset and Wales, where finding form with the bat proved difficult. However, the development that was on show, alongside the resilience and adversity that the girls demonstrated in their attempts to defend sub-par scores (especially considering that we knew we were capable of scoring mores, as shown by the earlier stages of the season), showed the side that we were. This was really positive to see and clearly stuck with us, as in the reverse fixtures the girls showed that resilience, unity and togetherness that I have previously mentioned.

Despite being bowled out for 62 in the reverse fixture against Wales and not having our best game with the bat, we went out with a great mindset and chose to focus all of our attention on the second innings, where we bowled and fielded brilliantly, having Wales 48 for 8 before an unfortunate injury meant that the game had to be abandoned. This seemed to redevelop the confidence of the girls, which was further shown by our improved performance against Somerset, defending a score and walking away with a hard-fought victory.

As the season has drawn to a close, the girls have increasingly shown their excitement for the tour to Sri Lanka, mentioning it at every game we've played! The girls are extremely excited by this opportunity and are particularly thankful to all parents, carers, coaches, managers, clubs and sponsors that have helped provide them with this amazing opportunity!

NEWS