The Cambridgeshire women’s cricket team were the underdogs on Saturday in their T20 County Cup clash with Kent, just like Crystal Palace in the FA Cup Final at Wembley. Despite beating two fellow Tier 3 sides, Herefordshire, and Northumberland in rounds 1 and 2, Kent, a tier 2 county, cruised to an 80 run victory at Fenner’s.
But on a gorgeous afternoon in Cambridge, I dared to dream like Palace supporters at Wembley that Saturday could be Cambridgeshire’s day in the sun. Personally, I soon came across Robin Martin, a Kent supporter and sponsor, sitting on the wooden benches at the side of the famous ground. Robin kindly gave me the details of the Kent side and highlighted Amy Gordon, an all rounder, and a former captain of Surrey.
Cambridgeshire’s Kelly Haynes won the toss and put Kent into bat on a flat Fenner’s track. My own hopes were soon shattered by Gordon and her opening partner Grace Poole who were soon dominating the Cambridgeshire opening bowlers, Beth Matthews and Charlotte Aylmore reaching 62 by the end of the power play. Gordon 42 (24 balls) and Grace Poole 47 (37 balls) added 77 for the first wicket. When Kent reached three figures at the beginning of the 10th over it looked ominous for the young Cambridgeshire side.
But to their credit Cambridgeshire didn’t wilt under the sun. Yes, a couple of catches went down but they held together. “We were fully seeing 200 at least but the fact that we slowed them down in the middle, 193 was a feat” said medium fast bowler Laura Robinson.
Cambridgeshire never looked like reaching the Kent score of 193/2, indeed the first over by Sydney Gorham was a maiden. However, with a flurry of early wides the home side reached a respectable 41/2 at the end of the power play.
Wickets then tumbled at regular intervals before a late rally by Jess Pugh 30 saw them get to 113/9. Opening bowler Gorham taking 4/11 all of them bowled in her 4 over spell.
“Playing against a Tier 2 side we knew it was going to be tough but the fact we batted the full twenty was kind of the goal. We will take the little wins,” said Robinson.
A challenging day for Cambridgeshire losing by 80 runs although after the game coach Lee Smith was in an upbeat mood. “I’m incredibly proud of the efforts we have put into this competition and to get to the last 16 of a national cup it’s incredible. It’s exciting moving forward into tier 3 competitions”.
“It was a big ask for us but a really big learning curve. It was always going to be a tough game. For us to come and compete and pit our wits against a tier 2 county is going to be rewarding for a lot of our players.
“The result probably doesn’t do us justice, but we are going to take so much out of this game”.
And on the difference between the two sides Smith added “Our average age is around about 19/20 while theirs is about 27/28. We are also a squad that hasn’t played together that much. The more we play together and play against these counties, the better we will get.”
Kent now takes on the role of the underdog in Saturday’s quarter final against The Blaze at Canterbury.
Cambridgeshire were unable to match Crystal Palace at Wembley but there were no tears at Fenner’s only reflective glory at reaching the last sixteen of the T20 County Cup.