This is a report written from a very personal point of view. I joined RickmansworthCC in 1986. A year before it’s 200th birthday. And some 35 years ago. In those 234 years Ricky has never had a female team. But now we do! Rickmansworth girls team exists and on Sunday we played our first ever game, against Tring Park. And this is what happened…

Rickmansworth batted first and despite losing 2 wickets to some good bowling, Summer and Amelia put on 19 for the first pair (which was reduced to 9 by the wickets)

Jayati and Tasha didn’t lose a wicket and scored a further 24 runs, in their 24 balls.

Ruby and Dhyana the took the score on by 23, with Dhyana hitting our first boundary 4.

Finally Tasha and Summer returned and this time both girls ran really well. We lost 2 more wickets, but also ran 2 runs twice and lots of singles. We were learning as we went along and both Summer and Tasha were much more confident this time around. Another 9 was scored and we finished on 65 which I thought was about an average score. We needed to keep Tring down below 4 runs an over.

Little did I know what a set of dynamos the girls would be in the bowling stakes. Ruby and Amelia opened up and kept it really tight. Ruby bowled a maiden (no runs off an over) and Amelia got a wicket, bowled. At the end of the first four overs, Tring Park had just 2 runs on the board having lost that wicket.

Tasha and Dhyana next and straight away into the action. Dhyana got a wicket and so did Tasha and Ruby also effected a very smart run out! Our girls were bowling so accurately that TPCC couldn’t score any runs at all, and after these 4 overs, they were on just 4 runs, having lost 3 more wickets.

Jayati and Summer next and still we bowled so well. Jayati had only 2 runs hit off her bowling and Summer didn’t have any. Just a few wides, but we could live with that and Tring were only on 19, with 4 overs to go.

Any last nerves were settled when Ruby only went for 2 in her over and then Amelia got a wicket first ball of her new over. Dhyana and Jayati bowled well to finish off and Tring finished on 36.

We took 6 of their wickets. 2 for Amelia and Tasha and one for Dhyana. Ruby only conceded 5 runs in her 18 deliveries. And all this after ALL girls had scored runs in the first innings. With Summer and Tasha the top run scorers. All led wonderfully by Captain Jayati. What a team! One game and One win. And just as importantly, Rickmansworth have established a new team that has not existed since 1787. Take a bow girls. You are making history.