The first day of the main Roses weekend was a damp and dreary affair, and the match between York and Lancaster’s Women’s cricket clubs was delayed by 15 minutes. Luckily, the threat of rain (which had caused concern amongst URY’s commentary team in the days prior) eased off and allowed play to get underway.
It was a good toss to win, which York captain Izzy Moss did, and she made the easy decision to bowl first. Lancaster got off to a slow start, with York’s bowling attack of Lily Richardson and Laura Bawden threatening to take early wickets and keeping the scores low. Bawden struck first in the fourth over, bowling out Eve Drury just before a fantastic run out from the hands of Keona Lewis.
By the time of drinks, Lancaster had lost three wickets and scored a lowly 27 runs. The wickets continued to tumble but Lancaster’s scoring accelerated as the outfield began to dry, with Lancaster finishing on 84/7.
The condition of the field was such that many shots which looked to be heading to the boundary for 4 instead were able to be collected by the fielders, so 84 felt like a defendable total given the conditions.
Charlotte Peacock was the pick of the bowlers, taking two for 10 off her six overs including three maidens. Bawden, Allport, Laing and Moss all took wickets. This left York chasing 85 to win on a drying pitch with strong home support.
They started well, with French and Peacock accelerating to 11/0 off 5 overs, then 23/0 off 10. Two quick wickets just before tea (including York Captain Moss out for a duck) threatened to delay progress, but the win for York never looked in doubt.
Ellie Richards provided some resistance for Lancaster, taking four wickets but to no avail as Peacock and Zoe Hunt (whose birthday is this weekend) remained to clean up the winning runs.
After the match, York captain Izzy Moss, talking to Joe Hirst from URY said “I couldn’t be any happier, it makes all the hard work worth it, we’ve had a little bit of bad run of form recently but winning that game just meant everything to us.”
York won all their cricket matches at last years Roses, the Women’s team have made a great start into maintaining that winning record!
