Cheshire Women's Cricket League Finals Day

Here are the reports from the Cheshire Women's Cricket League Finals Day...

Senior Knockout: Lindow 106-8, Didsbury Swordettes 108-4

Didsbury landed their third Senior Knockout title, with their bowlers taking control and restricting Lindow to a below par score, before completing a fairly comfortable run chase.

Heidi Cheadle and Carys White added 47 for the first wicket in the opening seven overs, but any hopes that this would lay the platform for a significant total were swiftly dispelled. Hannah Marshall took the first two wickets inside four balls, swiftly followed by two more for Rosie Ackerley.

Besides Cheadle’s 43 retired from 33 balls, scores of 19 from White and Claire Ashworth were the only double figure scores, and most observers felt that the final total of 106 would not be enough. Several wickets fell to impressive catches in an eye-catching all-round fielding display from Didsbury.

In contrast, Didsbury not only started the innings at six runs per over, but largely maintained it throughout. Zoe Conway’s cameo played an important role in getting them off to a fast start. Grace Hemsted caused some difficulties for a time, and the door was briefly open for Lindow when their opponents were 66-4.

Kashmira Shinde responded by completing her innings of 42 retired with a flourish, and the South Manchester team got home with all of 13 balls in hand.

Development Knockout: Didsbury 2^nd XI 114-8, Chester Boughton Hall 2^nd XI 80-5

A superb day for the Didsbury club was completed here with a dominant performance in the final of the competition for division three and four teams. In doing so, they made a strong case for having one of the best second strings ever seen in the league, with this 2^nd XI also riding high in Division 3 East.

After being restricted to 14 in the first five overs, Didsbury responded with 100 more in the remaining 15. Romilee Cabral tops cored with 30 retired at the top of the order, and despite the loss of regular wickets, the scoring rate continued to be rapid, with Amy Walkman and Noreen Latif amongst those playing their part.

Abbey Mayers contributed three wickets and Shree Dayama bowled her four overs for 10, but the overall impression was that Didsbury had posted a formidable total.

What was already a difficult start for Chester got worse when Amy Walkman struck twice in successive deliveries, and they eventually fell more than 30 runs short.

T20 Divisional Competition – Nantwich Vipers 122-3, Lindow 117-7

After winning the Senior Knockout in 2022 and 2023, Nantwich won the league’s other prestigious T20 trophy this time. The feat of landing one or both of the senior trophies in three successive years has certainly not been accomplished since Chester Boughton Hall’s dominance of the late 2000s and early 2010s.

It was therefore double heartbreak for Lindow, with the crucial period coming in the last 10 overs of the first innings, when 77 runs were added. After some impressive opening overs from Emilia Rossi and Libby Ackerley, Nantwich hit the accelerator pedal from the halfway point, with vital contributions from Grace Michell and Charlotte Neal. It all left Lindow needing to chase a total that was 17 runs larger than the team total they made in the morning’s final.

When three wickets went down in the first five overs of the reply, with Eleanor Sinker and Charlotte Kirk causing significant problems, the Wilmslow club’s task looked even harder. Having held a number of these triple-header Finals Days over the years though, the League knows all too well that it’s practically an unwritten rule that at least one match will go down to the wire.

From the start of their fourth wicket partnership, Grace Hemsted and Emily Murray looked in good form, and they gradually rebuilt the innings, adding another 79 runs to take their team to 93.

Hemsted departed after reaching the retirement score of 40 from 35 deliveries, but Lindow really needed Murray to reach this milestone as well. One of the most crucial deliveries of the match came when Sinker returned for her second spell and dismissed Murray for 35.

Although the likes of Katie Farmer kept swinging to the end, it always seemed that Nantwich were slight favourites, and a composed final over from Emily Clamp put the seal on a five-run victory.

The League extends its thanks to host club Hale Barns and to umpires Duane Jones, Keith Wells, Chris Moore and John Bone.