KT's wizardry too much for Warwickshire

posted by John Winn

A good crowd assembled at St George's Road, Harrogate yesterday to see Yorkshire Women's XI take on table toppers Warwickshire. Yorkshire's England players were 'resting' and the diamonds in the necklace had driven back from Arundel the previous evening not reaching home until the early hours of Sunday. It had been many weeks since we had had the chance to see women's county championship cricket and a close contest seemed likely.

Yorkshire batted on winning the toss and lost Anna Nicholls with only 1 on the board. When the normally phlegmatic Rebecca Newark played an unRebecca like shot it was 27 for 2 but there followed two good partnerships with Jess Watson, Hollie Armitage and Hannah Buck all making good contributions. 135 for 3 seemed a good platform from which to scale the heights of 200 but over eagerness contributed to the loss of five wickets for 9 runs before Buck was joined by Katie Levick and this pair added an unbeaten 32 for the ninth wicket and when the innings closed on 176 there was a feeling that it was a defendable score.

Yorkshire in the field at Harrogate.

Amongst the Warwickshire team was New Zealander Sophie Devine who had treated us to some fine hitting at Clifton Park a week earlier and her appearance at three seemed pivotal in the game's progress. This was not to be her day however and when she was caught behind Warwickshire were 32 for 3. Some resistance came from Hennessy and Kelly but the return of the magical spinner Katie Thompson brought a swift end to proceedings with six wickets falling for eight runs and with Katie Green absent ill 82 for 9 was as good as it got for the visitors. Thompson finished with 5 for 21 off her nine overs. The highlight was a marvellous catch by Charlotte North to dismiss Marie Kelly off Thompson.

Yorkshire discover that Warwickshire will bat one short.

The win takes Yorkshire clear by just one point from Warwickshire and all hangs on the last round of matches being played today. Yorkshire face Notts at Welbeck CC and Warwickshire at home to Lancashire at the Edgbaston Foundation Ground. All to play for.

Finally one snippet of news, the Pennine Cricket League is to fold after just two years existence with the majority of its clubs entering the Greater Manchester League.