Island girls miss out on Lords trip

ISLE OF WIGHT SCHOOLS GIRLS UNDER 15 TEAM
LADY TAVERNERS REGIONAL INDOOR TOURNAMENT NEWBURY

A very successful day was had by the eight girls who represented the Island Schools at the recent Lady Taverners Indoor Tournament held at the Northcroft Leisure Centre in Newbury Berkshire.
After the disappointment of not being able to travel the previous day with the Under 13 team due to the adverse weather we were pleased to arrive at our venue for the day only slightly late due to a number of incidents, most notably our excursion almost in to Oxford (none of the girls noticed we had missed the turn off to Newbury!) and when we eventually reached Newbury we were held up by workmen resurfacing the only road into the Leisure Centre (hope the minibus is okay Howard!).
Having arrived we quickly found where we were due to play and were told that our game was scheduled to be played there and then (the first game had already finished). This helped the girls, as they had no time to think or worry about the opposition.
Our first game was against Chesham High (who were representing Buckinghamshire) and we fielded and bowled superbly without taken a wicket. They finished on 56-0 off of their 6 overs, the highlight of our bowling was Megan Corbin bowling her one over for only one run (great straight, effective bowling). We also only had one wide and Rachael Mew kept very neatly behind the stumps only giving one bye away.
Our batting was steady from the outset without being dynamic and our opening pair of skipper Georgia Dye and Rachael Mew progressed the score onto 15 without loss after the third over (a maiden). Although we were behind the run rate they did not panic and the next over (the fourth) we scored 21 runs off it. Rachael then retired at 20 and Alex Barton joined Georgia. They batted sensibly and ran superbly progressing the score onto 50 off of 5 overs. The last over produced 16 runs and we had won by 10 runs - a superb team effort. Georgia scored 16 n.o and Alex 12 n.o.
Our second game against Castle (from Taunton in Somerset) was an altogether easier game as we batted and bowled excellently.
We batted first scoring 72 – 1 (aggregate score of 69) – Georgia 21 retired, Alex 22 retired, Deanna Childs 7 n.o and Heather MacDonald 5 n.o – our only wicket lost was the run out of Rachael for 5.
The bowling attack then set to work in destroying our opposition with Georgia claiming a hat-trick in the first over, reducing them to 4 – 3. We continued to take wickets at regular intervals with Alex having figures of 2 overs 4 wickets for 12 runs, Megan also claimed a wicket. Castle were 38 all out in 7 overs (an aggregate score of 14) – we had won by 55 runs.
Our last group game was against Hardenhuish from Chippenham in Wiltshire and was another extremely easy victory.
We scored 64 –0 off of our 6 overs – Georgia retiring on 20, Rachael retiring on 22, Alex 5 n.o and Deanna 3 n.o. Our bowlers and fielders then turned in an exceptional performance restricting them to 29 for the loss of 7 wickets (an aggregate score of 8) – we had won by 56 runs. Georgia got 1-22, Deanna 2 – 0, Megan 0 – 1 and Alex 4 –6.
After having won all of our group games we were then up against Mounts Bay from Cornwall.
Our bowling and fielding was again superb restricting them to 37 – 4 (aggregate score of 25). Alex got 2 wickets, Megan and Deanna 1 each.
Our confidence was soon shattered however when Georgia was bowled first ball and we regularly lost wickets throughout our 6 overs, ending on 26 – 6 (aggregate score of 8). We had found Mounts Bay to be exceptional in the field, bowling and fielding to a great standard and had lost by 17 runs.
Although we had come so far without winning the tournament it was a great day and the confidence factor has hopefully risen greatly in the girls who had taken part.
The 8 girls that played were: Georgia Dye (Captain), Rachael Mew, Alex Barton, Deanna Childs, Megan Corbin, Heather MacDonald, Nicole Mew and Jessica Attrill.

Special thanks to Clare Powell for her excellent minibus driving skills, her scoring for all our matches and her tremendous enthusiasm and encouragement to the girls and to Sandy Dye for her encourage and support on the day.
Our journey back was noisy and quicker than our journey there – with a stop off at McDonalds as a thank you to all the girls who had exceeded all my expectations of them on the day.
If they perform outdoors as well as they have started 2008 indoor then hopefully our season will be something to look forward to.