The Women's 1st X1 went in to yesterday's match at Oxenford knowing a win would confirm them as winners of Home Counties Div 3 having beaten league leaders Beaconsfield the previous week.
Captain Helena (fresh from the Captain's Quintet butchering of Spirit in the Sky at St Sebs karaoke the night before) lost the toss and we were sent in to bat on a very green looking surface with a large outfield and some fairly long grass. 3rd in the table Oxenford's bowling and fielding was of a high level, but Gillian and Helena stayed calm and started knocking the ball around at 4 an over to get us to 34 before Hels fell to a good yorker. Steph (with the astonishing record of 436 league runs @ 145 average to date) joined Gillian and ran some extremely sharp singles before Gillian was caught for a well-made 22.
Youngest team member Trisha Nair showed that the club's future is in good hands with some very hard hitting off drives on a difficult pitch, racing to 17. After Trish was caught behind, Gabi was cleaned up by a good ball and then Steph followed the next ball leaving us in a spot of bother at 75-5 with only a handful of overs left. Enter Lily and Katie, both of whom had been denied a bat for much of the season with the success of the top order. They batted beautifully under pressure, running a load of 2s in the heat, steering us to a total of 114-5 which felt very competitive given the nature of the pitch and outfield. With that score it also meant we'd picked up 3 bonus points and knew that if we took 3 wickets the league title was ours.
Trisha and Lambchop (Marsha) opened the bowling, beating the bat on regular occasions. With a well- set field and Nik solid behind the stumps the oppo couldn't keep up with the run rate, but wickets were proving elusive. Lily came on and struck with a quick yorker in her 2nd over and then when Marsha took a catch off Anita in the 8th over we were 1 wicket away from glory.
However....Oxenford had acquired a new player who turned out to be a very good bat and started to apply some pressure on our bowlers. Katie, Gillian and Lou all bowled well either side of drinks but they were still 2 down with 9 overs left and quickening the scoring rate.
Don't panic....!! Katie came back for a 2nd spell and we were all grateful to see Steph circling under a skyer from the good bat, taking the catch to secure that vital wicket and claim the title.
With the pressure off, there was a game still to win and Katie picked up 2 more wickets (3-23), Anita 2-11 and Lily finishing with 1-4 off 5 overs.
Oxenford couldn't get enough momentum and Coyotes won with a bit to spare and the celebrations began with cartwheels from Gabi, Lily and Hels, followed by a full front spring from Gillian. It was great to have our supporters there too (thank you Mansfields, Nairs and Lorna- with a special mention to Sam M for scoring).
A classy touch from Oxenford who afforded us a guard of honour as we walked off. This act summed up what has been a tremendous league to play in- all the games have been played on excellent facilities- some stunning grounds in fact - always in good spirit and with some very good cricketers on show. We finished off with a pint with the oppo in a pub just outside Oxford to finish a glorious day and season.
This was the first full year for the Coyotes in hardball league cricket and they have been fantastic. Special mention to Chloe Mcdonagh and Sophie O Loughlin who were both absent this week, but have been instrumental players in previous weeks taking several wickets.
Steph finished the season as the League leading run scorer, with Gabi 4th and Hels 9th. Lily 2nd in the wicket taking column and Katie 5th. We've also had good contributions from multiple other players in HCL and the Super 8s (in which we were also finalists) and I want to thank Kate P, Luci, Lorna , Bindiya, Leticia, Nadia, Sush, Jo, Laura, Kendal, Seetal and Ambre for their commitment to being available to play and coming to nets and Friday practice.