Bradninch Ladies made a winning start to their 2022 Devon Womens League Division Three campaign when they travelled to Sidbury and beat the East Devon side by a margin of 65 runs.
Key to this opening day success were a number of factors. First, the batting of skipper Megan Acton, who hit an unbeaten 49 from just 35 balls while Yvonne Jackson top scored with an unbeaten 56 from 72 balls faced – the pair adding 90 for the unbroken third wicket in just 10 overs and five balls! Then, Heather Stanbury returned the superb figures of 3-15 from five overs and Florence Elliott also claimed a three wicket haul – her figures being 3-28 from five overs.
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After losing the toss and being invited to bat, Bradninch skipper Meg Acton sent out Kirsty Trude and Louisa Squire to launch the innings.
Having scored 16 from 17 balls – hitting two fours – Trude was bowled by R Miller to leave the innings on 24-1 after three overs and two balls.
Yvonne Jackson joined Squire and they added 61 before Squire fell, bowled by A Parker for a 42-ball 22 with Bradninch now 85-2.
Skipper Megan Acton joined Jackson and the pair put bat to ball with great effect. Indeed, when the final delivery of the 15th and last over was sent down by the home side, no further wickets had been lost and the Bradninch score stood on an impressive 175-2!
As the Ninch batters trooped off, Jackson was not out 56, scored off 72 deliveries and hitting eight fours, while captain Acton was not out 49, scored off just 35 balls and she too hit eight fours.
Sidbury shared the bowling around with no fewer than 10 of the home side turning their arm over, but Jackson and Acton were not for shifting!
After a short break Acton led her side back onto the field and gave the new ball duties to Colette Bamber and Yvonne Jackson and the latter struck two balls into the sixth over when she bowled R Miller for an 18-ball 12 to leave the Sidbury reply on 22-1.
Just over three overs later it was 34-2 as first change Florence Elliott had E Church caught by Kirsty Trude for a 10-ball six.
The third wicket was claimed by third change bowler Heather Stanbury who struck with the fifth ball she sent down, clean bowling O Morgan for an 18-ball 15 and now the home side were 57-3.
Indeed, at the end of the 15th over, with 10 overs to come, Sidbury were 68-3, needing another 108 runs to claim victory, with seven wickets in hand.
Just one run was added before a run-out saw an end to a 41-ball 24 from opener Munro-Higgs and it was soon 89-5 with Stanbury claiming a second wicket – again sending the stumps over.
Only another two runs were added to the home score when they lost a sixth wicket – and again the wicket was down to the stumps being knocked over – this time the successful bowler was Elliott.
Five runs later and Stanbury had her third, this one thanks to a catch held by Fi Moran to leave Sidbury on 96-7, this to the fourth ball of the 21st over.
With what remained in the game – four overs and two deliveries – it was now a case of could Ninch claim three more wickets and could the home side reach three figures.
Sidbury did get to 101 when, with the fifth delivery of the 22nd over, Elliott bagged her third wicket – this one down to a second catch in the match held by Kirsty Trude and now, with three overs and one ball to be bowled, the score was 101-8.
Opening bowler Bamber returned to send the 23rd over and this saw just one run mustered by the home side.
The penultimate over, bowled by Carrian Jones, saw another six runs added to the score before the final over – a fifth from Bamber, yielded just two runs and the Sidbury innings ended with their score on 110-8 leaving Bradninch as winners by a healthy margin of 65 runs.
In terms of the Ninch bowling effort, the stand-out returns were the 3-15 from Heather Stanbury and the 3-28 from Florence Elliott.Yvonne Jackson, who had earlier hit that splendid unbeaten half century, was the other wicket taker with her figures being 1-21. The others to bowl were Colette Bamber, who, though wicketless, did return the most economic figures with just 14 runs coming from her spell and Carrian Jones had a return of 0-31.
Bradninch team: Megan Acton (Captain), Sarah Stanbury (wicket keeper), Kirsty Trude, Louisa Squire, Yvonee Jackson, Florence Elliott, Fi Moran, Colette Bamber, Heather Stanbury, Anna Brown and Carrian Jones.