U15 Girls National Cup Bushy Park v ECC

We went into this Cup tie with some trepidation. Bushy Park have improved in leaps and bounds in recent years and are now a formidable opponent and we were were missing a few key players. But we should never doubt the resilience and depth of talent of the ECC Girls.

It is a credit to our coaches, through our Academy, that we have produced a large number of girls who can play at a very competitive level. And tonight's fixture underlined this once again.

Losing the toss and put into bat on a freezing evening in Teddington, we made a solid start with Georgia Bentley and Zahrah Latif keeping the scorboard turning over and, although a couple of quick wickets set us back, Hannah Leathem batted beautifully and with good support from Zoya Latif, Iona Fairhead and Vicky Newton, we posted a competitive 95 for 4 in 16 overs.

Bushy Park had conceded 45 runs in extras and the key challenge for the Ealing Girls was not to concede easy runs.

The training of the Ealing Girls kicked in and a superb all round display restricted Bushy Park to 46 all out in the 13th over, with only 2 wide balls in the innings - quite outstanding!! Our strength in depth when it comes to bowling apparently knows no bounds.

So a comprehensive victory when the coach perhaps might have had more confidence in the girls.

And all this after he forgot that Cup matches are 8 a side, not 11 a side. But the girls were very forgiving and team spirit excellent and we all went home happy.

I am not sure sure what sort of season we will have this year, but I know, from my perspective, that it will be very enjoyable, as these girls are not only talented but they are a delight to be associated with.