MCC Ladies @ Lords

It is not every day you open your inbox to find an email from the Marylebone CC inviting you and your cricket team to play at Lord’s. What an honour. We had less than four weeks’ notice to get time off work, fast track our new kit order and sort out what smart attire we were going to wear for access into the Pavilion and the famous Long Room!

On 17th May, the Marylebone CC hosted their annual Women’s Day at Lord’s cricket ground which is a celebration of Women’s cricket around the world. This year they wanted to focus on the incredible club cricket that is being played every day across the UK. Merstham Women were put forward by a Surrey County cricket administrator who advised that we had a ‘vibrant women’s softball team’ and of course won in 2022 and were runners up last year in the county softball champs.

The day included the two finalists of the ECB Women’s Club Cup playing against the Marylebone CC Women’s team in two T20s and during the break between these games, it was our opportunity to set foot on the hallowed turf and play a softball match on the outfield. There were 8 softball teams invited from London, Essex, Sussex and Surrey. Our opponents for the 8 overs, pairs match were Buckhurst Hill from Essex. The teams were allowed to warm up on the Nursery ground which helped calm the nerves a little. However, when it was time to walk out onto the field, our hearts were racing but there were beaming smiles on everyone’s faces. Merstham won the toss and elected to field. We restricted their score with some fast, accurate bowling (wickets taken by Orla and Rianna) and some sharp fielding. We were able to chase down their score easily, finishing on 75 for 3 off just 8 overs. What an incredible feeling to play and win a match at Lord’s!

The rest of the day was spent having a tour of the Media centre, sitting in the Pavilion watching some of the second T20 and taking lots of photos before getting the train back to Quality Street to coach the new generation of girls playing cricket at Merstham. Thank you to our supporters who came along to share this special day with us.

Our women’s team started just four years ago and in that relatively short period of time we have developed our hardball game (who can forget the last gasp win against top of the table Newdigate last season) and become seasoned softballers. But the real success is the increased number of women and girls now playing cricket in some way for Merstham CC. Long may it continue. Thanks must go to Rich Feist who was instrumental in setting up the team and everyone else who have been involved in coaching us up to now. Also, a huge thank you to Mr and Mrs Reeves who drove to Basingstoke the day before to pick up our new kit in time.

Merstham team: Ali Rustige, Amy Reeves, Claire White, Daisy Wicks, Orla Chavasse, Emma Smith, Tanya Buckland, Rianna Patel and Maria Maplesden