Enjoyable day in the late summer sun at the Rookwood Ground, Sale, to see The Thunder lose to The Blaze - well, these days we don’t watch Lancs players do much else. .
Chasing a below par 197, Thunder looked at least two batters light without Emma Lamb and Naomi Dattani and so had an odd batting lineup with Eve Jones opening but Ellie Threlkeld batting 6, presumably on the basis of spreading your experience through the order. Never works - Jones looked anxious and scratchy chewing up 10 balls before slapping one to mid off, and the procession was well in progress before Threlkeld got out there. When she got out we were 54 for 6 and I started pondering earlier trains home - the Lancashire cricket watching experience this summer.
Oddly enough, we didn’t quite sink beneath the waves. The lower order all batted sensibly, Tara Norris thrashed an unbeaten 50 from number 9 and by the time they snaffled doughty number 11 Hannah Jones the last pair had added 50 and got us within 24 runs of their total. The Blaze had got noticeably twitchy in the last 10 minutes as they - and we - wondered if we might see something extraordinary. We didn’t, but we got our money’s worth.
Earlier the Thunder had done well to bowl out the visitors. Star woman was Fi Morris who darted in her precision off spin for a six-for, but before that two 19 year olds had impressed; on loan Scottish international Darcey Carter got dip and bounce with her offies and Burnley-born Grace Johnson bowled her military medium metronomically at the Scottish international Bryce sisters and Irish all-rounder Orlando Prendergast, none of whom really collared her.
Just as with the men, you wonder about it all. Since acquiring for this campaign a high profile and storied coach in Chris Read, nothing has obviously changed and this afternoon’s defeat means the Thunder can’t make the 50 over playoffs as they didn’t the 20 over. Next year is a huge year, with the north west grouping becoming owned by Lancs and frankly, at the moment, the team seems to be treading water. Ellie Threlkeld is a wonderful keeper, but her batting hasn’t quite developed as it needs to if she’s to have England opportunities and in a team so short of batting I wonder if captaincy is one job too many. Coach Read is involved in cricket at a variety of levels but this is his first head coach post and though it doesn’t match the horrors of Benkenstein, it’s been an underwhelming year.
If you’ve not been to Rookwood, you should. Unpretentious, friendly, small, but perfectly serviceable bar and facilities, it’ll probably be cast asunder once Farington is built. There was maybe about 100 of us watching, but as one of the officials pointed out, Lancs had done nothing to advertise the game at all so unless you’re already a follower, no way you’d know it was happening.
What a very strange way to run a cricket club.
