Our girls’ 1stXI clinched the School Sport Magazine National U18 T20 Championship at a thrilling finals day in July, overcoming Shrewsbury and Bede’s to lift the trophy just weeks after missing out on finals day in the 100-ball competition.
A perfect blend of youth and experience, the title-winning team featured girls representing every year group with every player making key contributions during the two finals day victories.
The girls comprehensively beat Shrewsbury in their semi-final. Having won the toss and elected to bowl Bradfield restricted their opponents to 46-4 after 11 overs. The Faulkner’s contingent made significant contributions, particularly in the latter stages of the innings, with Ava (LK), Emma (LM), Jemima (LM) and Emma (LI) all involved in the wickets. It didn’t take long before Bradfield bowled Shrewsbury out for 84. Setting aside any nerves, openers Poppy (M) and Bella (I) confidently chased down the total inside 11 overs for a 10-wicket victory and a place in the final.
Their opponents for the decider were Bede’s, the team who had beaten them in the semi-final of the 100-ball competition earlier in the summer and it proved to be a thrilling final with twists and turns throughout. Bradfield batted first and made a strong start, hitting thirty runs from the first four overs but lost both openers shortly after as Bede’s fought back. Bradfield continued to battle, Eliza (K) memorably hitting back-to-back boundaries in one entertaining over but lost wickets at regular intervals and eventually set their opponents a target of 91.
The girls made the perfect start with tournament Captain Poppy finding the top of off stump twice in the first over and taking a third in the same manner two overs later, helping to reduce Bede’s to 8-4 from three overs. The south coast side steadied the ship with a fine middle order partnership helping them to reach 52-4 at the 10 over drinks break.
At the resumption of play the Captain, bringing herself back into the attack, was instantly rewarded, taking a wicket first ball and trapping the new batter lbw to end with remarkable figures of 5-10 from her four overs. Two more wickets fell in the following over as Bede’s slipped to 56-8 and they were only able to add four more runs before Emma (LI) took the match winning wicket and Bradfield were crowned T20 champions.
