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Match Report - UWLCC vs Coventry 29/11/2012 Desso Hall



By Natalia ‘the monkey magnet’ Marsden and Kelly ‘not as hung-over post-pop as usual’ Maguire.

The end of term blues were clear as the team gathered in the sports centre for the first friendly of the season against the rather unknown entities of Coventry Ladies. At the BUCS tournament earlier this term they rather walloped our team so this was REVENGE!



The match was decided to be 15 overs and 8 a side. Unfortunately this meant one of our team had to join them and Kelly was the extremely unfortunate player chosen to defect and have the indignity of playing for the big varsity rivals. Cov won the toss and put us in to bat, with Shadi and Amber the unwilling openers.

Shadi had a slow start but the opening bowler for Cov was bowling quite a few wides so the run rate was ticking over nicely. Amber was off the mark straight away and was her usual good-self running between the wickets. Unfortunately Shadi was bowled second over to admittedly quite a good ball but it was a win all round as she didn’t throw up as she thought she would. That would have been pretty awkward.  Hannah was next in, and off the mark straight away with a risky swat which bounced off the wall, but luckily Kelly was the fielder underneath. It was either bad fielding or she didn’t catch it on purpose as she knows where her loyalties lie. I think she’d argue the latter.  Amber was displaying some nice defense but was irritated to edge the ball which was unluckily caught off the wall with a neat catch from the Cov fielder at slip.


Charlotte started well with a fast straight four, and continued in this good form for the rest of her innings, providing the back-bone for our batting performance. The Cov captain Pearson frustrated Hannah by keeping the bowling tight and not giving away extras like the others, and not long later Hannah was run out going for a bit of a suicidal single. Zoe had a brief cameo but was bowled through the gate by fourth bowler (who had possibly the weirdest action this reporter has ever seen!).



Due to a lack of time Simey restricted the game to 12 overs a side, and Cov did well to restrict the run rate in the last over. The third ball Georgia was run out, might as well run for anything in the final open which left Natalia to go in for the kill for the last two balls. Her impact was immediately felt and completely changed the nature of the game. Alright, she didn’t face a ball, but she tried. Bless. Charlie was out attempting to slog last, but awkwardly she missed the ball and it wacked middle stump. She was not impressed but it was a good innings. Overall Warwick posted a quite respectable 123-6 and weren’t all out which is a great improvement from normal depressingly.



The match reporting duties were passed to the traitor Kelly for the second innings, and this reporter was not impressed with her shoddy note-taking efforts. Apparently she spent most of the time taking photos of my arse. I’m sure we’ll all enjoy those.



Charlie opened the bowling and slowly got well into her bowling stride adding to her good batting in the first innings. Kelly for some reason was chosen to open and continuing on her surely assured woman-of-the-match winning performance, was out caught off the wall neatly by Zoe off Shadi’s bowling in the second over. The relief on Shadi’s face was clear, and her bowling performance generally more than made up for her self-diagnosed shoddy batting. Yay she’s not lost all her skillz. Cov’s 1 and 3 built quite a solid partnership until Shadi clean bowled Kanika. The fielding wasn’t too bad from Warwick; highlights for the blooper reel included Charlie dropping a sitter off the wall and falling flat on her arse and Hannah doing some fancy footwork and missing the ball. Georgia claimed a very nice wicket, caught and bowled the Cov batter known mysteriously only as ‘G’ and later stopped a definite four runs to cap off a good match all round for the newbie.

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Towards the end of the innings there was a definite mix up with the scoring (oi Kathryn!!!!) which led to much confusion, did they need 11 or 4 to win from the final two overs?

Eventually it transpired they only needed four, which the  Cov batter needed only two balls of Shadi’s valiant death bowling to reach. Thus Cov won by 4 wickets with 1.4 overs remaining.



Overall, though a loss, it wasn’t the mullering that UWLCC has unfortunately become accustomed to. There was general agreement that we weren’t on top form, the batting good but the bowling under-par with 66 extras given away (to Cov’s 58) and just generally not taking enough wickets.



So there is definitely hope for the big BUCS tournament this weekend at Edgbaston if we’re on it like a car bonnet. This reporter won’t be there so you won’t be able to enjoy another thrilling match report. Sad, sad times.



Oh and apparently I was awarded mug of the term for my well publicized antics (I’d claim I’m doing the club a service by improving integration with the men…).  I’d like to thank my parents, Jesus, and everyone else who has helped me become the mess that I am today. I’d like a trophy please.



Thus endeth the first UWLCC match report. TMS eat your heart out.