The Petersfield Ladies 1st XI travelled to Eversley to play their HCL Division Two league match on Sunday, as is the way this season the ground was rock hard and lightening fast, Eversley won the toss and elected to field.

Lauren Foster and stand in skipper Georgie Russell opened the innings and both started well against fellow talented young players in Nawale, Kaur and Mali with both openers playing the ball along the ground and running hard between the wickets before Foster played on to Mali for 12 with the score already on 45 from just over 6 overs. Zoe Stride then joined Russell and she got to work straight away playing a series of pull shots and cover drives whilst Russell kept scoring runs along the floor at the other end. Stride played across the line and was LBW for 49 from 44 balls with Russell already on 74 with the team on 153 from 22 overs. Lily George kept the running tempo high before departing LBW again for 13. Russell continued to punish anything that wasn't on line and brought up her maiden hundred with her Nanny and yesterday's hero, Archie Maclean, watching on the sidelines. Clarke perished for the cause before Russell was out LBW for 129 from just 104 balls including 22 four's, three of which made their way to the pub over the road from the ground. Fifi Goldsmith added some late runs as Field finished on 257 for 8 from their 35 overs.

To be fair to Eversley they did not take a step backwards in their reply with all of their top order batters attacking from the start but Petersfield's fielding and energy was strong from the off. Heather Clarke took a one handed catch behind the wicket to her right to dismiss Nawale from the bowling of Rosie Bruce. Mali and Kaur then counter attacked and added 59 runs before Kaur misjudged the bounce and lofted a drive into the safe hands of Georgie Russell at mid off for 20, Mali then repeated the trick this time to a one handed catch above her head by Lily George at short cover from the bowling of Elouise Yarnley leaving Eversley 67 for 3 from 10 overs. Any thoughts that Petersfield could relax were dispelled by Eversley skipper Sophie Beake who crashed six boundaries in 16 balls before she too returned a catch to young Elouise who calmy took the sharp chance and drove a dagger through the heart of the Eversley reply. Sensing an opportunity skipper Russell then turned to Simone Hellyer to close the game down and that she did with her usual accuracy bowling 7 overs 1 for 26 and taking another sharp caught and bowled chance as Petersfield shone in the field. Russell then threw down the stumps at the bowlers end to run out Brophy for 13 before returning with her spin to pick up two wickets late on as Eversley finished on 188 for 8 from their 35 overs.

This concluded a weekend that saw three of our youngsters in Maclean, Bowerbank and Russell all score their maiden league hundreds, what a weekend for the club!