The Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend saw the Wales Senior Women’s squad make the long trip to Durham and Lancashire where they enjoyed mixed fortunes. 

The team left South Wales at Midday on Saturday 2nd June and the journey to Durham took nearly seven hours. The players got plenty of rest Saturday night and woke refreshed ready to make the journey on Sunday morning to Eppleton CC. It was very cold and there had been some rain about over the previous couple of days so the wicket was wet. 

Durham won the toss and decided to bat which was good news for us as we wanted to bowl first. Wales started off well with Naomi Williams-Wadley getting an early breakthrough and bowled an excellent opening spell of 7-2-19-1. Gwenan Davies took the new ball at the other end and was unplayable at times continually beating the bat finishing with figures of 10-4-27-2. Wales continued to bowl well and make it difficult for Durham to score. The off spinners Claire Thomas (10-4-17-2) and Gemma Mumby (10-1-26-2) bowled in tandem with Marsha Davies’s medium pace away swing making it difficult for Durham to score through the rest of the innings with Wales taking wickets at regular intervals. Durham eventually finished on 146 for 9 off 50 overs. Durham managed to remove the two Welsh openers early on but a partnership of 82 between Kath Taylor and Gwenan Davies put Wales back on track with the score on 117 for 2 when Gwenan Davies was caught for an excellent 55 off 67 balls. This was Gwenan’s best innings for Wales women in her career so far and her two wickets saw her pick up the man of the match award. A quick fire 25 off 19 balls from the captain Claire Thomas saw Wales home by seven wickets.

After the game in Durham the squad made their way to Haydock where we would play Lancashire on Monday 4th June. It was a similar weather situation in Haydock it was cold and wet. Lancashire won the toss and elected to bowl which proved to be a vital toss to win. It was a very difficult wicket to bat on; the Lancashire bowlers bowled well but were also assisted by the conditions and the pitch. Wales were in real trouble at one stage at 54 for 8 until Ffion Wynne and Gemma Mumby were at the crease and managed to put on a partnership of 41 before Gemma Mumby was caught trying to hit over cover. Ffion Wynne then batted the remainder of the innings with Ffion Cartwright to finish on 25 not out, an excellent innings which gave Wales a competitive score to of 110 for 9 off 50 to defend. 

Wales bowled well to put Lancashire on the back foot, Naomi Williams-Wadley and Gwenan Davies both taking an early wicket to put Lancashire in trouble they were 10 for 2. Lancashire recovered to 84 before loosing their third wicket an excellent bit of fielding, a direct hit from the boundary by Rebecca Struthers to run out Lancashire’s danger batsman. Lancashire eventually won the game by seven wickets reaching the target of 111 for 3 wickets off 40 overs. Wales did exceptionally well in the field sticking to the task, showing great determination and made Lancashire work really hard for their win.