Cornwall Women v Netherlands Women at Launceston Cricket Club — Sunday,?May 6

LAUNCESTON Cricket Club hosted Cornwall’s ECB Women’s County Championship Division Three — Group B clash with the Netherlands on Sunday, May 6, with the home side winning by 50 runs.

After the recent harsh weather, the game was blessed with a wonderful hot, sunny day although the horrendous spring meant that the outfield was much slower than normal.

The Dutch flew in the night before and stayed locally before arriving at 9.30am for an 11am start.

After Cornwall skipper Kellie Williams lost the toss on a slow but true pitch, the Black and Gold scored steadily, reaching 189-8 off their 50 overs, the highlights being opener Ellie Mitchell’s 49 and a breezy 39 from Penzance’s Rebecca Odgers at the end.

A wonderful buffet tea was produced by members of Launceston Ladies for the teams between innings, with special mention to Abbey Matthews, Tracey Matthews and Caroline Barnes for their hard work during the day.

When the Netherlands went into bat they found it hard against some tight Cornish bowling — the pick of them being Launceston off-spinner Charlotte Phillips, who opened the bowling from the Scoreboard End and recorded figures of 10-1-20-2, including the wicket of visiting skipper Heather Siegers for 21.

The Netherlands kept losing wickets every time they looked to accelerate and were eventually all out for 139 with Williams taking 4-14 from seven overs.

The bowlers were backed up by a superb fielding display, which included some wonderful catches taken, the highlight being Werrington’s Amber Cummins (who had earlier scored 13) taking a blinder coming over her shoulder at mid-off.

The two teams meet again this Sunday (May 20) at Falmouth in a game that counts as a Dutch home fixture.

Cornwall thrashed both Dorset and Wiltshire in their most recent games to remain unbeaten.