By Grockle
April 11 2026

The first game of Somerset Women at home and the first professional game under the control of Erin Osborne.  Some of our England players are in the side today and it will be interesting to see how the new coach's influence has started to mould the side in their second professional season.

Metro 50 Women v Yorkshire @ Taunton Saturday 11 April 2026

Season Two of the professional setup.  A new coach in Erin Osborne and a new 'vision' of how we play the game.  It would be nice to see changes in the performances and everyone accepts that working at that will create good and bad days.  A little less niave work with the bat and in the field (one would assume that a winter of training may have helped some of the newer players with that, a more coherent team on the park - again they will know each other better and possible feel a little more confident in theirselves. It's exciting.

Somerset have won the toss and will bowl first against Yorkshire who are new to this Tier One setup as they won Tier Two last year.  It is suprising that there seems to be no real presence in any of the media areas for this their first game.

The Somerset team is;

Bex Odgers, Niamh Holland, Heather Night, Sopihe Luff (c), Dani Gibson, Alex Griffiths, Jess Hazel (wk), Chloe Skelton, Ellie Anderson, Lola Harris,  Olivia Barnes

Lola Harris plays here first professional game for the county though she did play for us before this era of the women's domestic game.

Yorkshire have a strong batting line up

Lauren Winfield-Hill (c & wk), Ines Blackwell, Jess Jonassen, Sterre Kalis, Maddie Ward, Ami Campbell, Erin Thomas, Beth Langston, Rachel Slater, Claudie Cooper, Jess Woolston

Ellie Anderson bowls from the River to start the game against Winfield-Hill and Blackwell and the first surprise is that Alex Griffiths takes the new ball.  Rain brings the players off at the end of the second over as the rain floats across the ground.  They go off at 11 for 0

They will restart at 10:56 with no loss of overs and they are on in sunshine without a cloud in the sky.  After the 3rd Yorkshire have moved to 19 - expensive over back from Anderson.

Ines Blackwell is also a debutant at the ripe old age of 16.  A bit of a duianting taks to open for your county in your first ever professional game.  It's a disappointing crowd for the first game of the season on a Saturday.  They have sold 600 tickets I believe but there certainly aren't 600 people here first thing this morning.  After 5 overs Yorkshire have reached 27 without loss.  The skipper has reached 12 and the debutant has 9.  Extras has reached 6 alreaady and Elllie Anderson has bowled better first spells with 21 from her 3 overs.  Griffiths has bowled roughly the same and gone for 5.  She also has the first wicket as she bowls Blackwell comprehensively at 27 for 1.

In comes Jonassen as the replacement. Anderson is replaced by Skelton for the 8th after she has gone for 40 from her 4 but Yorkshire move towards 50 but they hold them beyond the 10th over as Alex holds the line with only 8 coming from the 5 she has delivered.  1 less than Chloe gave away in her first!!

The 50 arrives in the 11th from Skelton with Winfield-Hill on 24 and Jonassen on 14. Holland joins her at the MT for the 12th over replacing the very good Griffiths

The next wicket comes to Chloe Skelton as Jonassen mistimes a drive to Odgers at mid-off and leaves for 17 at 64 for 2 in the 13th.  In the next over Naimh Holland gets the full ball going and catches the Yorkshire captain in her crease and bowls Winfield-Hill comprehensively at 68.  She goes for 36 and in comes Ward to join Kalis with both bats on zero.

Ther momentum continues as Skelton bowls Kalis for 4 at 74 for 4 in her next over to bring Campbell into the game and send Kalis back for 4 in the 15th. Holland has a bit of trouble getting back to the routine of bowling regularly after doing little last year.  She bowls 3 front foot no balls in her third over which ends with her moving to 1 for 29 and Yorkshire to 89 for 4. 

Lola Harris gets her first chance replacing Skelton at the River for the 17th.  She gives the ball a lot of air. Yorkshire pass 100 in the 18th over though Campbell is dropped on 12 by the debutant.  But she makes up for that in her next over when she has Ward LBW for her first professional wicket at 109 for 5.  Ward goes for 19 and Thomas replaces her as Skelton changes ends for the 20th.  She continues this excellent Somerset bowling performance as she bowls Campbell for 12 halfway through the 20th without any addition to the 109. Out comes Beth Langston.

But Chloe is on a roll and sends Langston back LBW for 3 at 122 for 7.  Skelton goes to 4 for 27!!  Halfway through we have a drinks break at 126 for 7.

At 139 in the 27th the rain comes in and they take the players off.

They are back on at 12:55, again with no loss of overs.

They return for the 24th from Alex Griffiths and she nearly has a wickets but it falls short of the close fielder and Thomas survives.

The 150 arrives from the first ball of the 30th but they don't have chance to celebrate all that much because Thomas is caught by Harris from the bowling of Griffiths before the over is finished to move Yorkshire to 153 for 8 and herald the arrival of Claudie Cooper to the crease to join Slater on 15.  There is then a significant amount of aggression from this pair as especially Rachel Slater looks to push the score along.  Cooper however smacks one straight to Heather Knight off Griffiths for 13 runs at 178 to 9.  Griffiths then delivers a superb slower ball to completely fox Woolston to dismiss the opposition f also took 4or 178.  Alex took 4 for 22, Chloe also took 4 and the others went to Naimh Holland and debutant Harris.  An excellent bowling performance by all the bowlers. 

The game restarts at 1:50 with Odgers and Holland facing Woolston from the River.  Ward drops Odgers before she scored in the first over!!  Slater bowls the first over from the other end and Naimh flashes at the third ball and is caught at second slip by Campbell for 2 at 5.  In comes Heather Knight and they look to set this game up but Slater has a say and she has Knight caught by Campbell reaching for a ball from Slater at 24 for 2.  In comes Sophie Luff and she takes the side to 50 in the 8th over moving to 13 herself with partner Odgers on 26. 

However, Bex fails to make it back for a second and is run out for 31 (by Thomas) off Langston.  She didn't run the first as if there was a second and then didn't make it in.   In comes Gibson and then with 6 on the board she goes for a big 'Yahoo' and is caught Kalis off Jonassen and Somerset are 70 for 4 when boundaries are absolutely not needed here.  Just sensible batting to run this score down.  They have 35 overs for heaven's sake.  Jess Hazell comes in to help the Somerset skipper put the intelligence back into this game because they really should not lose this one!!  It starts to look promising but at 99 Jess Hazell is run out at the non striker's endas the ball is glanced onto the stumps from Slater. 

Somerset need 80 to not throw this game away as Alex Griffiths comes to the crease with a RR of 3.1.   The 100 arrives from her and then she is LBW to Cooper nearly straight afterwards and Chloe Skelton is the next bat in.  This is not good I'm afraid.  This should have been a walk in the park for a serious Tier 1 team with ambition I'm afraid.  It continues to be depressing as Skelton fires the ball straight into the hands of the fielder at deep midwicket with very little needed from the fielder to take the wicket.  It's like taking candy from a baby.  Somerset have played half a game well and then seem to have given up taking it seriously and will lose this presently.

Anderson arrives makes 7 and is then LBW to Jonassen and it is 115 for 8 with the debutant Lola Harris being asked to pull her county out of the mire in her first game.  At least Sophie registers the highest individual score of the match at 124 for 8 when she moves to 37 from 65 balls.  The runs required total is 55 but we are still a considerable distance from that given the resources we have at our disposal presently.  The number of overs left (18) is not the problem but there are only 2 wickets left and they are not in the hands of bats we can say we have massive confidence in, except for possible the captain.  While she is there there is a possibility of turning this into a victory but it is an outisde possibility presently.  

Too many times the ball is hit into the middle area of the field in the air.  There have been at least two midwicket drops that fielders should be taking for fun, just aerial drives without any attempt to keep the ball down with a fielder in close.  Somerset have been lucky that they are still there.   Sophie goes to a captain's 50 off 74 working to keep her side in this game.  Lola is working hard to stay with her as we move to needing 37 to win.  

At 114 for 8 we get a life as Ward drops a skier at short Third from Luff on 53.  Not the first the Yorkshire field have missed and not the first that Ward has dropped unfortunately.  The 150 arrives from a misfield off Langston leaving us needing 28.  

10 overs are left after Jonassen bowls out with 2 for 27 from her 10.  Somerset need 27 to win at 2.7 per over.  The 8th wicket partnership has now reached 49 with Lola Harris doing her part wth 17 of them.  This has been a lesson for many others in this batting side on how to do the job.  With 8 to go they have moved the runs needed to 14. 

The 50 partnership arrives at 165 in the 44th.  With 6 overs to go we need 10. But the story is not ended as Lola flips an aerial drive back to the fielder and goes for a very important 18 caught and bowled by Cooper but with the job not done at 170 for 9.  At least Sophie is still there with 9 left.  In comes Liv Barnes with no other job but to get her captain on strike.  She blocks the over.  Sophie then makes it clear by not taking a run off the first of the next but puts the second away for four.  174 for 9 needing 5.  She drives and a misfield ties on the boundary ties the game.  The last ball of the over.  She drives and get the run!!  Well played Sophie Luff. A woman amongst mostly girls with 76 from 101 in a game that was lost when they needed 65.  Lola was vital in this but we should never have been there.  They got this game back and won it well!!  Enjoyed that but please go for the easy route next time PLEASE!!

The bowlers put us in a dominant position that most 50 over teams dream of and then the batting line-up threw that away with inappropriate and niave shots to give the game back to the visitors.  ONLY the sense of the captain and the intelligent support given to her by the youngest player on the Somerset team on her debut gave us enough time for Sophie to turn this around and supposedly 'bore' people by playing clever shots to ACCUMULATE the runs needed to WIN a game.

50 over cricket is not about winning via balls over the rope alone.  T20 cricket tactics are not appropriate in all other forms of the game.  Sometimes the brain has to take control of the batting arms and you have to play to the position you find yourself in.  Too many of our players (of both genders) have had to learn that occasionally scoring runs is more important than scoring boundaries and if you try to maximise the latter you lose because you don't stay long enough to maximise the former.

Fans enjoy their team WINNING cricket matches.  Players gain confidence from WINNING cricket matches.  Exciting and confident cricket comes from sides who WIN cricket matches!!!  Luckily Sophie Luff and Lola Harris remembered that and we have points and a winning start to the season because of it.

Womens Metro50 Taking on the Tykes v Yorkshire

Discussion started by Grockles.com , 11/04/2026 10:00

Grockles.com
11/04/2026 10:00

What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2026:04:12:12:21:01 by Grockle.

Reply Quote Report

Grockle
10/04/2026 21:04

The squad has been announced for the game against Yorkshire tomorrow at the County Ground

Heather Knight, Bex Odgers, Sophie Luff (c), Niamh Holland, Ruby Davis, Dani Gibson, Jess Hazell (wk), Katie Jones, Alex Griffiths, Chloe Skelton, Ellie Anderson, Erin Vukusic, Liv Barnes, Lola Harris

There's no Charlie Dean because they are managing her workload because of her back issue and Mollie Robbins is not available it seems (no pre-season involvement either

It will be intereesting what influence Erin Orborne has hada already and how Somerset face these games given their new view of the game.

Reply Quote Report

Bagpuss
11/04/2026 13:04

Looks a good performance by Somerset here, bowling out a Yorkshire side who may have just been 'promoted' from tier 2 but who have a strong line up.

Hopefully the weather is kept at bay long enough to reach a result in the match.

Reply Quote Report

Grockle
11/04/2026 13:46

They employed the full ball very well indeed!!

Reply Quote Report

Sloop John B
11/04/2026 16:18

Very well played Sophie Luff and the Somerset women.

Reply Quote Report

Bagpuss
11/04/2026 16:26

Bum times don't come much squeakier than that!

Reply Quote Report

Nailsea_Fizz
11/04/2026 16:33

Well i thought that was lost, going along nicely then got stuck with tight bowling. Seemed to try and force it and gave three wickets away.

Got there in the end, well playef all.

Reply Quote Report

Loyal of Lhasa
11/04/2026 16:51

Two captains' innings today - by Overton and then Luff.

LoL

Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter

Reply Quote Report

Grockle
12/04/2026 10:14

Good to see at least Sophie wore her big girl batting pants today. Thank God for the sense on debut of Lola Harris who was the vital support for her captain while she worked the team towards an unlikely win at the half way stage.

Reply Quote Report

Goto: Forum List•Message List•Search• Log In

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment. We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals. We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards. If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing abuse@sportnetwork.net