On a chilly Sunday 27th September member Helen Byrne attended Knebworth Cricket Club to present the Inaugural Soroptimist East of England Ladies T40 County Championship Trophy.
The presentations were made at the end of the day:
- Inaugural Soroptimist County Championship Trophy –
Hertfordshire. Kezia Hassall collected the trophy on behalf of Hertfordshire Ladies. Kezia takes over from Amy Price (who is now training to be a PE Teacher at the Univ of Herts) as Captain of the Ladies team for both the T20 and the T40 format games for next season. Success in the Inaugural year of the Championship was very equitable with the Best Batter and Bowler Trophies for the T40 competition going to players from the other 2 Counties – Norfolk and Huntingdonshire (presented at a later date). 
The T20 competition trophy went to Buckinghamshire
Before the presentation the final two matches of the T20 competition were played between Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire to decide the T20 (20 over) competition. The matches were close with Hertfordshire in with a chance to win the competition but with Buckinghamshire winning in the morning that gave them the competition. Undeterred Hertfordshire gave it their all in the afternoon, winning well, including a beautiful 50 from Catherine Cirkell.
League Co-ordinator Tom Ruxton describes the Championships’ first season:
“Overall, especially in these times, I don’t think the league could have gone any better (especially for Herts of course) with 4 of the 6 games played between the 4 counties very, very close.
In August the Hertfordshire Ladies team kicked off the Soroptimist East of England County Championship with a 9 wicket win over Huntingdonshire. The following weekend their next game was very tense as Buckinghamshire made a reasonable score of 177 and with Hertfordshire at 79/5, it looked a lost cause, but the girls managed to sneak home by 1 wicket with the last pair managing to get the 7 runs needed to win with an over left.
The team played Norfolk the next day which was a title decider. I didn’t think it would be much closer but it was. Herts only made 74 which was in truth a poor batting display for the talent that is in the team. And with Norfolk 31 for 0 the game looked over. But the team came back and Norfolk lost 7 wickets for 12 runs . Norfolk tied the game with 1 wicket left and needed one run but Herts took the wicket so the match was tied. The game went into a Super over which Herts won by 6 runs to 5.
When we started the league we could only have dreamed of a final game like this and it was a fantastic advert for Womens cricket. Even the locals at Harlow were surprised and entertained. They left the mens game they were watching and came over to watch the womens game and want the team to play there more. (They did play another friendly there the following weekend).”
Sadly there was no Soroptimist Audrey Collins U14 Girls Trophy this year as there were no Junior competitions at all in Hertfordshire only friendlies. However considering at one point in the season it looked like there wasn’t going to be any womens and girls cricket at all because of the pandemic it has been a pretty good season. Thanks to everyone who made it possible.