Katya Witney at Weetwood 

On an overcast day at Weetwood CC, far from the glorious sunshine of the week before, Yorkshire held out against the Northern Representatives to claim a thrilling victory.

Yorkshire won the toss and elected to bat but were soon in trouble after Summer Carrington took the wickets of Buck and Armitage in her second over.

At 19 for 2, edges continued to fly. Phoebe Turner got a thick edge on a ball from Abigail Glen which flew through the vacant slip region and hit another up in the air a few balls later, narrowly avoiding the hands of two chasing fielders.

Turner rode her luck, giving a couple of half-chances to the Rep fielders but she was finally bowled by Emily Sutton in the eighth over, leaving Yorkshire 39 for 3.

Bath Langstone showed positive intent from the off as she came to the crease, flicking her first delivery from Sutton elegantly down to the leg-side boundary. Elise Good followed up in Sutton’s next over, skipping down the wicket and belting her down the ground for four.

However, just as Langston and Good were looking productive for the White Roses, Good mistimed an aggressive shot off Sachi Pai, getting a leading edge straight to Alice Clarke at mid-off.

Emma Marlow now joined Langston at the crease and after hitting Pai for a powerful four down the ground she was almost caught at square-leg, the ball falling just short of the fielder.

Marlow was out the following over, swiping at a ball from Ray and only succeeding in edging through to the keeper leaving Yorkshire 84 for 5 going into the final five.

Despite the steady flow of wickets, Yorkshire managed to keep the runs ticking over. Rachel Slater was caught off a no-ball from Ray in the 16th and dropped twice in consecutive balls in the 18th before she was bowled by Glen.

After an entertaining finish from the tailenders, Yorkshire set a target of 118.

Rebecca Duckworth and Abigail Glen made a slow start for the Northern Reps, unable to score fluently off some tight bowling from Beth and Rachel Slater.

However, after the first boundary came in the seventh over the Reps were able to gain some momentum with Glen taking Grace Hall for 11 off her first over.

By the halfway stage, Yorkshire were still searching for the breakthrough with the Reps’ openers having scored 47, just shy of where Yorkshire were at the same stage but without the loss of wickets.

It was beginning to look ominous for Yorkshire until Armitage found an opportunity in the 13th over, taking the crucial wicket of Glen, bowled off a full delivery.

The Rep’s slow scoring rate in the first few overs began to hurt them as they struggled to up the pace. Despite Duckworth’s best efforts playing a couple of beautiful cover drives off Armitage, the Reps found themselves needing 44 off the final five. Not impossible, but tough.

Hall’s well bowled slower ball gave Yorkshire the wicket they were searching for in the 18th, Duckworth departing for 38 and bringing Alice Clarke to the crease.

The Reps were scoring at the required ten an over, however, helped by an unfortunate misfield from Rachel Slater who tipped a catch over the boundary for six and needed 16 from the final over to claim victory; but Hall held her nerve well after bowling a full toss, limiting the Reps to nine off the over and seeing her side home in thrilling fashion.

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A swashbuckling 88 off 62 balls from captain Grace Scrivens was not enough to prevent Kent going down to the second of two defeats in the T20 Cup versus Sussex at BACA in Brighton – Kent’s first reversals in the format since before the pandemic.

Opening the batting in the second match of this double-header, 18-year-old Scrivens treated the Sussex attack with growing contempt, building to a crescendo in the 17th over when she walloped fellow teenager Mary Taylor for 15 runs including her only 6.

Dominating both sides of the wicket, Scrivens was assisted by some woefully poor fielding, perhaps reflecting that the County T20 Cup is now essentially an amateur competition. In those circumstances, you’d expect a full-time professional to be a class above, as indeed Scrivens was. With Charlotte Edwards taking notes from the boundary, it wasn’t hard to wonder if we might be witnessing a future England coach get an early glimpse of her future England captain?

Ultimately Scrivens fell in the final over – stumped coming down the track to Chiara Green – but the 145-7 on which Kent finished looked like a good total on a chilly, overcast day, with some big boundaries that held the ball up in its tracks, with fielders more than a few times able to retrieve it having come to a standstill a few feet short of the rope.

In reply, Sussex lost Mary Taylor early, bringing Georgia Elwiss to the crease. Elwiss was initially happy to play second-fiddle to Ella McCaughan, on her way to 32 off 35, but upon McCaughan’s dismissal picked up the pace in a partnership of 79 with Paige Scholfield. Scholfield’s 47 off 27 broke the back of the chase, and although she was comically run out, ending up at the same end as Elwiss who had shown absolutely no interest in a second run following a quick single off Ryana Macdonald-Gay, the stage was set for Nancy Harman to help finish things off with a quick-fire 15 off 8 balls – her and Elwiss getting Sussex home with 6 balls to spare.

It gave Sussex their second victory of the day, after a somewhat less exciting match earlier had seen them win by 8 wickets, having restricted Kent to 90-7 off their 20 overs, with Scholfield taking 3-14, bowling with visibly more zip than last season, having apparently fully recovered following a back operation last spring.

A run-a-ball half-century from McCaughan did the business for Sussex in the chase, with a little help from Scholfield (27 off 17) to get the job done with 6 overs to spare. Sydney Gorham was the only Kent bowler to take a wicket, snagging the scalp of Elwiss caught behind; though 17-year-old Alexa Stonehouse (0-10 off 3), who is heading to Trent Rockets in The Hundred this year, also looks like she may be one to keep a close eye on over the next couple of seasons.

Stumped – a memoir of the author’s days as a cricket umpire – is a book of two innings: the first his early years, umpiring men’s league cricket in Kent; and the second, his seasons umpiring women’s cricket in Melbourne.

Its 200-odd pages are divided more-or-less chronologically into 51 short chapters, the very longest of which can be read in a couple of minutes, almost all of which centre around a particular match, often using it to reflect upon a wider facet of the game: pubs (very much part of the game in Kent apparently), teas, LBWs, and so on!

For women’s cricket aficionados, the second half of the book will obviously be the focus. After umpiring a handful of men’s games upon his return to Australia after his years as an expat in England, and not enjoying the more combative experience, Harrison informed the convenors of the Cricket Victoria Premier Umpire’s Panel that he would continue as an umpire only if he were able to stand exclusively in women’s cricket.

They acceded, and so the next few years were spent in the women’s game in and around Melbourne, watching the rise of the likes of Sophie Molineux, Elyse Villani, and of course Meg Lanning, about whom he describes a memorable incident arising from the Australian captain-to-be encroaching upon the pitch when fielding at silly mid on during a club match.

“By law, that is a ‘No Ball’ and I called and signalled exactly that,” writes Harrison.

“What followed was a wildly disproportionate reaction from [Lanning] as she expressed her obvious displeasure and absolute disbelief at the decision…. In the end, I suggested that she should contact the MCC, if she wanted to seek any clarification (or have the law changed).”

The whole book is chock-full of such anecdotes, recorded with wry, dry Aussie humour, which slip down like a pint of bitter on a hot day. And like that pint of bitter, it will be followed by another and another, until the barrel is dry. It’s the kind of book to have by your side, ready for a wet weekend when you still need your cricket fix. And in that regard, it won’t disappoint.