Kent’s long-serving Under-11 Girls coach – David Sear – has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to girls’ cricket.

A retired PE teacher, Sear has been part of the Kent girls’ coaching setup for over 20 years, and amongst those who have been coached by him, many have gone on to play for England, including Lynsey Askew, Lydia Greenway, Tash Farrant and Tammy Beaumont.

John Daniels, Director of Girls’ Cricket in Bexley, congratulated Mr Sear in his regular newsletter:

“David has been a tireless worker for Kent Girls and Women’s cricket for many years… running the Kent under 11 county squad, the under 11s festival days and many other tournaments.”

The big game in the County Championship this weekend is Berkshire v Middlesex at North Maidenhead.

With Berkshire in 5th place in Division 1, and Middlesex in 6th, just above the dreaded relegation zone, it is a match which both teams will be targeting as a “must win”, and both sides are boosted by the return of key players.

For Middlesex, opening batsman Fran Wilson is back. Having scored 88 for England Academy against Ireland “A” in a 50-over match at Loughborough this week, it looks like the good form with which she started the County Championship, prior to the freak injury which sidelined her for a month, is set to continue; and it will be a massive surprise if she isn’t now also named in the England squad for the Pakistan series later this month.

For Berkshire, fast bowler Daisy Gardner also looks set to get back into the action after injury derailed her season on the opening weekend, since which The Beavers have really missed her penetration with the ball. Seeing her open the bowling in tandem with Lauren “The Shard” Bell should be something of a treat… unless you are a Middlesex batsman!

As usual, it is an 11:00 start on Sunday at North Maids, with free entry for children, OAPS… and anyone in between! [Editor’s Note: He means everyone!]

At yesterday’s freewheelin’ press conference to announce his new captain, Mark Robinson was his usual loquacious self, discussing any number of subjects with thoughtful honesty.

Reflecting on what he said, it is clear that Heather Knight’s appointment is part of a long term strategy which looks way beyond 2017 – a tournament which he readily admitted England might not win.

“This is a new era of cricket – we need to be embracing it… [but] the World Cup might be too soon for this team. We have the ambition to win it but… we had to make some changes… [and] whether that is in time for the next World Cup, to go and win it, I don’t know.”

Although Heather Knight had long been the heir apparent, Robinson was very clear that she was nevertheless very-much his choice – a new, young captain for a new, young era:

“We’ve got an outstanding individual in Heather Knight. She’s stubborn! She’s a bit annoying at times because she’s got her own opinion, which is absolutely as it should be! She’s comfortable in her own skin, she’s comfortable in her own company, and they’re great qualities for a captain… The ability to command a room… They were the qualities that hit me straight away when I met her.”

But he emphasised too that Knight is a player first and foremost, and also still a partly unfulfilled one:

“She’s a great player now but she has the potential to be an outstanding player… We’ve got to help her – make sure she is allowed to work on her own game – that’s the job of the coaches – to allow her space to get her game in order… [because] fundamentally… she is not England captain first, she is a player.”

The emphasis on youth and the long term has, of course, meant some difficult decisions, not least the sacking of Charlotte Edwards, but Robinson was forthright in his defence:

“It’s actually about putting things in place that will allow this team to have the best chance of being successful in the long-term, not the short-term. You’ve got to stop making short-term decisions. This is a long-term decision. You’ve now got a person at the age of 25 who can lead their country for a long time.”

In terms of the teams for this summer, Robinson wanted to emphasise that he is definitely looking beyond the current “contracted” squad:

“Myself and [Assistant Coach] Ali Maiden, we’re trying to integrate the Academy into us… trying to involve them with the main team as much as we can. Likewise with the Under-19s – we’re trying to get it more integrated.”

“Every single girl who’s in the Performance Squad and the Academy are up for selection for the next match.”

And an almost throw-away remark on selection actually spoke volumes in this regard:

“We’ve got 2 left-armers who deserve to play.”

But there is only one left-armer in the contracted squad, so Robinson can only have been referring to an Academy player (presumably Alex Hartley) as the other!

On the wicket keeping situation however, it seems they won’t be looking for any additional coverage in the absence of Sarah Taylor:

“Amy Jones has been on that many tours and not played with the gloves, so she is desperate to have a go. Lauren Winfield keeps for Yorkshire… [so] we’ve got two very able backups.”

Also on the subject of selection, Robinson said that Knight will be a part of the process:

“Heather will have a huge selection voice – trying to shut her up might be the problem. Heather has a huge say in the team that she wants on the pitch.”

Ruminating on the contracts, and indeed the very nature of the current “professionalism”, Robinson hinted that situation too might need to evolve.

“I can’t get enough contact sometimes with the girls. They’ve got other commitments, because they have to. They have to do other things to supplement their income, some of them. They’re all on one-year contracts going forward. Is that right? I don’t know!”

“I don’t know!” seems to be an answer Mark Robinson is honest enough to give quite a lot; but one thing he clearly does know is that he and his new skipper Heather Knight are in this for the long term; and that’s good, because as fans, we are too, and we too are excited to share the ride.

The ECB have officially announced that Heather Knight will succeed Charlotte Edwards as England captain, becoming the 21st woman to skipper the team, with Anya Shrubsole as vice captain.

Knight was always the obvious choice: she was appointed vice captain in 2014, in a move which was described at the time as “succession planning”; of the available candidates (i.e. excluding Sarah Taylor) she is by some way the leading international run scorer in the past 12 months (357 runs at 26); and her record as a domestic captain at Berkshire and Hobart/ Tasmania speaks for itself – both teams having punched considerably above their weight with her at the helm.

With Sarah Taylor effectively having ruled herself out by taking a break from the game, were there any other realistic candidates?

Anya Shrubsole was a possibility, but the conventional wisdom, from which cricket rarely deviates, is that bowlers are unsuited to international captaincy; and whilst Nat Sciver’s name was also mentioned, she has not had any previous serious captaincy experience. The former, of course, has the consolation of the vice captaincy.

The next 12 months are unlikely to be easy for England. Their first task is to finish in the top 4 of the Women’s International Championship, and thus qualify directly for the 2017 World Cup – it ought to be straightforward, but they are currently 6th, albeit with games in hand. Then there is the World Cup itself – at home in England, with a media spotlight upon the team, the like of which they will never have experienced before.

As the (apparently apocryphal) Chinese curse says: May you live in interesting times!

These will certainly be interesting times for Heather Knight.

England batsman Lydia Greenway has announced her retirement from international cricket with immediate effect.

In a statement released by the ECB, Greenway is quoted as saying:

“During recent discussions with Mark Robinson about his focus on developing new players against Pakistan this summer, it became clear that my involvement with the England team might be limited moving forwards.  Whilst in the past I have been in a similar position and have fought for my place, I now feel that at this stage in my life, it’s time to take a step back and retire from international cricket with immediate effect, allowing the next generation of players to develop on the world stage.”

Greenway made her England debut in the 1st Test of the 2003 Women’s Ashes and went on to represent her country on 225 occasions, scoring 4,108 runs at a combined average of 26.

Although her form had perhaps been more erratic of late, she continued to make valuable contributions for England, and was voted Fan’s Player of the Series by CRICKETher readers after the last Women’s Ashes.

As with the retirement of Charlotte Edwards a few weeks ago, it seems pretty clear that Greenway also decided to jump having been told she was likely to be pushed anyway; but with the ongoing Sarah Taylor situation, you have to wonder whether losing another senior player, just weeks before the start of a crucial series against Pakistan, where England really have to be looking to take all 6 Women’s International Championship points, is (to paraphrase Oscar Wilde) a misfortune… or starting to look like carelessness?

After their shock loss to Surrey last time out, defending county champions Yorkshire got their season back on track with a fairly straightforward win against Berkshire at Finchampstead Cricket Club.

Chasing 155, Yorkshire got off to a strong start, as Lauren Winfield (76) and Hollie Armitage (19) put on 76 for the first wicket. As the scorecard suggests, Winfield was dominant, despite an excellent opening bowling spell from Berkshire’s 15-year-old prodigy Lauren Bell, who attacked the batsmen with pace and movement off the pitch into the right handers.

In the end it was Bell who helped to break the opening partnership, taking a cool catch to dismiss Armitage, as she top-edged Fi Morris to point. Elise Good (19) then joined her skipper to take Yorkshire past the hundred mark.

From 112-1 Yorkshire wobbled slightly, losing 5-12, before Hania Thompson (18*) and Dani Hazell (9*) steadied the ship to carry them home.

Earlier in the day, Berkshire captain Heather Knight had won the toss and elected to bat on what looked like an interesting pitch.

Berkshire made a slow start, with Katherine Brunt causing all sorts of problems steaming in down the hill, making even Heather Knight look foolish on a couple of occasions; so after 10 overs, Berkshire were just 30-1 and Yorkshire looked well on top.

Knight went on to make 65, before chipping Dani Hazell to deep midwicket where she was caught by Hayley Martinus, and Carla Rudd also played nicely for 36 – her highest ever score in senior county cricket; but no other Berkshire batsman made it into double figures, and they were eventually bowled out for a below-par 155 in the 45th over.

Afterwards, Yorkshire captain Lauren Winfield spoke to CRICKETher, reflecting upon her own performance, and then going on to credit her bowlers for doing the hard work up front:

“I feel pretty good at the minute – I’m batting pretty well. It would have been nice to be there not out at the end, and I probably gave it away once I got in; but it’s just nice to get over the line after the loss against Surrey a couple of weeks ago.”

“Katherine [Brunt] bowled really well for us – we wanted her to hit that hard line outside off stump and she did that really well with catchers in. People see Katherine and Spraggy [Laura Spragg] as a threat, so they generally try to play them off in the first 10; but we back our spinners in the middle to dry them out and squeeze pressure on in the next 20 or 30 overs and bring wickets – that’s what we’ve done well in the past and we managed to do it again today.”

Middlesex’s Fran Wilson, who was hotly tipped for an international recall this summer following the retirement of Charlotte Edwards, is fighting to be fit for England’s Pakistan series, after suffering a freak injury during a warm up last weekend.

An ECB spokesperson told CRICKETher:

“Fran injured her right knee during the warm up of Middlesex’s match against Kent on 15th May. She’s undergoing treatment and a rehab programme at the moment, and her availability for selection for the Pakistan series will be assessed closer to the time.”

It doesn’t sound great, but friends of Wilson have told us that she is desperate not to miss out on what she knows could be her big break, and that she is still feeling optimistic that she will be back sooner rather than later, in time to push for selection against Pakistan.

On a clear but somewhat chilly night at The Oval, Middlesex easily retained the Pemberton Greenish Cup, with a convincing win over their London rivals Surrey.

The evening began with the presentation of a county cap to Surrey’s veteran glove-butler Kirstie White, who has had a great start to the season, and recently made her highest score for the club – a 76 which carried them to victory against Yorkshire in the County Championship.

Out in the middle, Middlesex won the toss and elected to bat, and despite losing two early wickets (Tash Miles, LBW to Nat Sciver for a duck, and Sophia Dunkley, stumped off Amy Jenkins for 5) they made the most of the powerplay, reaching 44-2 from the first 6 overs, as Beth Morgan took a fancy to some inviting boundaries all around the wicket.

Morgan was eventually out for 31; but Izzy Westbury then picked up the scoring rate again in the middle overs, playing some inventive reverses alongside more classical shots on her way to an entertaining 22.

Surrey took wickets at regular intervals, with Kirstie White stealing 3 stumpings and a catch, but Middlesex continued to find the boundary often enough to finish on 123-9, with India Whitty 14 not out at the end.

In reply, Surrey needed runs from White – their leading run scorer in the County Championship – and/ or Nat Sciver, but both were out cheaply: White stumped by Whitty off Hartley for 1; and Sciver caught by Westbury at cover off Naomi Dattani for 5.

Thereafter, the worm tells the story: Surrey were behind the rate from the first over, and slowly slipped further and further into the red, as Middlesex excelled in the field – Whitty making 4 stumpings; Tash Miles superbly running out Sophie Pout for a duck at the non-striker’s end, with a direct hit from point; and Sophia Dunkley taking a fantastic catch, diving forward at mid on, to dismiss Amy Jenkins off Alex Hartley.

Although Holly Huddleston dropped Holly Knight off a very difficult chance in the 17th over, by that stage it was all somewhat academic, with Surrey having largely given up the chase; but Middlesex kept plugging away, and the hosts were eventually bowled out in the final over for just 88.

Afterwards, Man of the Match Beth Morgan told CRICKETher that days like this are what brought her back out of last year’s semi-retirement:

“[The Oval] is an amazing place to play cricket – this is what it is all about – I love it – I love being part of it and as long as I can play, I want to play.”

The coming of the 50-over Kia Super League in 2017 means that many of tonight’s stars will no longer be playing county cricket after this season, so the future of this fixture in its current format has to be somewhat uncertain; but with over 1,000 local schoolgirls having attended the coaching clinics which were held earlier in the day, with the chance to be inspired by the likes of Charlotte Edwards, Heather Knight, and Danni Wyatt (to name but three) it must be hoped that this is not the last we’ve seen of the Pemberton Greenish Cup.