by Martin Saxon

As has been so often the case in recent years, there was a new name on the Cheshire Women’s League trophy this year. There has only been one instance of a team retaining the title in the last 13 years, and in this time, as many as eight different clubs have topped the table. 

For the first time, the Championship was won by Wilmslow club Lindow, completing their remarkable rise through the league structure, with their women’s first team having been champions of division 4 as recently as 2019. Heidi Cheadle grabbed many of the headlines throughout the season, scoring a league record 777 runs, including four centuries. Lindow’s varied and exciting young bowling attack also played a significant role though. 

Lindow didn’t have it all their own way, losing two league matches along the way, and you now must go back as far as 2013 to find the last time that a Division 1 team went through a season unbeaten. Chester Boughton Hall finished second and Leigh third. 

In the highly competitive top division, it was always going to be a good team who were relegated, and here Stockport Georgians well and truly pulled off a great escape, winning all of their last three matches when their position had looked more than precarious prior to this. It was Nantwich who eventually ended up with the wooden spoon, and they will be replaced in next year’s top flight by Northop Hall.  

The joint highest wicket takers in Division 1 were Chester Boughton Hall’s Carys Lambe and Oakmere’s Sarah Worsdale, with 18 each. 

Lindow’s successes continued as their second team won Division 3 East, while the only teams in the hardball leagues to finish with an unbeaten record were Runcorn in Division 4 West and Whalley Range in Division 4 East. The feat was also repeated by three of the six winners of the Division 5 softball competitions: Widnes, Sale and Macclesfield. Didsbury were unbeaten champions of the senior T20 competition. 

There were also significant achievements for league clubs in external competitions. Leyland became the first Cheshire League team to win a national competition by landing the Plate prize in the ECB’s National Knockout.  

Five of the league’s Division 1 teams were chosen – alongside three from the Lancashire League – to play in the Thunder Cup, a new competition for the north-west of England, organised by Lancashire CCC. Significantly, the final of this competition was played at Old Trafford, surely the first time that a women’s club match has been played at the Test ground? It was Stockport Georgians who emerged triumphant here, beating Leigh by eight wickets in the final. 

2025 TEAM HONOURS

by Helen Maynard-Casely

A timelapse of the milky way making its way across the sky of the Southern hemisphere.

One thing you will notice is that in the cacophony of stars, those celestial bodies you would normally recognise fade a bit, as the great mass of others become brighter – it is not that anything has dimmed, you just get to see all the stars a bit more. A good metaphor for the coming Australian domestic cricket summer.

The crossover of the seasons is upon us, as Autumn’s grasp and muddy fields take hold, finals have reached their dramatic conclusions in the UK. Down in the Southern half of the globe training camps are reaching their fruition and first game nerves are taking hold. With that, the curtain will rise on the 2025/26 season of the Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL) on Wednesday.

Those unfamiliar to Australian domestic women’s cricket may not be so aware of the league, which like the Sheffield Shield weaves around other adventures in the domestic and international cricketing calendar. Though mainly state based, the WNCL includes a seventh team in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Meteors. In deference to the geography of Australia, there are not ‘home and away’ fixtures – but each team does play each other twice within each round, so seven rounds in total will play out with each team given a bye over the course of the season.

Why cacophony of stars metaphor? Well the established Australian internationals will struggle to make it out for their state teams teams (despite the fanfare of Ellyse Perry’s return to the NSW Breakers), with neat overlaps of the WNCL rounds occurring between every major international calendar date in their season. Hence, the chances for others to find their luminance.

Rounds one and two are squeezed in before the pomp and circuses of the domestic 20/20 season, and will be missing the Australian internationals as they warm up and compete in India for the 50 over World Cup. There’s then a long break in proceedings as the Spring challenge and Big Bash roll into town, so that the WNCL doesn’t recommence until 2026. The two January rounds will overlap with the Women’s Premier League in India, where Australian International stars are in high demand, keeping them from State duties. February’s two rounds will then overlap with the Australia v India multi-format tour. The last round (and the final, between the two teams that finish at the top of the table) will be in mid-March, when the Aussie team will have jetted to the Caribbean for the next multi-format international adventure. So without the ‘big’ players – who will rise to prominence?

Who to watch in 25/26? (you’ll note that in the team pages, despite now in the 8th year of full professionalism of the WNCL, not all the women even have a picture on their state page… sigh)

QLD Fire – It is only perhaps a matter of time before Charli Knott becomes a fixture in the international side, but until then we can marvel at her domestic outings. Jess Jonassen will lead a side that has kept together pretty well from last season, stats demonstrate that their success last year derived from an all-round team performance.

NSW Breakers – The success of the breakers last year can be traced to batting powerhouses Tahlia Wilson and Annika Learoyd, who both had terrific seasons and topped the number of runs in the competition respectively in 24/25. They will be back for more – and will be ably assisted by Katie Mack who has moved from the ACT Meteors into the side. The young sensation of WBBL10, Caoimhe Bray has also scored a contract with the side. NSW breakers look formidable and up for keeping their mitts on the trophy.

TAS Tigers – After a run of titles, Tasmania will be hungry to get back to the top, and with the most experienced captain in the competition, Elyse Villani, they no doubt have the leadership to get back there. They have recruited Scotswoman Kathryn Bryce, along with Courtney Sippel who will only add to their team strengths.

SA Women – Amanda-Jade Wellington topped the table of wickets over last season’s WNCL by a margin of 6, she also bowled A LOT – 117 overs (only topped by NSW’s Sam Bates). Bridget Patterson, the quiet achiever (and nonchalant celebrator) of Australia domestic cricket takes the gloves and along with Courtney Webb will lead the batting. SA are always a challenging team to beat, and were the ones to arguably keep Tasmania out of the final last season. They will continue to be a thorn in the side of the others.

VIC Women – With six of their contracted players due to be away from the WNCL on national duties, Victoria will probably struggle to make headway. But Molly Strano is back at her home state, and as ever it will be hard not to see a certain M Lanning make an impact in her 50 over element.

ACT Meteors – Georgia Elwiss returns to play for the Meteors this season, and steps neatly into the senior play position left vacant by Katie Mack. She will be supported in building runs by Olivia Porter and Zoe Cooke, along with newly contracted locals Stella Wilde and Rachel Carroll.

WA Women – WA will be looking to improve their table spot this season, and of the table last year, and bringing Heather Graham over from Tasmania would have seen the most excellent way to start this. But with Grace Harris’ injury Graham has now been drafted into the national side, which will be a blow for WA for rounds one and two at least. The team though has much young talent, an exciting trio in Innes McKeon, Rebbecca McGrath and Maddie White will be fun to see develop over the season.

Round 1 fixtures – ACT Meteors with a bye

That’s the preview. Think of it like lying back on a grassy bank, taking in a deep breath and filling your lungs with the damp grassy scent. Open your eyes, see the stars above you. Enjoy.

Helen (Crystallised Cricket) is a writer based in Dharug and Gundagarra country and acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands that she writes from.

A big hundred from Ireland captain Gaby Lewis was the difference between the two sides as Lancashire beat Hampshire by 6 wickets to lift the inaugural county One Day Cup at the Utilita Bowl.

Lewis had the Luck of the Irish™ on her side – she should have been given out on 62 – running a sharp single off a misfield, she was out of her crease when the bails were broken via an underarm throw from Abi Norgrove, but the umpire’s decision didn’t go Hampshire’s way, and Lewis survived.

It was a difficult call for the umpire – there was only a frame in it, with the next frame showing Lewis’s bat in the crease – but equally Lewis can obviously have had no complaint if she had been given out; as she would have been if TV reviews had been available, as they apparently were in the men’s final.

Misery was piled on misery for Hampshire a couple of overs later, as history repeated itself as tragedy – Seren Smale given not out, despite once again replays showing she was clearly out of her ground when the wickets were broken. Smale went on to make 72 in a partnership of 144 with Lewis, which broke the back of Hampshire’s defence.

Smale was finally dismissed in the 33rd over – popping a leading edge up to a diving Freya Kemp at short midwicket; but Lewis went on to finish unbeaten on 141 – the joint-third-highest score in the One Day Cup this season.

With 3 overs remaining, Lancashire still needed 21 to win, and Hampshire were still just about in the game; but Lewis piled into a slightly wayward 48th over from Georgia Adams, hitting three 4s as the over went for 16. There was one last moment of hope for Hampshire as Lewis launched the final ball of the over towards Maia Bouchier, running across to deep mid on; but Bouchier could only get a fingertip to it as it went for 4, leaving Ailsa Lister to put the icing on the cake of a breakthrough season by striking the winning runs from Freya Davies’s final deliveries in professional cricket.

There was no fairytale ending for the 29-year-old former England seamer Davies, who now leaves cricket to pursue a career in law; but she leaves the game with her reputation held high and a collection of 35 England caps as well as winners medals from the old Women’s County Championship and the Kia Super League.

On a crisp, bright autumn day, which contrasted sharply with the mudbath of the semi-final earlier in the week, Hampshire were put into bat by Lancashire captain Ellie Threlkeld, and started circumspectly in the face of Lancashire’s dangerous opening bowling partnership of Mahika Gaur and Kate Cross.

Cross passed the bat of Bouchier a few times in the early salvos, leaving the England opener looking down at her bat with a bamboozled expression. A thick outside edge flashed just out of reach of Seren Smale at slip; but Bouchier survived and went on to make 66. It was a solid contribution, but was emblematic of Hampshire’s day, as she failed for the 6th time in the One Day Cup this season to convert 50 to 100 – giving her wicket away with a limp push to mid on off a pretty innocuous delivery from Gaur.

As with Bouchier, so too with both Georgia Adams (77) and Freya Kemp (41). Both did the hard yards, but couldn’t push on in the way Lewis later did – Adams bowled trying to reverse sweep Fi Morris; and Kemp pushing a catch to Lister on the ring.

Hampshire did have a decent final 10 – or more accurately, a decent penultimate 5, as Adams and Abi Norgrove hit out to get them close to the 300 that they really needed on a pitch which played wonderfully well, despite having spent Wednesday under a carpet as the rest of the square was turned to mud in Hampshire’s semi-final win.

Hampshire somewhat got out of jail that day, but they couldn’t pull off that trick twice in a week, and a crowd of 2,500 – most of whom were clearly rooting for a home win – ultimately went home disappointed, as Lancashire celebrated their second trophy of the season, after winning the T20 “FA Cup” at Taunton back in May.

Having underperformed through the regional era, a change of coach seems to have done the trick for Lancashire, with Chris Read finally fulfilling expectations that have so often been stronger than the outcomes. To have done it without their two big run-scorers this season, Eve Jones (injured) and Emma Lamb (on England duty) who between them scored ten 50s and three 100s for the team in the One Day Cup, was against the odds, but showed that they have the depth to potentially be the New Vipers – the team to beat in the new county era.

This week:

• Hampshire’s Mudbath
• Tiers 1&2 ditch their Playing Conditions
• Freya Davies retires
• Sarah Glenn signs for Yorkshire
• Why Australia & India’s World Cup prep is better than England’s

This week:

• Yorkshire & Glamorgan vs the rain at Worcester
• Middlesex to go pro by 2029 – but what does that mean for the rest of Tier 2?
• Why is 2026 Blast Finals Day on a weekday?
• The ICC get their facts wrong about female umpires

Both the One Day Cup and the Women’s T20 Blast use a system of Bonus Points, which is described in the Playing Conditions.

A winning team that achieves a run rate of 1.25 times that of the opposition shall be awarded one bonus point. 

There’s a problem with this though: it’s wrong!

But… how can it be wrong? The Playing Conditions are akin to “laws”, are they not? If it says it in the Playing Conditions, it is right by definition!

It all comes down to one simple word: maths!

As soon as you say the word, people’s eyes glaze over. (In fact, I’ll be willing to bet there were a few people who didn’t even click on this article, because they were worried it would include maths. Which to be fair, it does!)

It isn’t true that “nobody” likes maths. I’ve met thousands and thousands of people in my life, and at least 3 of them liked maths (hi Tom & Tom & Matthew!) But in general most people think maths sucks!

So instead of “doing the math” we outsource it to a computer – in this case the NV Play system that is used for scoring matches in the One Day Cup.

This means that in practice the Playing Conditions don’t actually matter – NV Play is The Truth and (despite what it says in the Playing Conditions) NV Play doesn’t award a Bonus Point to a winning team that achieves a run rate of 1.25 times that of the opposition.

Instead it awards a bonus point to a winning team that achieves the target in 0.8 times the number of available deliveries.

To be fair, this often results in the same number, but not always, even in a totally “normal” match. If the team batting first scores 200 runs, 1.25 times the Run Rate can be achieved in 40.1 overs; so (according to the Playing Conditions) you should have an extra delivery; but you don’t!

This comes into much sharper focus when there is a DLS adjustment. In yesterday’s crucial match between Durham and Surrey, the match was reduced to 29 overs and Durham’s Required Run Rate ratcheted up significantly, meaning that (going by the Playing Conditions) it would have been impossible for them to achieve a win without scoring at 1.25 the times of the opposition.

Sidebar: The Playing Conditions do give a hint that things might be different in DLS situations, stating that “Where matches are shortened and targets revised through the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern system, bonus run rates and bonus defensive targets are derived as a function of the revised target score” but the phrase “as a function of” is mathematically meaningless, and doesn’t actually state how the calculation should be made.

But NV Play in fact required them to achieve the adjusted target of 225 in 23.1 overs – which would have required scoring at almost twice the Run Rate Surrey had achieved. It was an all-but impossible ask, and if nothing else answers my question as to why they didn’t appear to be trying to do it.

Whether or not this is fair, we can leave as a question for another time – it isn’t really the subject of this article.

But I do think it is quite bad that the Playing Conditions state a definition for Bonus Points that is flat-wrong; if for no other reason than it leads to confusion, because most people (including us) don’t have access to NV Play, so we have to do the calculations ourselves. How can we hope to calculate it correctly, and give correct information to fans, if the definition in the Playing Conditions is completely wrong?

The Playing Conditions need to be updated, to clearly state how Bonus Points are actually calculated.

Will they be?

I’m not holding my breath.

(And in the meantime, I’ll be fixing my Bonus Point Calculator!)

With 4 games remaining to be played on Saturday, Surrey, Durham and Somerset are still all in with a mathematical chance of qualification.

They key fixtures are Surrey v Durham and Somerset v Warwickshire

Here are the possible scenarios.

Surrey Win (w. Bonus Point)

• Surrey Qualify on points

Surrey Win

• Surrey Qualify on points

Surrey v Durham – No Result/ Tie

• Surrey Qualify on points or NRR – Although Somerset could draw-level with Surrey on 31 points with a Bonus Point win, it is practically impossible for Somerset to overturn Surrey’s NRR advantage. (If Somerset scored 350 and then bowled Warwickshire out for 1, it still wouldn’t be enough!)

Durham Win (w. Bonus Point) + Somerset Lose (or N/R)

• Durham Qualify on points

Durham Win (w. Bonus Point) + Somerset Win (no BP)

• Durham Qualify on points

Durham Win (w. Bonus Point) + Somerset Win (w. BP)

• Durham Qualify on NRR… probably – A Bonus Point win for Durham will have increased their NRR sufficiently that it would be very difficult for Somerset to overtake them. (The narrowest possible Bonus Point win for Durham would leave Somerset needing to score 300 and bowl Warwickshire out for 100.)

Durham Win + Somerset Win (no BPs)

• Durham Qualify on NRR – If Somerset win without a Bonus Point, Durham will almost certainly qualify on NRR. It is possible for Durham to win and their NRR to drop slightly, but not by enough for it to be possible for Somerset to overturn with a non-Bonus Point win. (And if Somerset win with a Bonus Point, they qualify on points anyway – see below.)

Durham Win + Somerset Win (w. Bonus Point)

• Somerset Qualify on points

CAVEAT: The above is hopefully accurate, but as always:
DO NOT BET YOUR HOUSE ON SYD’S MATHS!!