In news which will be widely welcomed throughout the women’s cricket community, the ECB have now officially promised the county boards that women’s county cricket will continue until at least 2021, with the T20 Cup being played on Sundays through May and June.

In an email to the counties seen by CRICKETher, the ECB’s Managing Director of Women’s Cricket, said:

“We understand the need for women’s County Cricket to continue.”

“ECB will therefore run a women’s County T20 competition in 2020 and 2021.”

Crucially, this will be centrally funded by the ECB:

“For 2020 and 2021 ECB will continue to fund Counties on a similar basis to 2019, with monies being provided to support travel, accommodation and hosting costs.”

There are caveats – the long-term aim to effectively replace the lower divisions of county cricket with a reinvigorated club setup remains very-much the plan, with a review of the situation planned for 2021; but Connor acknowledges there is work for both the ECB and the boards to do here if that is to become viable, promising to “address hardball club cricket with real commitment.”

This isn’t a total u-turn – it effectively confirms that the 50-over Women’s County Championship is no more; but the ECB has shown that it has listened to the feedback received during the consultation process and been open to a compromise which will keep hundreds of players in the game, playing cricket at a competitive level and wearing their county shirts with pride.

In the ECB’s first public announcement about their planned restructure of women’s domestic cricket from next season, Clare Connor has backtracked on the initial plan to completely abolish women’s county cricket, recognising that the weaknesses of the existing club structure are greater than she had realised.

In a piece published in the match day programme for the men’s England v Ireland Test at Lord’s, Connor says: “There will probably still need to be a place for some county cricket, while the club game develops, and we are reviewing that currently.”

She also officially confirms that the plan is for an eight-team semi-professional competition, with women in the eight teams playing both 50-over and T20 cricket, and with the eight teams set to be closely aligned to the new Women’s Hundred sides (of which there will also be eight).

The full programme piece, authored by Connor, reads as follows:

“Over the past 11 months, we’ve had a rigorous and constructive debate across all 39 counties and Wales, about how to invest the £20m the board at the ECB has approved for 2020 and 2021 to transform the women’s and girls’ game.

It has been reassuring to hear the level of support and commitment across the game for our headline plans to:

• Develop compelling cricket activities for girls in secondary schools
• Strengthen the club offer for female players of all abilities
• Invest in the county talent pathway for girls
• Build a new eight-team semi-professional competition structure in both 50-over and T20 formats, with each team being underpinned by a year-round Academy
• Maximise investment through areas of alignment between the new eight-team semi-professional competition structure and The Hundred – Women’s Competition

The area of most debate has been about the future of the women’s county game, which has done an important job for a number of years, thanks to the dedication of volunteers who remain the bedrock of our game.

As the game has grown in popularity, our structure has needed to evolve to suit the growing demand at the recreational level. In many counties, women’s club cricket has not been sustainably developed, meaning county cricket is the only available playing opportunity of any standard or frequency.

Women’s county cricket is therefore being used in many parts of the country as a participation experience, which, everyone agrees, is far from ideal. We will be failing female recreational players if we – the ECB and the counties – do not address hardball club cricket with real commitment.

There will probably still need to be a place for some county cricket, while the club game develops, and we are reviewing that currently.

Collectively we have the opportunity to put in place a pathway that allows all areas of the game to flourish. We’ve had fantastic success with All Stars Cricket and we need to progress in other areas, so that the eight-year-old girl who has been inspired to pick up a bat can see a clear pathway to becoming a semi-pro or professional cricket, should she wish to.

There will be equal emphasis from us on improving both the participation and the performance experience for women and girls.

We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the women’s and girls’ game – a transformation which is vital to the future of the entire game in this country. I think we are about to start the most exciting period in the history of women’s cricket in this country.”

England have announced their squad for the 3 Ashes T20s which begin at Chelmsford on Friday.

The big news is that they have called up 20-year-old Essex and Surrey Stars bowling all-rounder Mady Villiers to the squad, after she impressed in the recent Academy matches against Australia A, hitting 30 off 15 balls at number 8 in the final T20 match; as well as an unbeaten half-century in the 3-day warm-up at Marlborough College against the full Australian side.

Danni Wyatt also returns to the squad having been dropped for the Test, while Georgia Elwiss retains her spot after earlier missing out on the ODIs.

England can still draw the Ashes series 8-all if they win all 3 matches in the T20 series.

Full squad:

• Heather Knight (Berkshire)
• Tammy Beaumont (Kent)
• Katherine Brunt (Yorkshire)
• Kate Cross (Lancashire)
• Sophie Ecclestone (Lancashire)
• Georgia Elwiss (Sussex)
• Jenny Gunn (Nottinghamshire)
• Amy Jones (Warwickshire)
• Laura Marsh (Kent)
• Nat Sciver (Surrey)
• Anya Shrubsole (Berkshire)
• Sarah Taylor (Sussex)
• Mady Villiers (Essex)
• Lauren Winfield (Yorkshire)
• Danni Wyatt (Sussex)

So that’s that for women’s Tests, for another 2 years or thereabouts. Despite being the only team in a theoretical position to win the match this afternoon, Australia were happy to bat-out for a draw on a soporific afternoon in Somerset.

Meg Lanning made no apologies afterwards, telling the press conference that they’d put all their mental chips on enforcing the follow-on, and that once England passed that target, a draw was really the only option on their minds.

Australia certainly could have gone for a win – if they’d declared with around 25 overs remaining, they would have set England a target of around 8 an over – just enough to entice them into having a crack at it.

But Australia decided that was a risk too far, and instead let Ellyse Perry have some red-ball batting practice ahead of her next appearance in whites… in 2021.

Do you blame them? Australia were quick to point out that England had been the ones batting for a draw two years ago and North Sydney Oval; but England then were batting to save the game – Australia were batting to… well… is there even a term for it? Unsave it?

Australia will claim they are the No. 1 side in the world in all 3 formats, and it is probably fair to say that if the last two Tests were boxing title bouts, they’d have won them both “on points”; but they have nonetheless failed to deliver the knockout blow that really settles the argument on each occasion, and have now failed to actually win a Test for 4 years.

Is it fair to criticise them for that?

Maybe not – they did the job they came to do, and you can’t argue with the points tally!

But then you can’t argue with the empty win column either.

And an empty win “on points” is all they’ve achieved here.

Ask any member of the England camp about the 2017 Women’s Ashes and they’ll say the same thing – England tied that series.

Talk to Mark Robinson… to Heather Knight… to Danni Wyatt… they’ll all remind you that after the drawn Test at North Sydney Oval, England came back to win the T20s and draw the multi-format series level on points, 8-all.

Yes, Australia retained The Ashes they’ll admit, but only on a technicality – they didn’t really “win” the trophy… and so England didn’t really “lose” it either.

Eighteen months later, as the penultimate day of the 2019 Ashes Test drew to a close, with England finding themselves 6-0 down in the series and in a bit of a “situation” in Taunton, their run rate slumped to less than 1 an over.

The question on everyone’s minds – from the commentary boxes to the stands – was why? Surely to reclaim The Ashes, England needed to go for the win? Smash 600 and bowl ’em out in the final session?

And it’s true – to reclaim the trophy, they did need to go for the win; which by the time they left the field at around ten-to-seven in the evening, they most patently were not doing, with Anya Shrubsole reprising her role as Blocker in Chief from Canterbury 2015.

But… and here’s the important bit… although they can’t “win” the Ashes now, England can still stop Australia from “winning” them.

If England can salvage a draw the Test, and then win all 3 T20s, then the series will be level, as it was in 2017 – Australia won’t have “won” the Ashes, and England won’t have “lost” them either – Australia would merely have “retained” them on a technicality.

Of course, this probably won’t cut much ice with the fans – or the Aussies for that matter – but if England appear to be happy to grind out a draw tomorrow… it might just explain why!

CRICKETher understands that Hampshire and Yorkshire Diamonds fast bowler Katie George has been awarded a full England central contract, including a shiny new Kia Sportage.

Twenty-year-old George has been part of the England squad since making her debut in 2018, but had previously only been on a “rookie” contract.

George, who opted for cricket over a potential career in football, played 2 ODIs and 5 T20s in 2018, but was set-back last autumn by a stress fracture of the lower back which kept her out of contention over the winter, and she has continued to suffer a succession of niggles since.

However, the England management appear to have demonstrated a clear show of faith in a player Mark Robinson has singled-out as a potential successor to Katherine Brunt by apparently awarding her a full contract ahead of others, including Bryony Smith and Linsey Smith, who have played this summer but remain on “rookie” deals.

Outside the makeshift “press box” in one of the larger hospitality suites in the pavilion at Taunton, there is a framed poster memorialising Somerset’s great undefeated season of 1890 – 13 matches; 12 wins; 1 tie.

Apart from the fascinating array of moustaches supported by the players, one thing that leaps out at you is that all-bar-one of those matches – proper First Class games, of two innings per side – were played over just two days.

So there is precedent here in Somerset for winning a match in the time frame remaining to England in this Women’s Ashes Test… but after Australia’s approach to play today, it doesn’t look like they will be given the chance.

Australia are of course under no obligation to give them that opportunity – they are professional athletes, charged with retaining The Ashes, and that is exactly what they are doing.

You have to feel sorry for the England players out there this morning though – even the wicket of Ellyse Perry elicited little celebration, because England knew in their hearts it was unlikely to make any difference to the outcome of this match, or the destiny of this series.

And to be fair, England would probably be doing exactly the same thing. Indeed, they may find themselves doing so by Sunday – they won’t want to lose any more than Australia do, and they will happily grind out a draw if that is the alternative to defeat.

But nonetheless, for the love of all that is holy, you have to wish someone would try to make a game of it – offer up a sporting declaration, opening up the possibility of turning it into a contest someone might actually want to watch on the final day.

They wouldn’t be doing themselves any favours; but they’d be doing women’s Test cricket a solid… and boy does it need it after today.

They know their farming down in Somerset – agriculture still makes up a significant proportion of the local economy, and “I’ve got a brand new combine harvester, and I’ll give you the key” by The Wurzels is the official team song of the Western Storm, the KSL side based here in Taunton.

So they’ll likely be familiar too with the expression to “bet the farm” on something; but if not… well, it’s pretty-much what England did today – they bet the farm on spin, selecting not just the more attacking left-arm spin options of Sophie Ecclestone and Kirstie Gordon, but the also the containing off-spin of Laura Marsh, while leaving the seam of Kate Cross gathering dust in the shed.

That was their first mistake. Cross might not have taken the most wickets of England’s bowlers this summer, but she has often looked their most likely to take a wicket – there’s been that feeling when she’s been bowling that “something” might happen… and boy did England need “something” as play drifted towards a close today.

England’s second mistake was arguably more forgivable – they lost the toss! This put all the cards in Australia’s hands – their long batting lineup is their real strength, and opting to bat first gave them the chance to dictate the pace of the game, which they did with increasingly mechanical efficiency, losing just 1 wicket as they ground-out 150 runs in the two sessions after lunch.

England had no answer.

Their spinners toiled for 64 overs, taking 2-167; while their seamers got through 36 overs, finishing with 1-92. Neither particularly great returns, though for what it’s worth (which isn’t much) the seamers were the more economical, by half a run an over.

Truth be told, they actually weren’t that bad, some careless fielding aside; but Australia were just clinically good, with only the out-of-sorts Nicole Bolton failing to pass 50.

Australia finished the day on 265-3. Having scored 100-odd in each of the first two sessions, Ellyse Perry and Rachel Haynes were happy to take the evening session at their leisure, scoring just 64 between tea and the close – the game was done by then; the Ashes basically won – it will take a miracle for England to win the match from here, and the Aussies know it. The weather forecast for tomorrow is terrible, and it’s little better for Saturday – there’s simply no time for England to take the 7 + 10 more wickets they need and score the 500-odd runs they’d require in-between.

Is there a “glass half full” scenario for England? If the forecasters have got it completely wrong, and we get 3 more full days, they could bowl Australia out tomorrow morning, bat aggressively for a day and a half to pile-on 500, and then try to bowl them out again on the final day, leaving them a small (or even no) target to chase at the death on Sunday.

Stranger things have happened; but it doesn’t feel terribly likely.

England haven’t got a brand new combine harvester – they’ve got a rusty old one… and they’ve lost the key.

Richard Clark reports from Wombat CC

The simple story of this match is that Devon beat Somerset by 2 wickets. But that really is just the simple story, because there was so much more to it than one team beating another.

It may not quite have “had everything” in the way that a certain other match taking place on Sunday seemed to, but it had “most things” needed to make a compelling tussle, and as a final instalment – if that is what it was – in the story of the Women’s County Championship it did the game proud.

There was, of course, nothing at stake. Tell that to the players, though! Local pride is never to be sniffed at, and for Somerset’s part they were clearly eager to secure the six points required to climb above Worcestershire and out of the notional “relegation” zone.

Arrival at Wombat CC – a beautiful setting, and tremendously proud and enthusiastic hosts on the day – brought a scene to encourage any cricket lover. Yes, both teams warming up with the gusto one might expect ahead of the opening game of a new season, but also a lively All Stars session in full swing, with around 20 youngsters enjoying the warm sunshine

And those children would have a role to play shortly afterwards as they lined up for a guard of honour for the Devon team and the two Somerset openers as they took to the field. A lovely touch, the loveliest of touches.

The early stages gave little indication of any drama in store. Skipper Sophie Luff and Nicole Richards settled in, picking off the odd boundary and rotating the strike, whilst Devon were guilty of helping them along with a (un)healthy dose of wides. At 61 for none in the fifteenth over all was going swimmingly for the home side.

Enter Charlie Phillips with her gentle spin, first inducing an edge from Richards to Amara Carr behind the stumps, and then two balls later trapping Rebecca Odgers LBW for a duck. 61 for 2, and Somerset would never quite regain the control of the game that they looked to have during that initial period.

But Luff was still there and ticking along nicely. Along the way, she tucked Sophie Florides into the leg-side to move to 23 and in doing so passed Bryony Smith to become the leading run-scorer for the season across both forms of the game.

However, Phillips would prise her out on 30 with one that perhaps bounced a touch more than expected and took a top edge to lop up to Georgia Hennessy at slip, and then Hennessy repeated the dose at midwicket to claim Nat Wraith off Becca Silk. Somerset now 90 for 4 and in one of those could-go-either-way positions.

Emma Godman and Niamh Holland added 28 for the fifth wicket, but both went in the space of a few balls and from there the innings petered out somewhat. With more than seven overs unbowled Somerset were dismissed for 137, collecting just two bonus points, and meaning that they would almost certainly need to win the game (or take nine Devon wickets) to collect the points needed to lift themselves above Worcestershire.

The visitors began their reply in bullish style, Hennessy driving Georgia Tulip through extra cover, and then straight, for two picture-perfect boundaries in the opening over, but Tulip had her revenge soon afterwards as Hennessy feathered the ball through to Wraith to depart for 9. Game on?

Carr joined Claire Varcoe in the middle and the pair batted as fluently as any batsmen had all day, adding 41 for the second wicket. Both hit sixes – Carr depositing hers into the adjoining tennis courts – and for a while the match seemed to be heading inexorably Devon’s way until Luff turned to Richards, whose second over threw a major spanner in the works.

First Carr, who had looked utterly untroubled, attempted a sweep and was pinned in front for 16; two balls after that Emily Edgcombe picked out Godman at midwicket; and then from her second ball Olivia Churcher went the way of Carr for another duck. Three in five balls. 58 for 1 had become 58 for 4. Inexorable had become anything but.

And drama became crisis when, having watched all this unfold from the other end, Varcoe, on 28, then tickled the very next ball from Tilly Bond into Wraith’s gloves. Four in six balls. 58 for 5.

In hot water all of a sudden, Devon needed a cool head, preferably two of them. Rebecca Halliday and Milly Squire provided stability for a while, adding 18 for the sixth wicket before Richards picked up Squire for her fourth wicket. 76 for 6. Edgy stuff, this…

Once again a partnership developed as Becca Silk joined Halliday for 20 precious runs. Silk accumulated intelligently, whilst Halliday found the boundary from time to time, but with 42 still needed Niamh Holland found the perfect yorker to rattle her stumps and swing it Somerset’s way once more.

Luff rang the changes with her bowlers, but Silk and Phillips continued to collect the singles and Devon’s target came down, run by run. For a match that had nothing of any significance riding on it this was seriously gripping stuff. With 19 needed, Wraith claimed her third victim as Phillips edged Jodie Filer behind for 6. 119 for 8.

Yet again, a partnership, as Silk and Amanda Higginbotham stuck at their task, and this one would take Devon home pretty much one run at a time. Somerset did nothing wrong, there were no loose deliveries, no horrendous misfields, nothing handed to Devon on a plate. They had to work for every run.

To Tulip fell the honour of delivering the final ball in “official” Women’s County Cricket, and to Higginbotham the pleasure of swinging it out to deep midwicket and running through for a single. And that was that.

Silk deserves a mention here. A bowler by trade, her 15 wickets saw her finish as one of four joint leading wicket-takers in the Championship, but her batting won this day. Before the match her highest score in competitive county cricket this season was 5 (although she has a career top score of 40). Carrying her team to victory with 28 of the coolest and calmest unbeaten runs you could hope to see made her my player of the match.

That apart, one could pick at the bones and examine where the game was won and lost, the little things here and there that add up to make a difference, but somehow it feels irrelevant. It was a cracking match, and that’s all that needs to be said.

Somerset skipper Luff was philosophical afterwards. “It’s always challenging defending a below-par score. We back ourselves to defend anything but we probably missed two key bowlers yesterday. We didn’t quite have that fire power to bring back on to try to finish Devon off.”

On her own success with the bat, Luff added, “Personally it’s been a decent season, there have been a fair few times when I haven’t gone on and gone big and that’s been frustrating. You always want to be better, I guess. But in the majority of games I’ve led from the front and that’s something I really pride myself on.”

“We’re a very young group and I’m desperate to lead by example at the top of the order. Ultimately the way I played in a number of the T20s was down to the way we performed as a unit with the ball – chasing down less than a run a ball allowed me to take responsibility opening up the batting.”

Luff also expressed pride in the team’s T20 Division 2 triumph.

“I’m super proud of the girls for the way we performed in the T20. To finish top of the table is a fantastic achievement for this young group. They deserve that success and recognition and it’s been a complete team effort throughout that competition.”

Of the youngsters in the Somerset squad, Luff picked out Holland as one to watch for the future.

“Niamh is only 14 and has shown just what she is capable of at senior level. A genuine all-rounder, she’s been a great find with the ball for us this year. Having worked with her over the winter as her coach, to step on the field with her as her captain has been a real highlight. Seeing how she’s developed has been really pleasing.”

“Representing Somerset means an awful lot. It’s something I’ve done since the age of 12. It’s been a huge part of my life and to captain the team over the last couple of years has been a real privilege. Playing in what may be the last ever match is something I’ll probably look back on in years to come, and it’s fitting that it was against Devon. It’s always a close contest and a game I’ve always looked forward to over the years. Amara and I have played against each other for as long as I can remember so for us both to be out there as captains shows the journey within the county game. We’re great friends and I think that’s definitely a special element of county cricket and what it offers.”

Carr echoed Luff’s thoughts on the County game.

“County cricket over the years has opened up a lot of opportunities in the women’s cricket pathway and enabled me to experience different challenges along the way. I started my county cricket career as a shy 13-year old where women’s county cricket was the only cricket really available and I’m finishing having captained my home county for many seasons.”

“It’s exciting to see how much the women’s game has developed even since my childhood and all the opportunities it now has to offer young girls. I feel very proud to have been a part of the process and playing alongside some of the younger girls who I’ve since coached and seeing them playing their own part has been very rewarding.”

England have called up left-armer Kirstie Gordon to their squad for the 4-day Women’s Ashes Test which begins in Taunton on Thursday.

Gordon, who made her England debut at the T20 World Cup in the West Indies last November, has been fighting her way back into England contention after being diagnosed with a stress fracture of the lower back at the tail-end of last year. But she looked to have rebounded to her best as she took 8 wickets, including a 6-fer, for England Academy against the Australians in their warm-up at Marlborough last week.

Another player coming back from injury – Georgia Elwiss – is also included for the first time this summer. After years on the fringes, Elwiss looked to be challenging for a spot in England’s 1st choice ODI XI this spring on the tour of India and Sri Lanka, until a broken finger brought that trip to a premature end for her. However, she was one of England’s better performers in the last two Test matches, scoring a crucial 41* off 190 balls as England salvaged a draw in Sydney in 2017.

Fran Wilson and Alex Hartley are not officially in the squad but will stay with the team in Taunton as cover, with gun fielder Wilson odds-on to play a 12th-man role if and when England need cover in the field.

Meanwhile Danni Wyatt and Jenny Gunn will both take part in a series of T20 matches this week against Australia A and Ireland, and Wyatt at least will almost certainly return to the squad for the T20s.

With England already 6-0 down in the multi-format series, they need to win the Test, plus all of the three T20s which follow, to reclaim the Women’s Ashes.

Likely Team

1. Tammy Beaumont
2. Amy Jones
3. Sarah Taylor
4. Heather Knight
5. Nat Sciver
6. Georgia Elwiss
7. Katherine Brunt
8. Anya Shrubsole
9. Sophie Ecclestone
10. Kate Cross
11. Kirstie Gordon

Full Squad

Heather Knight (Berkshire)
Tammy Beaumont (Kent)
Katherine Brunt (Yorkshire)
Kate Cross (Lancashire)
Sophie Ecclestone (Lancashire)
Georgia Elwiss (Sussex)
Kirstie Gordon (Nottinghamshire)
Amy Jones (Warwickshire)
Laura Marsh (Kent)
Nat Sciver (Surrey)
Anya Shrubsole (Berkshire)
Lauren Winfield (Yorkshire)
Sarah Taylor (Sussex)