An outstanding team effort saw Thriplow women open their season with a remarkable win away to a strong Woolpit side, league winners in 2017 and 2018, and containing several Suffolk senior players.  Thriplow were fielding a very young team with 2016’s successful u13 group as its nucleus, but were forced to play two short due to county commitments and other absences.

Last year’s u15 captain, Issy Routledge, leading the Daffs’ women, elected to bat first and she and Sama Malik started solidly when Malik was caught behind off a fine edge to the moving new ball. Routledge and Chaaya Malik then moved the score rapidly, punishing anything slightly short of a length, and reached 102-1 at drinks, a score which would have been comfortably higher were it not for some fine fielding by the hosts.

With the score on 136 Routledge unwisely took on the arm of Cornelius and was run out by a direct hit for a highly impressive 85, narrowly missing out on a century for the second time over the weekend. However, the visitors’ run rate barely faltered as Malik, accompanied by the hard hitting Sally Phelps, opened her shoulders, eventually perishing for 65 to a bail-breaking delivery from returning opener Swinburne. Phelps was joined by May Busher, and together they took Thriplow to 207 when Busher (11 from 8 balls) was caught in the deep one handed by Cornelius and Phelps (26) was out caught next ball.

Thriplow finished on 208-5 with Maggie Lindsay and Cambridge University player Kate Zator, on debut, as the not out batsmen.  This was a magnificent score, although on a fast track and outfield and with only 9 players to field they recognised that the required rate was well within range of the Woolpit top order.

Knowing early wickets were needed, and well aware of her ability to induce batsmen into giving a catch in the off side, TCC skipper Routledge threw the new ball to leg spinner Isabel Weston and was almost immediately rewarded when Uttridge lobbed the first ball of the innings just out of reach of the ring.  Three balls later Woolpit top bat Cornelius, a century maker in the fixture last year, was caught by Routledge at cover diving full stretch and the plan had proved successful once more.

Woolpit progressed quickly to 54-1 but Thriplow knew they only needed a couple of wickets to be in with a good chance to win. The Thriplow skipper brought herself on and was rewarded for her persistence when Utteridge was well caught by Lindsay running round to square leg. When Board gave a return catch to the same bowler and Chaaya Malik followed soon after with the key wicket of Swinburne having made an extremely polite lbw enquiry, Woolpit were 117-4 and Thriplow sensed the prospect of an unlikely victory.

Backed by the flawless wicket keeping of Busher, Thriplow’s youngest player, and the skilful captaincy of Routledge, Thriplow used their sparse fielding resources to good effect and put the home team under increasing pressure. Having earlier raced to 54 with a straight six, Woolpit skipper Natalie Samuels found herself contained by the Thriplow attack who had stuck to their brief of bowling full, and could not find a way past Katie Hartwright and Chaaya Malik patrolling the long off/long on boundary. Largely pinned at the non-strikers end as Thriplow moved deep and allowed her a single, Samuels could only watch as left armer Maggie Lindsay,  after a long lay-off and a couple of rust-dispersing looseners, demolished Woolpit’s late middle order, ending on a superb 4  for 16 with three clean bowled and one lbw.

With Samuels marooned on 83 not out, and the home team looking increasingly shell-shocked, Weston returned to finish the innings off for 156 with her second and third wickets and Lindsay’s second catch, and the jubilant Thriplow team were just in time to join the gathering crowd in the pavilion for the last few overs of England v New Zealand.