SANDFORD Ladies celebrated the end of the 2009 cricket season by winning the eight-a-side festival at Exmouth.
The sun shone throughout and the runs flowed. Sandford were drawn against Plymouth and Exmouth Badgers in the first stage of the competition.
A comfortable win over Plymouth, mostly down to the batting firepower of Kirsty Rouillard and Lottie Miles, was followed by a close game with Exmouth.
At the half-way stage Exmouth were on course, but tight bowling and a couple of strategic wickets by Ellie Balsdon and Michelle Johnson secured a Sandford victory by three runs.
From here Sandford progressed to the Trophy stage of the competition, meeting up first with Hatherleigh and then Torquay.
The Miles and Rouillard combination on song was a formidable one, posting an unbeaten partnership of 74 to secure a win over Hatherleigh.
Losing the toss and straight back in to bat, they then exceeded this with a quickfire 109 off their allotted eight overs against Torquay.
With spirits high, Sandford then bowled and fielded efficiently to lift the trophy.
A long, extremely hot day but an excellent team result with good individual performances.
Our thanks go to Exmouth CC for a well organised competition, to the army of helpers who so kindly acted as scorers, umpires and tea ladies without whom such competitions cannot exist...and, finally, our own supporters.
This ends the fixtures for 2009, a season that has been most memorable for the team spirit that has been shown both on and off the pitch.
Resultswise, despite the injury and unavailability problems, Sandford ended up third in the DWCA League, third in the Hatherleigh festival and finally victorious in the Exmouth festival.
As one player so rightly stated... "we are more than just a team of cricketers, we are friends as well."
We now look forward to both the Club dinner in October and the Ladies' Christmas social.
In addition, plans are already being laid for winter training and the 2010 season.
My own personal thanks must go to ALL my team mates for their support (especially those at Exmouth for embarrassing me!) and also to the Sandford CC committees for all the support they gave us behind the scenes.
JMW