Women's cricket at Lord's

The eagerly awaited BUCS Women’s Indoor Cricket Championships took place on a cold January morning at the world famous Lords Cricket Ground. After a fantastic performance in Southampton, the girls were excited about taking on the tough competition brought to London by Exeter, Bristol, Southampton, Birmingham, Loughborough, Leeds Met and Durham.

On the day, the team consisted of Priya Patel (Captain), Celeste Van den Bosch, Mithila Patkunan (wicketkeeper), Natalie Jones, Mitali Mishra, Romi Korotana and Natasha Coral. After a tense warm up and some nerve-wracking observations of the bowling talent being shown off in the next door nets, as well as the impressive and sometimes unnecessary size of some of the opposing teams, Imperial took on Bristol, who bowled aggressively and batted well. Sadly, Imperial lost. Our spirit, however, was not as we watched an exciting match between Birmingham and Loughborough and geared up to take on the formidable Leeds Met.

There had been some aggressive behaviour shown by Leeds Met towards Bristol, which they did not lessen against us. Their competitive game seemed to have worked though, as they also won.

The last match of the day was against Durham, whose team consisted of England and county players. Imperial were not hopeful, but were given a better game by Durham who recognised that we weren’t the strongest team there though we still managed to get a couple wickets against them – an amazing catch by Natasha, bowled by Priya, and a run-out by our quick thinking wicket-keeper, Mithila. Durham also won, and indeed went on to play Loughborough, their rivals, in the final and subsequently lost. It must be pointed out, though, that Loughborough’s team consisted of mainly England players. We were thankful we weren’t up against them!

Thanks go to our supporters who turned up with foam fingers and noisy balloons and who took some great photos, seen on the Sport Imperial Facebook page. We may have lost, but our team spirit was definitely the best and we are more determined than ever to go back next year and show everybody what we’re made of!