Berkhamsted Cricket Club is celebrating its 150 year anniversary. As the castaway village surrounding the town’s ‘north church’, we are not far behind on 140.

Back in the late 1800s, travel to matches was of course on foot, horse or penny farthing so it’s safe to assume that our neighbouring clubs have played a fair bit against each other over the years.

One thing that has never happened however is a match between a Northchurch and a Berkhamsted girls team. In fact, no female team has ever played in the black and amber. Making the short trip today, our U9 Girls changed all that.

Captain for the day Athena won the toss and chose to bat. First pair Emily and Florence got NCC off to a fantastic start, with 23 for 1 from the first five sets of five. Florence was solid in defence, while Emily pounced to hit the boundaries.

Sian and Ivy consolidated after an early running mix-up to post an impressive 18 for 1, before the captain combined with Zoe to take the momentum into the break with a late flurry of boundaries. 262/2 (net 252) could have been more were it not for some excellent Berkhamsted fielding.

The home team started brightly in their reply with three boundaries from the first set of five, but Sian followed up with a zero-score set to stymie the Berko momentum and set the tone for the rest of the Church bowlers.

Berkhamsted relieved the pressure with some exceptional calling for quick singles, but after a field change by Athena, Emily was equal to the task in the covers; stopping everything and arresting the counter attack with a run out early in Berko’s second pair’s innings.

Ivy and Flo, both in their very first cricket match, were the most economical of the bowlers, and, along with Zoe, conceded no boundaries to push the required run rate up.

Berkhamsted headed into the final set needing 10 to win; very achievable on a fast outfield with a significant slope in the batters' favour. Flo remained composed to restrict the batter to a dot off the first ball, leading to a run out that would put the target out of reach of the home team. The smiles in the photo tell the story of how our girls felt about the experience. Well done girls!

We would like to thank Berkhamsted for hosting this game, for their sportsmanship and for realising what it meant for us as a club, just starting out on a journey to champion girls’ cricket. We are grateful that their groundsman, Northchurch Vice President and erstwhile player Ian ‘Puddle’ Putman, went the extra mile to cut a pitch into the outfield and make the ground look superb for the occasion.

We look forward to many more girls’ fixtures against Berkhamsted and wish them well with their 150th anniversary celebrations. Given the links and friendship between our clubs, Berkhamsted has kindly extended an open invitation to their Grand Reunion event on 29 June.