Rawdon Women’s 1st XI make home debut in Archer Cup

Rawdon Cricket Club’s fledgling Women’s 1st XI made their home debut (in the Archer Cup) so I went along to find out more.

The majority of cricket clubs start their women and girls’ journey with All Stars and Dynamos but Rawdon’s Women’s 1st XI and 2nd XI squads are a blend of ages, including established players who moved to Larkfield Road over winter.

The plan for this particular Sunday in April? Meet the players and remind myself how a camera works with some match photography. I also had a catch-up with Rhiannon, who gave a quietly powerful interview about playing cricket with Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

The journey from Cricket Yorkshire HQ flitted by with light traffic and flitting memories. As we cross the river, a glance across to the Applerley Bridge green fields reminds me of a Dales Council match where I fielded on the boundary while Bronte Archers were thudding their arrows into the straw targets.

The early bird catches the worm. Or in this case, the last parking spot at the cricket club. A look over the study wooden fence reassures us that our windscreen is safe today with the matches on one of the furthest strips of this massive ground.

Rawdon and their first opponents Pudsey St Lawrence are both training before the 1pm start. Throws fizz into fielding gloves. Bowlers calculate run-ups and loosen limbs.

The Fullers on tour sat out to marvel at the ground, feel the warmth on the face and settle in. It is tranquil here. And more rural than I recall. With satisfying whitewashed walls and a sloped surface that I’d forgotten about.

It would certainly be a mighty throw from the boundary by the pavilion to get to the stumps.

Notwithstanding the flights taking off from Leeds Bradford Airport and appearing low out of the trees to our left, Rawdon is quiet. The birds in the trees down the bottom end by the row of benches are chattering.

There is a trademark, free-spirited breeze that won’t be entirely calmed all day. Talking of flights, a bird of prey circles as the players go through their paces. We are very familiar with red kites but this might have been a buzzard.

I grab a brief chat with the umpires and then we dip inside. It’s funny. I had the same instinctive reaction to when I last came to Rawdon (back in 2015 on a whistlestop tour of 13 grounds in a day).

Now, as back then, it’s a very well looked after interior. Tidy, yes, and with a gleaming bar but it’s more than that. I notice the upholstery on the chairs, in Rawdon blue, are in fine nick. If you think about how many people flow through a cricket club across a year, things get tatty pretty quickly.

Maybe I picked the best month but the prickling sense of déjà vu suggests the club has a pride in what they do and an eye for detail. We are greeted by the barman who has the affable air of someone who’s been at Rawdon forever. I think he said the swinging Sixties.

We are offered chilled water or anything from the bar and it’s just a very agreeable first impression.

Rawdon 1st XI had racked up 290 in a handsome win here the previous day over Rodley so there were runs to be had. What would be a par score? I reckoned anything over 150 could pose problems and wasn’t far off the mark as it transpired.

Rawdon Women’s first team chose to field first and were soon under the pump. Both Anishka Nayak (31 retired not out) and Gabriela Wilks (31 retired not out) were assured for Pudsey St Lawrence.

You’ll notice the retirement at 30 batting rule for Archer Cup cricket. I’m not sure about this concession, as these are the top six teams in West Yorkshire, but know why it’s there.

It evens things up so players don’t dominate with the bat and will likely make contests closer – as happened here. Of course, a bowler could theoretically get six wickets in an over.

Here, spin and fast hands halted momentum. Charlotte Ashton (1-16) bowled tidily and captain Hannah Keys whipped the bails off for a stumping of her opposite number. Until then, Matilda Potter (29) had accumulated, including a satisfying six.

From a little shellshocked at 93-1, Rawdon pounced to make it 125-5 with seven bowlers used including three Charlottes! Charlotte Tarttelin (1-10) and Charlotte Norris (3-24) ensured the visitors lost their way. A run-out by Amber Sparkes also summed up how dramatically the fielding effort shifted things.

So, 142 to win. Game on.

The reply saw the half century up before a wicket fell then Sophie Jacobson (27) was run out; one of three in the innings and something Rawdon would come to rue later on.

Charlotte Ashton (26), Caitlin Byne (24) and Hollie Newsome (23) kept up with the rate but regular wickets saw a mountain to climb in the last few overs. Amelia Ross (11*) and Lauren Manley (7*) got Rawdon very close but Pudsey St Lawrence won by 3 runs.

Gabriella Wilks (1-15) capped a strong all-round display. While wickets are always welcome to us bowlers, economy can stifle an innings and do the job another way. Amnah Mahmood (1-22) and Matilda Stones (1-25) likewise kept the batters in check.

---

🎧 PODCAST / SPOTIFY INTERVIEW: Rhiannon Blake on Rawdon Women’s beginnings and her journey with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). (Click to listen on Spotify)

I spent some of the latter half of that rollercoaster with Rhiannon Blake who shared the beginnings of women and girls’ cricket at Rawdon, while also offering her personal journey with Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

We walk the boundary, occasionally pausing to suck in breath at a moment of drama in the game before heading on. It’s a relaxed chat discussing Rhiannon’s diagnosis a year ago and how she juggles the realities of her condition with cricket.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, auto-immune disease that affects the spinal cord and brain. It can manifest itself in many ways from dizziness to brain fog to muscle cramps, pain and numbness.

However, extreme fatigue is common and in our conversation, Rhiannon introduces me to the The Spoon Theory for energy management and how she’s approaching this season.

You might be here for the travelogue, match reporting or photos but our natter is well worth a listen. You may know someone with MS or be interested in the resilience of someone who juggles her love of the game with a disease of the central nervous system.

Rawdon are fundraising for life-saving research into MS with The May50k.

Ok, back to the second match of the day where Harrogate opted to field first and the Jacobson-Ashton batting duo retired on 31 and 30 respectively.

This time, it was Rawdon’s opponents who would fight back admirably after a fast start. Talking to their coach, Harrogate are chiefly a team of girls from their U15s & U16s who are aiming to retain their place in the Premier Division for 2027 and show what they’re about in the cup.

There is clearly potential as Rawdon lost two quick wickets and the bowlers combined effectively. L. Turner (1-23), H. Thompson (1-19), J. Harrington (1-18) and L. Barker (2-16) all had very useful spells to drag their side back into contention.

Having seen scores of 141 and 138, it was a little freakish how Rawdon then scored 140. At this juncture, I had taken up residence on the wall next to the Ashton clan, including Murphy the dog, to swap tales of ground-hopping and teas.

Harrogate’s reply (70 all out) never got going beyond T. Metcalfe’s unbeaten 31. M. Fleming claimed frankly fantastic bowling figures of 5-7. In a T20!

The group stage of the Archer Cup is in its infancy but North Leeds beat both Bradford Park Avenue Ladies and Crossflatts to put down a marker. May sees a flurry of fixtures with double-headers on Sundays before a three-game group finale on 31 May.