Yorkshire W&GCL: Collegiate collect the points at Saxton

The end is in sight…or should that be ‘the end is nigh’ in honour of those A-board wearing individuals at the turn of the 1900’s?

As we reached the fourth Sunday in August, the number of fixtures remaining in many of the women and girls’ leagues could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

It’s been a tremendous season of cricket, probably the best I’ve been fortunate to cover in over a decade of taking sports photographs.

With the game growing so quickly right now, I have only been able to scratch the surface, and being honest, this has meant that there are so many, many more clubs that I still have left to visit.

I’ve a list of all the current registered clubs in our region and having faced the daunting prospect of planning visits in 2025…I have put in the bones of my must-visit cricket clubs for the summer of 2026 already!

This will include long trips to clubs in South Yorkshire, around Hull and East Yorkshire, some high in the Pennines…and to the very tip of North Yorkshire. The only thing I need now is the fixture list to be published!

Saxton is a club that has been on my list for the whole of the summer. With fixtures running out, I had this particular Sunday pencilled in, and come hell or high water, I was going to visit the ground!

It promised to be a nice day [weather-wise] on Sunday, and as I set off early to make the hour’s drive east across the A1, I turned the climate control in the car to 17 degrees and enjoyed a relaxed jaunt towards Tadcaster, through various small villages and eventually into Saxton itself.

As with many of the villages around Yorkshire, Saxton is steeped in history and was mentioned in the Magna Carta. I’m reliably informed that the name means Town of the Saxons, and the foundations of a motte and bailey castle in the village can still be seen apparently.

Sunday Sun

Driving through the village, the ground was clearly signposted, and as I approached the cricket club up the narrow lane, another signpost showed me through an open gate into a field opposite with ample parking available.

Out of the car with camera bag in hand, I followed another signpost through a gate in the hedge, across the lane and to the club entrance. Rounding the end of the pavilion, walking past the nets, I got my first sight of the playing surface, and I must admit a smile crossed my face.

Ringed by hedges and trees, with a lovely pavilion in one corner and a scoreboard in the other; Saxton was looking glorious in the late summer sunshine.

I introduced myself to both teams and was warmly welcomed by Saxton’s Lorraine Bailey. Following the briefest of chats (I didn’t want to disrupt their preparations too much), I took in the details of the ground.

A small embankment rises from one end of the pavilion and runs around two sides of the ground, and a slope drops gently (at first) from the other end of the pavilion and runs around the remaining two sides of the ground…with a line of mature pear trees growing at the far side.

Saxton is yet another club that you really should put on your ‘must visit’ list of grounds. It’s compact and bijoux…okay maybe not that compact…but the setting makes it feel like it has a more intimate verve. Another wonderful stage for the beautiful game to be played on.

Visitors stumble (and recover)

The game I had travelled to watch was in the Yorkshire Women and Girls Cricket League, Premier Extended League…a league that features some of the strongest women’s teams in Yorkshire.

Sessay currently lead the way in the division, Saxton in second, Sheffield collegiate in third; with Wrenthorpe, Doncaster Town, Yapham, Tickhill and Rockingham Colliery hot on their heels and making up the remainder of the league.

I’ve had the pleasure of covering all these teams over the past two seasons (a mixture of hardball and softball) – apart from Rockingham Colliery…and I have plans to cover a game of theirs either in the remaining weeks of this season, or certainly, one of the first weekends of the next.

The visitors to Saxton on Sunday were Sheffield Collegiate, a team that had impressed me at the end of last season/beginning of this…with some fantastic batters, accurate bowling and superb fielding to put pressure on their opponents in games.

Sheffield won the toss and decided to head into bat first, with the home team striking immediately. Florrie McKenna hardly had time to settle at the crease before she was making the short trek back to the pavilion having faced just two deliveries.

Two balls later and her replacement Jessica Hind was following the same path back as she was bowled by Kate Cooper. A stunning start to the innings by the home team.

Sheffield needed to respond, and Captain Grace Hirst and opener Matilda White dug in and started to hit the ball with a real confidence…the range of shots impressing as they hit the ball all around the ground.

By the time Matilda was brilliantly caught and bowled by Emily Roberts in the 22nd over, the visitors had scored a century and were starting to look like they could score significantly more.

It took another eight overs for Saxton to claim the vital wicket of Sheffield’s captain, dismissing Grace who had reached 84 from 82 deliveries…she had been looking so comfortable that I was expecting her to reach her century.

The remaining overs saw the last wickets fall as Sheffield Collegiate pushed to amass a significant total; eventually ending on 222 all out, just a couple of balls shy of the full innings.

Matilda White’s 34, Holly Purcell’s 26, Darcy Fearn’s 25, and of course Grace’s 84 had been the backbone of the Sheffield innings. Kate Cooper (four wickets for 44 runs) and Ellie Harrison (three wickets for 21 runs) had been the pick of Saxton’s bowlers.

Saxton reply

Saxton’s response got off to a bright start as they scored six in the first over, seven in the second and five in the third…before losing their first wicket with the final delivery. Captain Emma Bailey being caught leg before for just five runs.

The very next delivery of the next over and Saxton’s other opener, and wicket keeper, Grace Davis was following her captain back to the pavilion having scored ten from 13 deliveries.

At this early point, Saxton were ahead of the run-rate needed but had lost the same number of wickets as their opponents. This was shaping up to be a closely fought encounter.

Ten overs later and Sheffield were to have a significant breakthrough. The 15th over saw Abi Murugapathy and Kate Cooper fall to the bowling of Florrie McKenna. Saxton were still ahead of their opponents with respect to run rate…but the fall of the two wickets felt significant.

Four overs later and Asmi Shembekar was bowled by Florrie, the batter having put on a superb display of hitting to score 54 from just 52 deliveries. The dismissal was a big blow to the home team, as Asmi had been building momentum, timing her shots wonderfully.

The loss of the wicket also had the effect of slowing the run rate.

In a devastating spell of bowling, Florrie McKenna then dismantled the Saxton tail-enders as she picked up two wickets a couple of overs later…and then another two four overs after that. The following over Rachel Bottomley picked up the final out, Saxton had scored 123 with Sheffield Collegiate winning the game by 98 runs.

Saxton’s Asmi Shembekar was a real standout with the bat scoring a half century with real aplomb, and Florrie McKenna putting in a virtuoso performance with the ball…taking six Saxton wickets for just 25 runs…unplayable at times.

Sheffield Collegiate claim notable win

Sheffield had won the battle, but the war is still going on for that top spot in the league, with a number of mouthwatering fixtures in the remaining weeks of the season being key to the final destination of the title.

As we are reaching the end of the school summer holidays…this is having an impact on player availability for all men and women’s teams in the region due to people taking the opportunity of going away before the next school or university semester gets underway.

Availability this week has also been impacted by local music festivals, with some players being away at Leeds Festival [and others further afield].

Despite these problems…I have to say that the game between these two sides was a pulsating affair and full of noteworthy performances. These two teams reaffirm what I have said throughout this season; this is the highest standard of play I have seen throughout the leagues in my time covering women’s cricket in Yorkshire.

Want to read more?

Here are all of Mark’s articles and photos on Cricket Yorkshire.

To see more of his photography, you can visit caughtlight.com or he’s @caughtlight on Twitter/X.

There’s also the Caught Light Photography Facebook page.

I also highly recommend his blog called Leica Moments which includes days out at grounds around Yorkshire.