Northern Lights are out on their own at the top of the Women’s Premier League after the fourth round of matches was completed last Sunday. Despite the abandonment of their game at Hamilton Crescent, Carlton’s victory over Stewart’s Melville leaves the league leaders as its only unbeaten side as they prepare for their meeting with the champions this coming weekend.
Elsewhere, though, there were celebrations at Barnton, where Royal High Corstorphine claimed their first win of the campaign with a 68-run triumph over Watsonians. It has been a difficult season for the Edinburgh side so far, but women’s rep Clara Sablitzky is encouraged by the positive signs it showed.
“I would obviously have liked to see us in a better position at this point in the season than we currently are, but there is so much potential within this squad,” she said. “We just need to find our rhythm, and I hope that this win over Watsonians will help us to do that.
“I don’t think we expected to beat Northern Lights, but we didn’t expect to lose in the way we did against Dumfries & Galloway [by nine wickets] and then Stew-Mel [by seven]. We have worked on things since our defeat in Dumfries, but there is still a lot of room for us to improve.”
It is a time of transition for RHC. Ailsa Lister and Abbie Hogg were among those who turned out for the side last year, but with both now at Northern Lights and Ikra Farooq relocated down south, a lack of firepower with the bat left their innings average in double figures going into last Sunday’s game. A club record partnership of 233 between Bronwyn Sumption and Louise Nichols changed all that, however, with Pretoria-born Sumption hitting a 93-ball 142 and Nichols a run-a-ball 79: the form of the big-hitting South African is going to be particularly important in RHC’s bid to climb further up the table.
“It’s been great to have Bronwyn join us this year,” said Clara. “Since losing a couple of good batters we’ve had to reconfigure the top order and it’s been so good to have someone who has fitted into that so well.
“In our first couple of games she struggled a little bit with the Scottish deck: I think she was expecting South African pace and she got Scottish green-tops, but as she’s got used to the conditions she has really come in to her own and is now playing how she feels she is supposed to be playing. I know she was disappointed after her first game down in Dumfries, but as we saw from last weekend at Barnton, she can really hit the ball.
“Amongst our other players, one to keep an eye on is Emily Rose,” Clara continued. “She’ll be away down south for the rest of our season, but she played in our first few games. Emily had only ever played garden cricket with her family before she started to take the game more seriously during lockdown, and she’s come in and, wow, she can hit a ball. It’s been so impressive to see somebody who is basically self-taught make it on the indoor squad for the Uni, then the first eleven outdoor women’s team and then open the bowling for RHC with Phoebe [Beal].
“She’s a seriously competitive player and has only just turned nineteen: she’s certainly one to watch and I hope we keep her through her time at Uni and hopefully beyond that as well.”
As far as the remainder of this season goes, though, RHC have their sights set on finding the consistency that has so far eluded them.
“I’m not going to put too much pressure on the girls, but as long as everyone plays to their potential we can be confident. Our strength is in our bowling, I would say, even though it hasn’t necessarily come across in some of our games so far because we’ve bowled against some pretty strong batters, but as long as we can find our stride again, recapture the confidence we showed last weekend, things are going to continue to move in the right direction.”
Women’s Premier League – 19 June 2022
Grange v RH Corstorphine (at Royal High School)
Dumfries CC/Galloway CC v Stewart’s Melville (at Nunholm)
Watsonians v McCrea FS West of Scotland (at Myreside)
Northern Lights v Carlton (at Mannofield)
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