Unfancied four go through

The quarter-finals of the Southern League Super 8’s produced an exciting line up for the semi-finals, which will see Brighton and Hove versus St Lawrence and Highland Court from Kent, and the London club Blackheath versus East Herts battle it out for a place in this year’s final.

Last year Blackheath were beaten at the semi-final stage; this year they are hoping to go at least one better as are Brighton and Hove, who reached this stage in 2009 . For the two other clubs, it's their first year to have reachedthis far.

Congratulations must go to all four clubs, as they are all lower division southern league clubs and have done well to knock out the clubs from the divisions in the process. Both the semis and the final are being held at Horsley and Send Cricket Club, Wokingham, on Saturday September 10.

Now in its third year, the Southern Leagues super 8’s competition saw 15 clubs divided into two conferences, play each other once to compete for the top four slots in each conference and be rewarded with a quarter-final place in the competition.

Last Sunday saw East Herts from division four beat division one side Guildford by two wickets.  Guildford had a poor start, losing two wickets in the first over, and reaching 14 for three in the second. A fourth wicket partnership of 35 between Lawrence (20) and Jackson (13), formed the backbone of the innings, but once it was broken, tight bowling restricted the innings to 71 all out in 10.6 overs. Pearson (2-6) and Worboys (2-18) were the leading wicket takers.

In reply, East Herts started watchfully, with a stand of 32 for the first wicket. Worboys injected some pace with 16 off 13 balls, but when Perry fell for 23 and the stroke maker North fell for just one, the match was in the balance. Cool heads though from the tail saw East Herts over the winning line with more than 2 overs to spare ending on 72 for 5 in 12.2 overs.

In the second quarter-final, Hursley Park from the County Championship league won the toss and elected to bat first against the division two club St Lawrence & Highland Court opening bowlers of Anna Healey and Emma Waters started well and gave little opportunity for the Hursley openers to score quickly, resulting in a smart stumping in the second over by wicket-keeper Rowena Squires to claim the valuable wicket of Carrie-Ann White as the pressure built up.

Helen Borrett then increased the tempo for Hursley up to the fifth over, but fell to a catch by Anna Healey off the bowling of Emma Waters trying to increase the run rate.

St Lawrence continued to bowl and field tightly and picked up valuable wickets throughout the innings of Hursley Park to keep the score in check. Claire Davidson was holding the innings together for Hursley Park and batted through to the last ball of the innings in scoring 35 runs.

Hursley Park scored 111 all out off the last ball, setting St Lawrence a target of 112 to win at just under 7.5 runs per over. The bowling from St Lawrence was tight, with the pick being spinner Emma Waters who returned figures of 5-0-29-3.

The opening bowlers for Hursley Park of Kate Beecraft (5-0-24-0) and Harriett Batchelor (4-0-24-1) were both fast and accurate, and patience was needed to get through the opening overs by the St Lawrence opening pair of Charlotte Pape and Emma Waters. They battled through at six runs per over, until a rush of blood led to the run out of Emma Waters in the 6th over after smart fielding by Claire Davidson.

Hursley sensed an opening, but the next pair of Pape and Katharine Wickington put on 50 in the next six overs to put St Lawrence within 25 runs of victory.

Wickington then fell to a smart catch by Davidson off the bowling of Batchelor to set up a nervy finish, with St Lawrence needing 25 more to win off three overs. Pape saw St Lawrence home with Rachael Joynson providing good support.

Pape timed the run chase to perfection, winning the match with a six over mid-wicket with three balls to spare, taking her to 55 not out. The result was a win for St Lawrence by five wickets.

In the third quarter-final Blackheath booked their place in the semi-finals with a resounding win against Leeds & Broomfield. Leeds inserted Blackheath, but openers Sarah Berman and, in particular, Leanne Atkins set about laying a good foundation.

Their opening partnership was worth 71, with Atkins regularly finding the boundary. Berman was out lbw to Alice Baldwin, which brought in Laura Daniels who could play herself in while Atkins accelerated towards 50 - and retirement - at the other end. Daniels and Abi Carter had licence to go for their shots, and while the latter was run out, Blackheath finished on 160 for two.

Leeds' reply did not begin well. Cheryl Beech was bowled by Carter's first ball and then Daniels dispatched of the other opener Baldwin in her second over. Claire Livesey and Jemma Conner then came on to bowl very tightly - the Leeds batsman found the latter particularly hard to get away and she took a wicket maiden (a rare occurrence indeed at Super 8s). The Leeds middle order displayed good staying power but could not accumulate runs, and although Hannah Davies found the boundary a couple of times at number six, Daniels returned for the final over to help herself to two more wickets and finish with 3-14. Leeds finished their 15 overs at 86 for six.

The last of the four quarter-finals saw Shepperton face Brighton and Hove, who they had met the previous week in the preliminary rounds - and again Brighton were triumphant, thanks to some very generous poor bowling from Shepperton, who won the toss and fielded first.

They handed Brighton 44 runs off the first four overs. Shepperton then pegged them back and got them all out for122, which was a decent effort after such a poor start. Brighton punished the bad balls and ran well to get to that total. Nicky Pym top scored with 26. Beth Cartledge took four wickets for Shepperton.

Brighton then bowled and fielded extremely well to keep Shepperton to100 for 6 off the 15 overs. Pym bowled some very tight overs, aided and abetted by a good spell from Jade Elphick. Whilst Shepperton's reply started brightly they were always slightly behind the asking rate and really once their top three were out with over 50 still needed off the last five overs their chances had gone, despite some heroics and gallant running Brighton only had to set a defensive field and Shepperton couldn't get the boundaries they then needed to reach their total. Brighton were the better side on the day without a doubt and deserved to go through.