Everywhere you looked in the Lords pavilion last Friday you bumped into another familiar St Cross face. Catherine had distributed 180 tickets to players, families and supporters, and with our flag flying over the away changing room which our women were using, Lords became our home from home for the day.

It started early for some – club stalwart, previous chair and SPCL umpire Jon Player was invited to umpire the morning match between MCC Women and last year’s beaten finalists Dorridge, which MCC won comfortably. Jon must have made no mistakes as there were no DRS reviews, and he said afterwards – “I can't say that "I've ticked it off my bucket list" as, frankly, it wasn't on there as it would have been level with "walking on the moon".”

Meanwhile many of our party went on the Lords tour, which encompassed the Tavern stand where we were told about each stand, then a hike up to the media centre which gives
you a fantastic view once you have got your breath back, and finished at the Lords museum where our guide gave us a detailed history lesson in the origin of the Ashes.

Six of our party – Andrew Burgess, Matt Perry Lewis, Matt Haworth, Will Kendall and Catherine & Richard Trussler – had been invited to lunch in the MCC Committee dining room, hosted by MCC President Mark Nicholas (an old Hampshire playing colleague of Will) and MCC Chair Bruce Carnegie-Brown. Catherine had to leave early to set herself up in the scorer’s box to score our match, as the rest of our party explored the nooks and crannies of the Pavilion, with most of them settling on the top deck to watch our match in the afternoon.

We were asked to bat first, and got off to a bad start when Abbie Whybrow’s straight drive was deflected onto the stumps by the bowler with poor Alex Avoth (1) out of her ground. Finty was in next, and her and Abbie were getting settled in when Finty called Abbie for a sharp single which was too sharp in view of the standard of MCC fielding, and the unfortunate Abbie had to depart for 9. Jess Hazell joined Finty and they were also getting settled when with our score on 49 and Finty on 31, Jess called for another too sharp single and Finty was run out – as ye sow, so shall ye reap. Jess and Lilly Hawkins took our score to 60 before Lilly was stumped for 5, then at 69 Jess was leg before for 15. All through the innings we had found it hard to get the accurate MCC bowling away, backed up by good field placing. Emelia Butler and Ava Lee were now at the crease, and saw us through to 20 overs, adding 23 to take us to 92 for 5, with Ava on 16* (including an offside 6 into the Grandstand in the last over) and Emelia on 9*.

92 felt about 20 runs short, particularly when one of the MCC openers teed off in the first over, hitting a couple of 6s into the Grandstand, and after 2 overs they were on 21/0. Emelia bowled the third over, and after being hit for 4 by the big hitter had her neatly stumped by Jess for 19 (off 13 balls). The second wicket pair kept the score ticking along, and at 53/1 the MCC were cruising, but then Finty had the other opener also neatly stumped by Jess, then next over Ava caught their no 4 bat off Lucy Counsell. The next pair carefully rebuilt, until at 80/3 Gemma Lane took two wickets in two balls – leg before and bowled. The hat-trick ball produced a very confident lbw appeal, which was declined, but with no more runs added Ava
ran out the no 7, and at 80/6 we were back in the game, also having slowed the run rate in the middle overs. The MCC no 3 Amanda Potgieter was still at the crease but with her score on 39 Lucy took one of her one-handed Superwoman catches off Darcey Clarke. MCC were now on 87/7 in the penultimate over, and the excitement was palpable amongst our contingent. However, MCC captain Claire Taylor (capped by England over 150 times) was at the crease, and she calmly steered her side to victory in the final over, with 3 balls to spare and 3 wickets in hand.

To take a strong MCC side so close was a great achievement, and if we had not had those three early run outs who knows what could have happened? However, to play at Lords is a fantastic honour for recreational cricketers, and our girls will remember this day for a very long time to come.

There was a post-match reception for players and their guests in the Long Room after the match, everywhere you looked there were classic paintings of players and early cricket scenes. We finally left Lords as the sun was setting on a very memorable day.