On Sunday 18th September the Defence School of Transport sponsored the annual cricket match between Beverley Ladies and the Hull Hawkes.
The Hull Hawkes are a team of Visually Impaired (VIS) players from all over the North of England coached by Robert Todd at Norwood Park, home of Beverley Town CC. They play with a large ball which contains bells to enable them to gauge where the ball is. They consist of totally blind players (B1’s) and partially sighted players (B2’s) and rules for B1’s and B2’s differ slightly.
This twenty over match started in bright sunshine with the Hawkes batting first and amassing at total of 134 with John Pasha (B2) top scoring with 32 and Bill Skinner (B1) getting 24. Organiser and secretary Dianne Woodford(B2) scored a further 12 before she retired not out to ensure all players got a bat. The Beverley Ladies found playing with the larger ball extremely difficult but Skipper Louise Todd mastered the art finishing with 4 for 11 including the key wicket of the Hawkes’ Skipper, Gary O’Niel (B2), caught in the deep by Sarah McDowell.
In reply the Ladies lost early wickets under estimating the capability of the Hawkes. Two run outs and a third which may have been out if video replay had been available.
Katharine Carson (36no) and Amy Halloran (40no) stopped the rot but started getting behind the run rate as the rain started to fall. The VIS refused to go off and kept the girls under pressure but the girls ran some quick singles as fielding in the rainy conditions became difficult over taking the VIS score with only 4 balls to go.
The DST Cricket Captain WO2 Al Wilde, thanked all players for an entertaining match and hoped both teams would return again next year. He stated he would look to arrange a match for the VIS to play a DST Team in the future.
The VIS responded thanking DST for hosting the match and the Beverley Ladies for a close and entertaining match and looked forward to playing a DST Team in the future.
WO2 Wilde then presented annual trophies to the Beverley Ladies. Sarah McDowell picked up the best batswoman of the season scoring 304 runs in 8 matches at an average of 45. Hannah Matthews won best bowler but her trophy was picked up on her behalf by up and coming youngster Amy Halloran.
Managers Player of the Season went to Louise Todd the team captain.
