[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Over the last couple of years I've done my best, Pears schedule and other commitments permitting, to keep an eye on Central Sparks in the women's game, as well as the female Worcester Rapids, and will have a crack at making space on this thread for occasional observations.  Having lost Sarah Glenn but gained Katie George and Chloe Brewer over the winter, it's been mixed fortunes for the Sparks in the opening fortnight, losing to the (East Midlands) Blaze in a trip to Trent Bridge after a magnificent bowling spell from Lucy Higham took the game away, but bouncing back for a win against Northern Diamonds at New Road courtesy of a four-fer from Georgia Davis and a half-century from skipper Eve Jones. A sub-par score despite a fighting fifty from Ami Campbell led to a May Day defeat against Southern Vipers at picturesque Wormsley, but Saturday's journey to Old Trafford was an enormously entertaining clash with a thrilling climax. In the first innings, Aussie debutant Erin Burns brought her international class to bear with four quickfire wickets to tear the heart out of the Thunder middle order, before Sophie Ecclestone peppered the boundary in a typically imperious display to lift the hosts up to a defendable total. A couple of wickets and a rain delay in the reply brought a seemingly harsh DLS adjustment of five fewer overs and just ten fewer runs, and though Eve Jones supplied another half-century to the cause, a middle-order subsidence left the Sparks needing above a run a ball in the last five overs with wickets dwindling. Nine down and needing 12 off 12 balls, then 8 from the final over, it fell to number eleven Grace Potts and 16-year-old Davina Perrin to scramble the single off the final delivery that levelled the scores and secured a tie.

For the Rapids it's been one frustration after another, as the wet spring has washed out every fixture so far. With T20 finals day due to take place next weekend and the last of the group games confirmed to be abandoned, it remains to be seen how the ECB will proceed with the group table in total stalemate.