Binfield Cricket Club's Women's 2nd XI fell to a 32-run defeat by Cookham Dean CC at home on Sunday 5 July in the Home Counties Women's Cricket League Division 3 A, captain Jessica Jackson's watchful 53 the highlight of a chase of 161 that finished 128 for 6.

Cookham Dean chose to bat, and Hollie Gamble supplied Binfield's sharpest reply: Caitlin Cairns lbw for 12 and top scorer Freya Hayden bowled for 48 in a spell of 2 for 21. Hayden was the visitors' best, and that second dismissal deserves to be written in particularly firm ink; it joined the bowler and the opposition's leading batter in one excellent piece of scorecard punctuation.

Jessica Jackson · 53

The Cookham Dean innings had three principal hands rather than two. Jemima Smith made 33 before Katy Slaughter had her caught by Grace Gamble, and Alex Delahaye finished 26 not out in addition to Hayden's 48. Manisha Naik opened with four overs for only 11, while Amelia Hart's three cost 27; the visitors nevertheless reached 160 for 5 from their 25 overs.

Captain Jessica Jackson answered with 53 before Tilly Harrington stumped her off Cairns. Grace Gamble made 22 before Smith bowled her, and Elizabeth Ullstein made 23 before Delahaye did the same. Delahaye then ran out Jackie Rawes and had both Monika Nicholls and Amelia Hart caught by Harrington, giving her a direct hand in four of Binfield's six wickets and figures of 3 for 27.

Binfield used the full 25 overs and closed on 128 for 6, so the 32-run deficit was one of rate rather than collapse. Hollie Gamble's unbeaten 5 was a career-best score and completed a rounded all-round day. Jack Bevan and Sohil Mangat umpired, with Steve Jeffery and Tina Davis keeping the book; the result belonged to Cookham Dean, but the applause could fairly travel both ways.