It's the GMCL women indoor finals day 2025 and even though the ladies came joint top of the league, they were capped at 3rd place due to the new system the league introduced. Where the top 2 teams from both leagues play each other for the overall title. And 2nd place in both leagues play each other for 3rd place.

Some of the ladies were nervous during the warmups, but by the start of the game everyone was up for it and ready to fight for the win.

Helen Gloster won the toss (Or at least the umpire thought she did) and shaw went in to bowl. Not on their preferred side of the leisure centre though. They got off to a strong start with Jennie picking up the 1st wicket of the game, on the first ball of the match. However, there wasn't much more to show for the rest of the innings, other than Martin almost picking a fight with the umpire a few times.

Moorside finished on 104/3

The second innings continued and so did the umpires lack of counting skills, as Helen Flint and Antonia Diggle went out to chase 105. A couple of boundaries and 3s later they were 21 up after the first over. It wasn't long before the first wicket fell though, as a mis-communication between the batters had Helen sprinting up the track whilst Antonia stayed put in her crease. Helen quickly turned round and ran back towards her stumps making it back in plenty of time. Or so we thought... The ball had clipped the edge of the base of the stumps and the bails had fallen off. The umpire hadn't been watching so saw the bails and put the dreaded single finger up. The players heads dropped... They finished there 4 overs on 20 runs, losing 3 wickets.

Next in was Grace Gloster and Zoe Travis they had a lot of runs to get and not a lot of overs to do it. A consistent 4 overs with no wickets lost, meant that Jennie and Helen Gloster would need 43 runs to win off their 4 overs.

A 20 run over to start of the partnership with 2 big 6s from Jennie, made that final total seem so much closer. Another 12 run over following that meant they would go into the last 2 overs requiring, 12 to win. A quick in swinger from Hannah Haigh, managed to beat the defence of Jennie reducing our total by another 6. They needed 15 off 9 balls. A further few runs meant we needed only 7 to win. A few 3s in quick succession put us 3 ahead of the target on 107, with 2 balls remaining. A miscount from Jennie had her thinking we still required 2, and a big swing leading to a top edge behind, fell into the hands of Moorside Captain Jo Partington. We needed 4 to win off the last ball. And unfortunately a good delivery from Ella Oswell meant Helen Gloster wasn't able to fire home.

Shaw Finished on 101/5

A good batting performance from the ladies, almost bringing home 3rd place. But unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. The outdoor season begins in less than a month, and its all to play for once again.