By Grockle
May 16 2026

You'd look at the fixture list in March and think 'Good we have Durham in the summer' and then you arrive up there in May and it's flaming freezing!!  Somerset arrive hoping to refind their winning ways at the start of the season though they have yet to win since their England trio left for international duties.  They would dearly love to show that this squad can win without those individuals.  Maybe this is the game?

Women's Metro50 v Durham @ Chester-le-Street Saturday 16 May 2026

Somerset arrive dearly wanting a win to break the losing streak they are in at the moment.  The side they hope will do that is;

Odgers, Holland, Learoyd, Luff (c), Hazell, Jones (w), Griffiths, Skelton, Westley, Harris, Willis

Durham win the toss and decide to bat first and it doen't go all that well as Alex Griffiths gets Katherine Fraser in the first over bowled for 1 which brings Armitage to the crease to partner Talia Wilson who is the early run getter for her side. 

By the 10th over they have moved the score on to 50 but just after reaching that milestone, Niamh Holland gets one to come in to her which gets a little bit of bottom edge and bowls her for 23 from 31.  54 for 2 brings Villiers to the crease.  It should have been 3 wickets down from the early bowling of Jasmine Westley but Katie Jones misses the potential (and pretty regulation) stumping chance.

The 100 arrives in the 21st over as Villiers and Armitage look to progress the Durham innings against the bowling of Westley and Skelton.  Chole gets the next one as Abby Villiers is caught behind to break the 64 run third wicket partnership at 118 for 3 in the 25th over for 34.  Somerset needed that one as the partnership was really building.  They'll take an early drinks break at what is effectively the half time part.

Emily Windsor takes to the crease at the start of the second half of the Durham 50 overs.  She works with Armitage who now takes the lead role in the scoring.  It looks like Sophie may bowl Chloe Skelton through in the middle overs while she can hold the scoring.  Lola Harris is attacking from the other end.  By the 30th over it is 142 for 3 as Lola probably has finished her first spell of 4 overs for 21.  

Holland replaces Skelton for the 31st bowling to Holly Armitage on 49 at 142 for 3.  The 150 may arrive first as Windsor drives through the infield twice to reach a score of 151 as she takes 9 runs off Holland.  Armitage passes 50 to 53 from the first ball of Harris's 5th (she hasn't finished yet it seems) but the decision to keep her in works as Windsor is caught at 156 by Anika Learoyd at cover for 23.  She proves the faith even more as she also dismisses the dangerous Armitage for 58 caught at short mid wicket by Luff at 164 for 5 in the 34th over.  Well played Lola

Bess Heath and Rogers for Durham have to look to reset and move the score on in the latter overs.  Somerset need to hold them and keep consistently taking wickets. With 12 to go they are still looking for a score over the 200 mark as Somerset re-introduce Skelton to replace Alex Griffiths leaving her with 2 for the end of the innings.

Heath drives Harris at the start of her 9th for the four that brings up the 200 and Jones looks to possibly have dropped her later in the over.  Westley returns for the next over and nearly gets Mia Rogers with her first ball, though her next goes to the boundary to move the score to 205.  How Sophie manages her bowlers at the end of this innings may be vital to the result of this.  the problem she has is that Bea Willis had a very erratic 3 overs at the start of the game and may not bowl again.  Westley is off after one and Harris will bowl out in the 42nd.  The 50 run partnership comes up with a poor piece of boundary fielding at the end.  Harris has done her job and that was a disapointing end to it.

218 for 5 after 42 as Westley changes ends and continues.  Bess Heath is taking this game on and goes to 49 not out from 32 balls at the end of the over with an aggressive six.  15 from the over as Holland comes back on to try and pull this game back as Durham look to take it away from the visitors.  Rogers is also looking to push the score on as she ramps Naimh first ball and a side that looked to be struggling to get past 200 is now looking seriously at 250 and beyond.  The back end Somerset bowling is losing the plot here.  Holland seems to have done something as Bea Willis will finish the over as Niamh seems to have left the field almost immediately.  Not a great situation when your only option is a bowler you probably would not have bowled again in the innings.

Heath goes to 51 off the last ball of the over off 33 balls with 7 fours and a six as Chloe Skelton comes back into the attack with Durham moving to 251 off a slight misfield.  Heath then dies at 51 to a deep catch looking for the big shot.  Alex Griffiths takes it, probably a mistake from the bat as they hadalready got 7 from the over.

Thompson arrives in the middle as Willis continues from the Finkle End for the 46th at 254 for 6.  She holds them to 260 and then Griffiths changes ends so she has the last game and Mia Rogers is looking to go to 50 and she gets it from 47 balls fromthe first ball.  She reaches 56 before she is caught going for a big hit and is caught by Holland who may not be fit enough to bowl but she keeps her ands on the ball to send Rogers on her way and bring Glen in at number 9.  At 275 for 7.  Grace Thompson at the other end send Westley for six off her first.  At the end of the 49th Abby Glen looks to reverse the ball around but she pops it straight into Bea's hands and goes for 2 at 284 for 8.

Griffiths takes the last against Thompson and Johnson.  They finish on 292 for 8 with Johnson on 2 and Thompson on 16.  Somerset will need 293 and one thinks it might be 25 runs too far probably.

The Reply

Odgers and Holland start for us and find the initial scoring extremely difficult against Johnson and Levick.  by the 5th over they have only pushed the score into the late teens an d 5 balls into the 6th over they lose Bex Odgers for 9 off 20 caught by Rogers off the bowling of Johnson.  Trying to get close to 300 at just under 6 an over while scoring at less than 4 puts pressure on a side so we must be hoping that the arrival of Anika Learoyd will changer that position.  Unfortunately it doesn't and by the 10th over Somerset have only added 20 runs to the 19 ofr 1 at Odgers' exit.

It gets worse in the 11th as Learoyd is bowled by Levick for 9 off 17 with the score staggering to 2 for 40.  Sophie Luff comes out to join Holland who is at least scoring at something closer to a run a ball.  They need to get in and then accelerate or this game will move out of their grasp before the halfway point is reached.  By the 13th bowled by Johnson Somerset are looking at passing 50 and they get there with a Holland boundary that moves them to 52 for 2 at the end of the over.  This also moves the run rate up to 4 while the RRR is 6.5 presently and will only rise unless they take control of it.

The Somerset pair are looking to get the score moving but it is obviously not easy and by the 20th over bowled by Villiers they have moved on to 84 for 2 with Holland working hard to break the shackles she finds herself in in the 30s while her skipper has moved into the 20's.  However, most of the runs have come from scrambled singles and very few shots are breaking the infield and getting anywhere near the boundaries that the visitors are starting to need to stay in this game. 

The 50 partnership arrives at 90 for 2 in the 21st as Niamh moves into the 40s.  Levick returns for the 22nd to try and break this pair up.  Luff goes up the wicket to her third and puts her into the stand and they end the over at 99 for 2. Sophie then takes the single off Glen in the next over to move Somerset to 3 figures.

Can it last and develop[?  Seems not in the 24th Sophie comes up the wicket to Fraser, misses the ball, then stands in the middle with her bat in the air, eventually turns around realises Wilson has muffed it up, tries to get back but has given the Durham keeper enough time to scrabble the ball onto the stumps to disrupt the bails and she is not as much 'stumped' as 'run out' through a distinct lack of urgency.  104 for 3 and Luff goes for 32 from 50.  Not so much 'stumped' as punished for inattention.

In comes Jess Hazell and she supports Holland to 50 from 56 at 110/3 courtesy of a square cut from the half centurion.    At the halfway stage Somerset need 182 more runs to win with 7 wickets in hand and 25 overs to do it. 

Levick is back for the 27 and Hazell steps across and sweeps a bottom edge into heer own stumps.  Katie Jones  replaces her and is out first ball LBW and we move from 113 for 3 to 113 for 5 with Alex Griffiths dealing with the hat-trick ball at least.

Without a sense of real urgency Somerset reach 130 by the 30th over.  Far too much playing and missing and far too little hitting and scoring unfortunately as we fall further behind.  If you look at this as a T20 game now we need about 150 from the last 20.  Holland has moved on to 67 while Griffiths has managed 1 so far.

Then we possibly lose the match when Niamh Holland is caught by Rogers, top edging Villiear in the 31st for 67 from 73 at 131 for 6. In comes Chloe Skelton and in the 33rd they bring up the 150.

Johnson has Skelton dropped very badly but it doesn't mean too much as she drives at a ball that isn'tthere and she is bowled for 18 off 21 at 166 for 7 as Westley strides out with over 120 still needed with 14 overs to go.  Then Levick returns and bowls Griffiths for 19 and then sends Willis back without scoring, also bowled.  A double wicket maiden gives her 5 for 36 in the game and it is pretty much over and done at 166 for 9. 

Lola Harris is the last bat in but Levick's two doble wicket maidens have done for the Somerset attempt to win.  When Holland went the unlikely attempt to get on top of this game came to an end really.  This is just now stumbling to another Somerset defeat unfotunately.

Levick has 6 for 37 as the last catch goes to hand as Harris is caught by Villiers for 4 and Somerset are all out for 172.  Durham win by 120 runs 

Women Metro50 v Durham Oop Norf

Discussion started by Grockles.com , 16/05/2026 11:50

Grockles.com
16/05/2026 11:50

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2026:05:18:22:31:51 by Grockle.

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Grockle
16/05/2026 10:47

The women are up in the North East for County cricket day . Durham have won the toss and elected to bat first and after 3 overs they are 19 for 1 with the wicket of Fraser going to Alex Griffiths, bowled for 1 at the end of the 1st over.

Will try and keep up to date with that game AND the Second's Day 2 ast Taunton Vale after the mayhem created by Tom Banton and Thomas Rew yesterday across there. County Cricket Day huh? So much cricket, the FA Cup Final and the Eurovision Song Contest!! The fun just keeps on coming.

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Grockle
16/05/2026 11:22

Niamh Holland gets the second sending Talia Wilson on her way at 54 for 2 for 23 from 31. The ball moved in a little but must have got some bottom edge as well as it crashed into the off stump

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