Page's brilliant century helps defeat Alton at the JCG

With the knowledge that Aldershot had despatched Hursley Park last week, the Brewers knew that this week’s test against Aldershot would be a supreme one. Being asked to bowl first suited Alton and quickly the opening pair of Abi Green and Gemma Lane were into their stride. Gemma removed Newcombe LBW and Alton were up and running, or so they thought. Despite Abi enticing three inside edges past the stumps of Amy Page, and then hitting the stumps only for the bails not to come off, the Brewers could not remove the Aldershot captain. Through the middle overs Page batted beautifully, well supported by Sahota, who continually picked up the gaps behind square. Page brought up her 100 with an over to go and Alton sensed that a day that could have been a celebration was quickly turning into a bit of a disaster. The bowling from Alton was actually very good with all six bowlers used doing a great job (Abi 8-1-37-0; Gemma L 8-0-38-1; Molly 7-0-46-0, Gemma C 7-2-32-0; Gemma P 8-1-28-0; Bella W 2-0-16-0) – sometimes you have to just say “well batted”!
The batting from Alton was unfortunately not quite so exquisite and looked more akin to last season than this. Gemma L opened up and played some nice shots, but then played back to one that kept low, Nic looked very good at the top of the order before missing a straight one; Gemma P and Sarah C were both adjudged lbw; Abi chopped on; Sara H, Molly and Gemma C played across straight balls; Amy popped one up to Page first up; and Bella ran herself out. It was fair to say that the heat had probably got to the team as Alton came away from the day with only 1 point. It was a disappointing end to the season, but as Nic wrote in her post match blog – whilst it wasn’t quite what we hoped for we should still be proud of how we have performed this year; 9 out of 12 wins (beating every team) was definitely more than we were expecting at the start of the season. Great season girls – lets enjoy the break, stay fit, get fitter and look forward to next season.