Three Huddersfield cricketers helped Yorkshire Under 13 girls lift the 2013 County Championship at Moseley CC in Birmingham.
The original finals weekend in September last year had to be abandoned as the ground was unfit, so the matches were re-arranged for the start of this season.
Golcar’s Eleanor Smith and the Honley duo of Evie Woodhead and Laura Walker played prominent roles as Yorkshire beat Hampshire in the semi-finals and Kent the following day to be crowned county champions for the first time at the age group since 2009.
Evie is in the current Yorkshire girls Under 15 squad and is the daughter of Honley player Chris Woodhead. Her brother Tommy also plays for Honley and, at the end of last season, all three were in the Honley Second XI (dad, son and daughter).
Eleanor is the daughter of former Golcar player and groundsman Michael Smith and is in the Under 13 county squad for 2014.
Laura is the daughter of former Honley player and chairman, Simon Walker. In addition to cricket, she plays for Huddersfield Town girls Under 14s alongside Eleanor and their team are nominated in the Examiner Community Awards.
The girls Under 13 County Championship is split into four groups with teams playing each other home and away and the winners of each group going forward to the semi-finals. Yorkshire had won all eight of their group games, the only unbeaten side in the competition, and went into the weekend looking to extend that run.
Against Hampshire, Woodhead top scored with an aggressive 41 containing seven boundaries and Walker, who also plays for Holme Valley Girls Cricket Club, contributed 18, falling off the final ball of the innings as Yorkshire amassed 227-8 from their 35 overs.
The total was boosted by 64 extras as the umpires enforced the one-day rule where anything outside leg stump was called a wide.
In reply Hampshire were never up with the required scoring rate and, despite only losing only wickets, they came up 41 runs short with extras once again contributing heavily to the score.
In the final against Kent, who had convincingly beaten Warwickshire the previous day, Yorkshire were asked to bat first and struggled initially against an accurate bowling attack. Runs were coming steadily but wickets were being lost at regular intervals. Woodhead contributed 24 before lifting one too many balls into the infield and getting caught.
At 98-5 with 13 overs to go, the game was in the balance when Laura Walker joined Eve Perrin from South Milford (Wetherby League). The pair added 78 runs in a partnership which took Yorkshire to 176-5. Walker remained unbeaten on 29 with Perrin top scoring with 43.
Kent’s reply started well with several boundaries coming from the first four overs but, after that, wickets began to fall. When their best batsman was run out off a no ball they were struggling at 59-5.
Eleanor took two more wickets, the first courtesy of a well-taken catch by Evie, the second caught and bowled leaving her with figures of two for 14.
The last two Kent wickets fell in consecutive balls and they were all out for 105.
The presentation of the trophy and individual medals was made by former Yorkshire Women’s captain and now England Under 19 head coach Sally-Ann Briggs.
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