WOMEN RETAIN DIVISION ONE STATUS DESPITE YORKSHIRE DEFEAT

Nottinghamshire Women retained their place in County Championship Division One after collecting enough points in their defeat at Yorkshire to ensure safety.

The visitors were comfortably beaten by 74 runs at Harrogate in their last match of the 50-over campaign against a team who missed out on the title to Hampshire by just three points.

But they clinched three bowling points and one batting for passing 75 to relegate Middlesex along with Somerset, who were already down before the final round of matches.

Notts won the toss and elected to field and initially made good progress, reducing Yorkshire to 22-2 and then 41-3 as opening bowlers Sophie Munro (1-35), Sonia Odedra (2-36) picked up early wickets, along with Kirstie Gordon (2-24).

Leigh Kasperek (68) and skipper Danielle Hazell (17) then put on 53 for the fourth wicket before wicketkeeper Anna Nicholls added a late 29 for 32 balls to carry the hosts up to 170-7 at the close of their innings.

In reply, Notts slumped to 12-4 as two Katies, Levick (3-21) and Thompson (2-13), ripped through the top order.

Lucy Higham (15) dug in before being a victim of Kasperek (3-19), who continued her superb all-round game.

Thankfully for Notts, the lower order and tail fought gamely, with Megan Burton (20) going in at 28-5 and exiting at 70-9.

Hannah Hughes (22) then put on 26 for the final wicket along with Munro (5) in a final total of 96 from 47.2 overs.

You can view the final league table here.

Gordon finished as the leading wicket taker in Division One with a final analysis of 68.2-11-180-23, best figures of 5-18, an economy rate of 2.63, strike rate of 17.83 and average of 7.83.

Sonia Odedra, meanwhile, was the team’s leading run scorer with 196 runs, including a high score of 88, two fifties and an average of 28.

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