The Blaze skipper Kirstie Gordon believes the disappointment of missing out on silverware after storming through to the final of the first of this year’s women’s regional cricket competitions can be a positive force as her team bids to go one better in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.

The women’s 50-over competition resumes next Tuesday (5 September) with the table-topping East Midlands team in a mouth-watering tie away to second-placed Central Sparks.

The Trent Bridge-based Blaze won seven from seven in the group stage of the 20-overs-a-side Charlotte Edwards Cup earlier in the summer only to be beaten by Southern Vipers in a rain-affected final at Worcester in June.

“To be brutally honest, it was one of our worst performances of the season but I honestly think it will stand us in really good stead in the future, just learning from that,” said Gordon, who is in her first season as captain.

“For a lot of the girls it was their first final, as it was for us as a group. It was hard to tell if that was a factor, but we didn’t get the start we wanted and that can sometimes increase the nerves and the pressure.

“And we were playing against a Vipers team that had been there and done it before and can turn it on when the pressure is on.”

The Blaze are in a strong position to reach the eliminator round of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint at least. 

Three of their 10 matches so far have been ruined by the weather, but of the seven completed games they have won six and suffered only one defeat.

As with the Charlotte Edwards Cup, the group winners earn direct passage to the final - in this case at Northampton on September 24 - while second and third will face off in an eliminator three days earlier.

The Blaze top the group with 34 points, seven ahead of Sparks and 13 in front of fourth-placed Northern Diamonds. With a maximum five points for a win, The Blaze know that two wins from their remaining four matches secures a top-three finish.

“We’ve got one eye on what we need to do to qualify but at the same time you can’t look too far ahead,” Gordon said.

“There are still quite a few games to play and anything can happen, so you just have to take it one game at a time. If we keep on trying to win and build some momentum, there is no reason why we wouldn’t aim to secure top spot again.

“But we’re the team that the others are chasing now and it is important that we keep that focus and get ourselves into another final.”

An added challenge facing The Blaze is adapting to the absence of England trio Tammy Beaumont, Sarah Glenn and Nat Sciver-Brunt as well as Scotland international sisters Kathryn and Sarah Bryce and South Africa’s Nadine de Klerk with September being a busy month for international cricket. Beaumont, who has been their leading run-scorer with three half-centuries in her five innings, will line-up against the Sparks but then goes away to join England’s ODI squad.

“Availability is going to be mixed through the four remaining group games and who might be available for the later stages if we get there is a conversation we have not yet had,” Gordon said.

“But that’s where squad depth comes in and it is something we are comfortable with. 

“It is a good opportunity for other players to step up as we’ve seen in earlier games, when the likes of Lucy Higham, Teresa Graves, Marie Kelly and others have delivered performances for us. It is what has made our team successful this year.

“We’ve had quite a few players gone away to play in The Hundred and do well and hopefully they’ll come back into the side full of confidence too.”

Left-arm spinner Gordon herself had an excellent Hundred, her 10 wickets making her the stand-out bowler for Trent Rockets.

The Blaze have added to their squad, too, by signing Gordon’s Rockets team-mate Lizelle Lee.

The former South Africa international opening batter made 184 appearances for her country, including 100 Women’s ODIs, and scored more than 5,000 runs.

“With losing Nadine and Tammy after the first game it was important that we tried to bring in some experience to help us build on what we have done in the first half of the season,” Gordon said. “Lizelle is hugely experienced and she will add to that batting power at the top of the order.”

Lee’s presence will reinforce The Blaze’s position among the favourites to win the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy but Gordon will remind her players of the need to heed the harsh lessons of what happened at Worcester in June if they are to be the ones with their hands on the prize this time.

“We didn’t play the style of cricket we had been playing up to that point, which was probably the most disappointing thing for me about the previous final, but we have addressed that and reflected and moved on,” she said.

“Hopefully if we find ourselves in another knock-out game or another final, we will take forward the lessons learned, play the way we want to play and leave the pitch with no regrets.”