Canterbury Christchurch were the victors in the women’s varsity cricket match as they beat University of Kent by eight wickets.

Deanna Cooper top scored for Christchurch with 83 to surpass the 51 not out scored by Karen Baker in her innings for the University of Kent, Sophie Pout finished 32 not out for Christchurch also.

The St Lawrence Ground was basked in lovely sunshine as the annual varsity cricket between Canterbury Christ Church and University of Kent got underway.

University of Kent won the toss and decided to bat as they looked to showcase their talents in front of their university friends and family, and both sides were packed full of talent.

Deanna Cooper knew the ground well as she currently plays for the Kent Women’s Cricket team, and the other County player to join her in the Christchurch eleven was Sophie Pout who is part of the Surrey set-up.

For the University of Kent Laura Thompson also played for Kent Women and Charlotte Miles who captains the UKC team used to play for Essex.

Christchurch opened the bowling with seven coming off the opening over from the captain Heather Jones, the second over was opened up by Cooper bowling pace from the Nackington Road end with three runs coming off her opening over in a solid start for the cricketer who also plays football for Gillingham Ladies FC.

The first bowling change saw Sophie Pout replace Jones with her first over being quite expensive with 18 coming off of it, including three fours.

The following over there was a second bowling change with Ellie Johnson replacing Cooper at the Nackington Road end with a number of wide’s being racked up by the opening Christchurch University bowlers, Johnson went for nine off her opening over.

The opening batswomen for the University of Kent certainly had the better of the opening overs with 65 coming off them.

In the eighth over Laura Thompson was out bowled lbw for a rapid 34 runs, as Elli Johnson struck first for Christchurch with the score on 67.

Johnson who took the first wicket then dropped Miles on one off the opening over of the vice-captain Jessica Vincent.

The hundred came up for UKC in the 14^th over of the match as a ball was slotted out to the mid on for a single, and that was off the last ball.

As the game progressed into the final five overs of the UKC innings the extras score started to really become expensive with 27 off of 16 overs, as the game ticks on that could become crucial. With four overs left in the innings UKC were 120 for the loss of just one wicket.

Canterbury Christchurch brought the two opening bowlers back to close the innings for them with Heather Jones and Deanna Cooper hoping to pick up a couple of wickets in the last four overs.

Karen Baker in the 19^th over brought up her 50 which was a well-constructed innings for UKC as they looked to make their way towards to 150, and the very next ball Baker was dropped by Elena Broerse.

Cooper was on for the final over of the UKC innings and she managed to restrict them to just three runs, producing a great diving stop to save a four off her own bowling. The second wicket of the day came off her bowling as Miles swung and missed a ball and Emily Chidwick removed her bails with her on 27, giving Cooper her first wicket of the match.

Canterbury Christchurch had 142 to chase down for victory in this Varsity match as UKC lost just two wickets in their twenty overs.

It was then Cooper who came out to open the batting for Christchurch with Lucy O’Brien as they tried to get them off to a good start chasing 142.

The first ball bowled by UKC was a wide which meant that the first ball of the innings conceded an extra, the third ball of the opening over also went for a wide.

Cooper hit the first four of the innings and then follows up the next ball with exactly the same shot for another four.

With the score on twelve Lucy O’Brien was caught out for two and then Captain Heather Jones followed her back to the Pavilion just two balls later for a duck. It really wasn’t the best of starts for Christchurch as Sophie Pout joined Cooper at the crease.

Pout probably should have been out first ball but she was dropped in the field but the fielder got lucky when the umpire signalled a no ball.

Cooper fast established her credentials with a flurry of fours as she moved the score on to 35 for 2 in the 6^th over and took her score to 31.

Extras once again began to play a massive part of the innings with the UKC starting to bowl a few more wide’s in the innings as it headed to the midpoint of the innings.

At the half way stage were just over halfway to their target with 75 off the ten overs needing 67 runs to win, at the start of the tenth over Pout was dropped at mid-off but took a single to give Cooper the strike and she moved onto 42 with another well timed four down the ground.

Deanna brought up her half century with a four straight back past the bowler from the first ball of the 13^th over. The 100 for Christchurch came up in the 14^th over following a shot from Pout that the two batsman ran hard to get the two that took them to the target.

Christchurch needed 22 off of the last four overs to secure the Varsity trophy, and Cooper started to make short work of that with more runs to her person total as she moved to 76 and with three overs remaining they needed just 12 to win from 18 balls.

It was Pout to hit the winning runs as she hit a boundary with eight balls to spare to win by eight wickets.