Yorkshire lift the trophy in the 20 over One Day Cup final

Yorkshire (128/1 from 11.2 overs) beat Glamorgan (127/5 from 20 overs) by 9 wickets

“The world's adream in fog's embrace,

Still slumber woods and meadows:

But soon, through the dissolving lace,

You'll see the blue of endless space,

The milder grace of autumn's face

Transcending golden shadows.”  Eduard Mörike (1804 - 1875), "September-Morgen"

We witnessed the less mild grace of Autumn’s face as Glamorgan faced Yorkshire on a chilly, damp mid-September morning as a veil of mist, rising from the River Severn, enveloped New Road, the damp air reminding us that the once scorching and parched cricket season of 2025 will soon be gone. 

The soon-to-be elevated professionals of Yorkshire against a Glamorgan side who will be preparing to join them in the top division in 12 months’ time, the Welsh side a mixture of students and long-time servants of the game who mix their cricket with full or part time work elsewhere. Nicole Reid, the radiographer, who fits her cricket around long shifts in the NHS, is a prime example of this. It was Reid who helped Glamorgan reach this final with her five-wicket haul in the semi-final against Northamptonshire, her leg spin fizzing and bamboozling the batters.

With heavy rain forecast for the afternoon, the ECB granted special dispensation for the final to be played as a T20 match rather than a 50 over game, thus increasing the possibility of a result. This pragmatic step was probably the correct decision, but was not a solution that was offered to any other game in the competition and is not in the playing conditions. It does raise the question as to whether flexible playing conditions need to be implemented across competitions in order to maximise the possibility of a positive result on days when there is enough of a window of good weather to play more than 20 overs of cricket, but not enough for one side to bat 50 overs and the other side to bat at least 10 in order for DLS to calculate a winner.

Yorkshire won the toss and elected to field, a predictable decision on a day with rain forecast, but one which did not produce instant impact for the northern county, as Glamorgan’s openers, Lauren Parfitt and the on-loan Abbey Freeborn powered their way through the powerplay, reaching 50/0 before Parfitt was dismissed, skying a top edge to Winfield-Hill from the bowling of Hannah Rainey. This was a turning point of sorts, as Freeborn went into her shell and her various partners at the other end came and went through a revolving door. Pivotal to the squeeze being applied was the bowling of Olivia Thomas, who only offered dots and singles from her four overs and was responsible for dismissing three of Glamorgan’s top order including the dangerous Freeborn.

Freeborn was both Glamorgan’s top scorer and also the reason why they ended up with an under-par score. Trying to strike the difficult balance of anchoring the innings and striking at a rate which would give her team a winning total, she erred too much on the side of caution and used up 50 of the 120 balls to score 41. When she was dismissed at the end of the 17^th over, it was Bea Ellis and Gemma Porter who had to navigate their way to a final total of 127, which seemed inadequate, and so it proved.

Lauren Winfield-Hill opened the batting for Yorkshire alongside Erin Thomas. It was Winfield-Hill who took control initially, taking Yorkshire to 52/0 at the end of the powerplay. At that point, Thomas took over, striking consecutive sixes from Bethan Ellis’s first two balls as the 8^th over went for 22 runs. In the 11^th over, consecutive fours were followed up by another six to bring the scores level. It was just left for Winfield-Hill to hit the winning run -except she hit it straight to Bethan Ellis at mid-off, who caught it spectacularly. So Sterre Kalis came in to bat, playing her third finals day of the summer, only for Gemma Porter to bowl a wide, giving the win to Yorkshire by nine wickets.

It was a low-key ending to a one-sided final in which professional superiority triumphed over the plucky amateurs of Glamorgan. For Yorkshire, Tier One cricket beckons and in Erin Thomas and Olivia Thomas, alongside established stars Winfield-Hill and Kalis in addition to the incoming overseas player, Jess Jonassen, they have the makings of a decent team who will hold their own, if not realistically lift any silverware.

For Glamorgan, the transition to professionalism is clearly being thought out carefully. It seems unlikely that Nicole Reid and her generation of players will all make that transition, but in Eve Jackson and Bea Ellis they have good local players who have potential to move with them to the professional game.