HEREFORDSHIRE’S senior teams suffered mixed fortunes in friendly matches on a rain-interrupted first weekend of the season.

13 Apr 2026   |   By Richard Prime

HEREFORDSHIRE’S senior teams suffered mixed fortunes in friendly matches on a rain-interrupted first weekend of the season.

Herefordshire’s women suffered an 18-run defeat in a T20 clash with Worcester University at Pentland Gardens.

But their male counterparts scorched to an 82-run success against a Worcestershire Academy side at Kidderminster.

On Saturday, two Herefordshire players, Lucy Barnett (24) and Emily Kibble (30) got the Worcester University side away to a rapid start and laid the foundations for a score of 147-5 from 20 overs.

Simi Vora (2-46), Lauren Arkinson (1-21), Chloe Tingle (1-23) and Daisy Egerton (1-25) shared the wickets for Herefordshire.

In reply, all of Herefordshire’s top four reached double figures – Katie Farmer (18), Sarah Waring (10), skipper Tingle (14) and Jade Atkinson (21) – but the home side were never quite able to score quickly enough and fell just short.

In a 50-over match on Sunday, Herefordshire made a useful start after losing the toss and being invited to field with Hasan Mahmood (35) and debutant George Rhodes (48) taking them to 89-2.

But the innings then fell away to 132-7 before an excellent partnership between Ollie Rogoff (68 not out) and James Rudge (75 not out) more than doubled the score.

Rogoff hit five fours and two sixes in his 63-ball innings while Rudge smashed four sixes and eight fours from 55 balls as Herefordshire reached 289-7 before rain forced a premature close to their innings.

Academy openers Hamza Khan (26) and Joseph Porter (41) posted 61 for the first wicket in response.

But the home side were generally pegged back by accurate bowling and off-spinners Mahmood (3-9) and Cieran Baker-Smith (2-45), supported by Ben Clements (1-13), ensured that the hosts were well behind the run rate when the rains returned.

CAPTION: Skipper Luke Tulacz presents new signing George Rhodes with a Herefordshire cap.