SOMERSET Women went into the last weekend of the Vitality Blast fixtures knowing that if they won both of their remaining matches they would have a good chance of qualifying for Finals Day.

In the event, however, they lost both and ended up in sixth place in the table, having won five and tied one of their 12 matches.

In 2025 Vitality Blast Somerset Women played 14 matches, won one and tied one and ended bottom of the table.

Reflecting on the campaign Erin Osborne, the Women’s head coach, said: “The Vitality Blast was a bit of a roller coaster of a series for us. We started really well and there are lots of positive things that we can take away from it.

“I think our top four batters are collectively the highest in the competition in terms of runs scored, and I was really pleased with the way we went about it and the commitment to play the way that we wanted to play,

“With the ball we are a very young bowling unit with lots of learnings, but the pleasing thing is that we are nowhere near our finished product, and we are not a good team yet but we will get there and that’s the really exciting thing. If we clean up a few areas its super exciting where this team can get to in the future.”

Erin went on: “Every team plays the game to get to the finals and not to get there is disappointing but the real positive from this is that there is real genuine belief in the team and we are more than capable of playing good cricket and competing and playing in finals.

“As a team they bought into how we wanted to play well, we were willing to lose games of cricket and we were willing to make mistakes in order to learn, which for me that is another pleasing thing from the campaign.”

Regarding Somerset overseas player Anika Learoyd, who scored 374 runs from her 12 innings, the head coach said: “From day one the reason we went after Anika wasn’t because of the quality of cricketer she is, that was a bonus for me, it was her leadership, her character and the things she did for us off the field, taking players under her wing and mentoring. She played a huge huge role for us and she will be missed.

“Hopefully we can get her back, and any opportunity we get to have Anika playing for us is one that we will definitely take up. She is such a great human being and she has done so much for our club. She played some excellent cricket as well and scored her first 100 in T20 which was so good to see.”

Looking ahead the head coach said: “ The season keeps rolling on and we have seven players going to The Hundred which is really pleasing, and recognition of the brand of cricket that we play and I’m super excited for those players.

“The rest of us will be back home preparing for the Metro Bank where we are going ok. We started quite well but then had a bit of a lull period. We are playing patches of really good cricket and now we need to do that for longer.”