BERKSHIRE Women made a bad start to their Royal London Cup campaign in Harrogate over the Bank Holiday weekend, suffering defeats at the hands of Yorkshire and Lancashire.

With England skipper Heather Knight unavailable, they lost by 110 runs to Yorkshire on Sunday.

Lauren Bell took an early wicket and, with Emma Walker claiming three more and Alex Rogers one, they had the white rose county in some trouble at 82-5.

The eighth wicket went down at 124 and the ninth at 148.

But Berkshire could not contain tail-enders Katie Levick (30no) and Katie Thompson (27no), with the pair adding 51 for the last wicket.

The bowlers did not help their side’s cause by conceding 41 extras, with 31 coming from wides.

Walker took 3-20 off 10 overs, while Bell claimed 2-28 and Rogers 2-36.

Leg-break bowler Levick then further turned the screw on Berkshire, taking four wickets at a cost of just eight runs in seven overs.

And with Thompson claiming 2-14, Berkshire were dismissed for 89 in 32.3 overs.

Anna Harris top scored on 25 with Lissy Macleod (17, pictured) and Bell (12) the only other batters to reach double figures.

Berkshire’s best individual performance of the weekend came on Monday when Sherisa Gumbs made 65 off 107 balls with a six and 11 fours against Lancashire.

Rachel Priest contributed 22 and Carla Rudd 21 and at 92-3 the side looked on course for a decent total. However, a dramatic collapse followed, and Berkshire were all out for 145 after 42 overs. The hosts needed only 29.2 overs to reach their target for the loss of four wickets, two of which fell to Walker at a personal cost of 36 in 8.2 overs.