Month: August 2016

Linsey Smith: “This Is A Huge Opportunity For Me”

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When the initial Super League squads were announced, Berkshire left-arm spinner Linsey Smith was not even included in the list: her chance to play in the competition came only when Charlotte Edwards and Fi Morris collided horribly in the field in the Vipers’ first game last week and she was called in as cover.

Speaking exclusively to CRICKETher after the game, she admitted that even the chance to take to the field with the Vipers has been an unexpected bonus: “I’d been doing some training with the team but to get out there on a big stage like this is great. Just to be part of the team and to have an opportunity to play in the games has been amazing for me.”

But while Smith’s KSL career might have begun as a lucky break, it has not continued that way: it was only down to her own performance with the ball in the Vipers’ previous game, against Lancashire Thunder – she took 1-15 in her 4 overs – that she was retained in the starting XI for today’s match. She was clearly excited about having now claimed her spot in her own right: “I feel amazing. It’s a massive honour to be part of the Vipers with such a huge variety of players at such different levels, and some world-class players…we’ve got a lot of positive vibes in the team.”

On her bowling today – she finished with 4-10, currently the best figures in the competition – she acknowledged that things had gone to plan: “It was a pitch that suited my bowling quite a bit – quite a slow pitch. I was just trying to stick it in the wicket a little bit, making it hard for the batters by taking the pace off the ball, which went well.”

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Linsey Smith celebrates taking the wicket of Alex Blackwell. Photo credit: Ruth Conchie.

Lastly, reflecting on the impact that KSL has had on her as a player, Smith was fulsome with her praise: “It just helps me get better and better really. I’m quite new to spin, still learning every game I play. So to have all these different experiences around me, both in games and out of games as well, is a huge opportunity for me to get better.”

Short Thoughts: KSL Vipers v Diamonds

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Contrary to what seems to be becoming popular opinion, we’re not convinced there’s anything wrong with a low-scoring pitch in women’s T20 cricket – they can generate just as exciting a game as the high-scoring thriller we saw yesterday at Bristol. If this wasn’t that – and no one could really call today a “thriller” – it wasn’t the pitch’s fault; but the fact that Diamonds proved what we all suspected pre-tournament – they’ve got a very long tail.

It doesn’t help that Diamonds’ two overseas batsmen – Alex Blackwell and Beth Mooney – have almost totally failed with the bat, with scores of 3, 23 and 6, and 0, 9 and 17 respectively. Given that Ellyse Perry has also been having problems over at Lightning – she looked completely un-Perry-like when we saw her last Wednesday – is there something wider going on, in terms of Australian players who have flown over to England in the middle of their off-season being unable to recalibrate themselves quickly enough?

Meanwhile Suzie Bates – who’s been in good form with bat and ball – has been over here adjusting to English conditions with Kent for the last couple of months. This competition is very short, and having overseas players who’ve already been playing county cricket seems to have been a bigger advantage than we’d perhaps anticipated.

Alongside Bates, it was Arran Brindle who dug the Vipers out of the not-insubstantial hole they had thrown themselves into at 19-4 in the 7th over, steadying the ship from the instant she arrived at the crease – exactly the role she played so successfully for England in the last few years of her career. It’s patently obvious that she’s still a class above – and exactly what England have been missing since her retirement in February 2014. Sadly, we probably won’t be seeing her in an international shirt again – she gave a pretty unequivocal “no” when I asked her about the possibility of a comeback after close of play – but that’s one reason why it’s so exciting to see her back out there in this competition, playing against the world’s best.

But there were two real stars of today – and Linsey Smith deserves all the plaudits that we hope are coming her way. A week ago when we saw her at Loughborough she was running a how-fast-can-you-bowl sideshow – now she’s running the entire show, with the best bowling figures (4-10) in the competition to date. When she came into the attack at 32-2, the game was still just about in Yorkshire’s grasp; it was Smith who took it away from them with some highly intelligent bowling: a wicket-maiden first-up, followed by removing the dangerous Blackwell in her third over with a brilliant head-high reflex catch that otherwise would have gone crashing to the boundary. Perhaps she might even get her own Vipers shirt now!

Lastly, a mention to Carla Rudd – 2 stumpings today, and impeccable work with the gloves. It obviously helps that she’s used to keeping to bowlers like Smith and Fi Morris at Berkshire, but she’s barely put a foot wrong in this competition, and if you’re looking at the reasons why the Vipers have become the first team to qualify for Finals Day, she’s got to be a factor.

NEWS: Kia Super League Regional Development Centres Set To Launch

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The ECB has today announced that six regional development centres – each aligned to one of the current KSL franchises – are set to launch this autumn, to provide high-quality coaching for up to 120 talented girls under the age of 16.

The new regional development centres replace the existing England Women’s Development Programme (EWDP) for Under-15s, which was a national programme that catered for only 20 girls. Each new regional centre will act as a feeder of the most talented players into the senior KSL side, with the aim that girls selected for the centres will aspire to play not just for their county but for their local KSL team.

The launch has been made possible by the awarding of Sport England funding under their “Reward and Incentive Programme”, which rewards national governing bodies who have performed exceptionally well in the 2013-17 cycle with increased investment.

The Under-19 EWDP, meanwhile, will continue to exist in its current form.

Sciver: Stars Fielding Needs Work

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Reflecting on today’s tight game against Western Storm, which ended with a 5-wicket victory by the Storm with just 2 balls remaining, Surrey Stars captain Nat Sciver admitted that her team’s fielding had let them down.

“It’s a tough one,” she said, “because we did things so well for a long time in the game and then just at the end, when we needed a bit of composure, we put down a couple of catches and unfortunately we couldn’t help our bowlers over the line.”

One mistake in particular was clearly playing on her mind: “Dropping Taylor when she was on not very many runs has proved very costly.”

She stressed that her message to her team in the post-game debrief was to “keep your heads up”, but also that they would be working on improving their performance in the field before their next match at Guildford on Tuesday: “I’ll have a chat with the team and let them know that a bit of composure and calm can help…We need calmer heads and hopefully that’s something I can help them with.”

For Sciver, the challenge with Super League has partly been captaining a young and inexperienced side: “This has been a really good standard of tournament and it really shows what the step up is, and for some of the county girls it is a little bit different. It is definitely a learning curve.”

The Stars have now lost both their away games, while winning their home game at the Oval, but Sciver feels this is a coincidence: “I don’t think it matters that much. For most of the game today we were on top.”

On her own innings, meanwhile – she became the tournament’s top-scorer today, ending on 90* – she said: “That is as fluent as I have felt. They bowled quite a few balls short at me, which I don’t think was the plan, because I know Heather [Knight] knows I like it short. I just found they kept bowling in the area that I wanted!”

While Stars now face an uphill struggle to qualify for Finals Day, probably needing to win both their next games in order to do so, Sciver said that they would “throw everything into it…it’s all or nothing now.”

Short Thoughts: KSL Storm v Stars

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Storm v Stars Worm

This match was a case-study in not giving up. The Storm looked dead and buried at least twice.

First, at the end of the 4th over, with the Storm at 17-3, and with Rachel Priest, Heather Knight and Fran Wilson all back in the dugout, you’d have put your money on the Stars 100% – the Storm were dead and buried.

Then, with the Storm having somehow clawed things back to parity by the end of the 13th over, thanks to some powerful hitting in a 75 run partnership between Lizelle Lee and Stafanie Taylor, the Storm lost Lee at the start of the 14th, and proceeded to score just 3 runs for the loss for the loss of 2 wickets in following 2 overs, leaving them staring at a Required Rate of over 14. Having come back to life… presumably as zombies… the Storm were dead and buried once more – Surrey just couldn’t lose it all over again… could they?

That they did was down to a number of things – Stafanie Taylor keeping her cool, finding the boundary 7 times in the last 3 overs; Sophie Luff (whose game would really be much better suited to Tests… which she’ll probably never get to play) keeping her cool in supporting Taylor and giving up the strike; and some frankly pretty woeful fielding from the Stars – the latter probably actually the most important factor overall – if they had fielded better, the Stars would have won this game.

Afterwards, Stafanie Taylor reflected upon the impact her dropping Nat Sciver had on her mindset going into bat:

“The type of player that I am, it was horrible for me actually to be in the field and not take those catches and not get it right. So when I came off I sat in the dressing room and I just had a moment to myself, thinking: ‘I have to contribute to this team, I really have to – it doesn’t matter about what happened, but I have to give it my all and just go out there and do my best’.”

OPINION: Beaumont Steals The Show For Stars

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Guest reporter Ben Gardner was at the Oval on Thursday to watch a composed innings by Tammy Beaumont.

Tammy Beaumont walks out with Bryony Smith, bats in hand. Surrey Stars are chasing 134, and defeat will make it almost impossible to qualify for Finals Day. They are the most bowler-heavy team in the tournament, with most of the run scoring responsibility falling on the shoulders of Beaumont, and her England teammate Nat Sciver. In a format famous for its smash and grabs and 10 ball cameos, playing with responsibility its own special challenge, but it is one that Beaumont will thrive on.

It is Beaumont who takes strike for the first over. The bowler is Katharine Brunt, who is breathing fire, having smashed one of the longest sixes in the competition minutes previously. Beaumont leaves the second ball of the innings, and then nudges a single. Her opening partner, 18 year old Bryony Smith, follows her lead, and leaves the first two balls she faces. It is the first over of a T20 innings, but apart from the colour of the clothing, you wouldn’t know it wasn’t a Test match.

After 4 overs of their innings, Surrey are handily placed on 26/0. But 16 of those came off one Spragg over, containing 5 wides, and you get the sense she won’t bowl again. Surrey have seen Yorkshire Diamonds slip away after a strong start, and know that this could be the best time to bat; with pace on the ball, in the Powerplay. Brunt, who has conceded just 3 off 2 overs, returns to bowl her third. Smith so far has 1 off 7 Brunt balls.

Backward point. Midwicket. Cover. Cover. On both sides of the wicket, off front and back foot, Smith hammers Brunt. In front of over 2000 people, this 18 year old has announced herself in spectacular fashion. She has taken her time and exploded. Smith will later say Beaumont talked to her between every ball, giving advice. If just one of those pieces of advice was to give herself a chance, to make sure she’s seeing it properly before going for it, Beaumont deserves credit. It is certainly the example she set with her own innings.

At the end of the Powerplay, Surrey have 50, and the required rate is barely over a run a ball. They are well ahead of the game, but there is much left to be done. Too cautious an approach could see the rate spiral, but taking undue risks could lead to a collapse, and Beaumont plays it to perfection.

Her running is superb, turning twos into threes, and even stealing singles for her partner; when Nat Sciver nudges one behind her on the leg side, Beaumont calls confidently and scampers straight away, knowing she is running to the danger end, and backing herself to make it.

It is Sciver who will finish the game, ending on 29 off 24. But it is a cameo enabled by Beaumont’s strike rotation; from the start of Sciver’s innings until the start of the 16th over, she faces 18 balls while Beaumont faces just 7. From the end of the Powerplay up to this point, Beaumont faces 19 balls, scores just one boundary, but still scores 18 runs. It is a masterclass in keeping the scoreboard ticking over, and Beaumont never seems to be struggling to see where the next run will come from.

Beaumont’s acceleration, as with much else in her innings, is timed perfectly. She picks the bowler and the over, targeting Stephanie Butler’s spin in the 16th. She dabs and reverse sweeps her to the boundary on 3 occasions. At the start of the over, Stars needed a run a ball, ahead for sure, but with the game still a contest. By the end, they need just 15 off 24, and they’ll win with 11 balls to spare.

It is not just the pacing of this innings that Beaumont has timed well recently. At the beginning of the summer, with the England team in a state of flux, it was Beaumont who stepped up with 342 runs in 3 innings against Pakistan. Although she made her debut in 2009, she had not managed to fully establish herself, but the retirements of Charlotte Edwards and Lydia Greenway, and Sarah Taylor’s break from cricket meant that almost overnight she became one of the side’s most capped players. She is thriving on the extra responsibility.

In some ways it is not a surprise. Her skills suit responsibility well. She is able to bide her time while still scoring runs and then explode, which makes her ideally suited to play a senior batter’s long innings. It is heartening for both Surrey Stars and England to have a player who only seems to improve as more and more is expected of her.

FEATURE INTERVIEW: Marketing The Kia Super League at Loughborough Lightning

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How do you persuade 600 people to pay up to £8 to come and watch a domestic women’s cricket match, at an out-of-the-way ground, in a small, non-cricketing Midlands town? Rob Knott – Sports PR Officer for Loughborough Lightning – spoke to CRICKETher about making the Super League a super success, even without the backing of a traditional First Class setup.

Loughborough is of course the place where the Super League was first announced, just over a year ago, and Knott tells us that the university were quick to see the opportunity:

“We as a university took a serious look at it. The fact that we know we are renowned for sport and that we have some of the best facilities in the country for cricket, made a good reason to bid for it. As part of the bid, myself and the marketing team looked closely at ‘How could we attract an audience to come and watch cricket here?’ and we looked at some of the things we’ve done in the past with the other franchises that we’ve worked on.”

The most successful of those franchises is the Loughborough Lightning Superleague netball team:

“Probably the biggest thing for us is trying to create a bit of a buzz through social media, and with Loughborough Lightning netball we’ve managed to do that quite successfully and grow our database and interest in the sport. The netball team has been running for 11 years and we’ve slowly built that up, year on year. We are now selling over 1,000 tickets for every match; and we were successful in remaining as a Netball Super League franchise for the 2017 season going into the next cycle.”

But women’s sport at Loughborough has always been more than netball, and the cricket team builds on that:

“We host two international athletics events on campus every year, where we’ve had the likes of Jessica Ennis-Hill competing, and also we are one of 7 franchises in the National Badminton League, so we were always quite confident because although women’s cricket would be a new opportunity for us, we’d had some good success in previous ventures”

There is an old adage in product marketing: If you can’t fix it; feature it! And that seems to be what Loughborough are trying to do with the cricket:

“We are not a Test match venue – we don’t have the infrastructure that some of the other teams have – so we are trying to create a similar experience that you’d have at an out-ground for county cricket. So we’ve got gazebos in purple and pink, and we’ve got [pink!] deck chairs – we are working hard to create a carnival atmosphere.”

Interestingly, Loughborough have decided on a ticket price-point a little higher than the other teams. The Vipers, for example, charged adults just £3 at the Ageas Bowl last week, but at Loughborough it is £8 for adults and £5 for kids:

“We didn’t want to devalue women’s sport – we think this is a fantastic product and a fantastic opportunity for women’s sport to be showcased, so we wanted to price it at a certain level that didn’t undervalue it. It is more expensive than the other counties, but for me it is still good value for money.”

Loughborough have also gone down a non-traditional route by not producing a scorecard, but instead offering a beautiful souvenir poster, with space on the reverse for autographs:

“This is a great opportunity for children and young people to get really close up to some of the biggest names in the world and get their autographs – they are very accessible, so that is encouraged – and we want to make sure that some of the fantastic players we have on the team become their heroines in the future, by putting the posters up on their wall.”

Lightning A3 Souvenir Poster

Lightning A3 Souvenir Poster

Loughborough have clearly tried very hard to understand how kids tick in the 21st century, and Knott even has his own case study – a 10-year-old “sports-mad” son:

“He loves all sports. For him watching women’s sports fixtures is no different to watching men’s football, and he has posters of Loughborough Lightning women’s netball team and cricket team alongside his football heroes from Leicester City.”

Getting (and keeping) a good crowd in for the cricket, in a town with no cricketing heritage, was therefore partly about doing something a little bit different, but it was also partly about doing the “hard yards” and literally getting out and pounding the streets:

“We did some very old school, traditional marketing – we produced flyers and just went out into the town – going around bars and restaurants and community centres, just trying to get the message out to the local community.”

And while there is no official First Class county behind Loughborough Lightning, the local county clubs nevertheless offered important support:

“Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire have all pushed out 10% discount offers to their members; and we’ve run articles through their channels and promoted through their social media.”

For all the hard work the marketing team at Loughborough had put in though, the real test would be “bums on deck-chairs”? They had built it; but would they come? That was the question! On Wednesday, a full house of 600 people turned up to give us the answer!

A Full House at Loughborough

A Full House at Loughborough

Girls in the Crowd Celebrate a Six

Girls in the Crowd Celebrate a Six

Photos © https://www.facebook.com/LightningKSL/

2 MINUTES WITH… Bryony Smith

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Throughout the Kia Super League, we’ll be featuring short interviews with players, coaches & other interesting people we find around and about at the grounds. Yesterday’s top-scorer in Surrey Stars’ win against Yorkshire Diamonds may have been Tammy Beaumont, but it was fellow opener 18-year-old Bryony Smith who helped her set the platform. She answered our quick-fire questions after the match…

If not Surrey Stars, who would you like to win?

I would go for Lancashire Thunder. I’ve got some good friends playing there, and beating Loughborough yesterday [Wednesday] was really good for them.

Who would you like to see playing in KSL that isn’t?

I think Ebony Rainford-Brent should be getting her kit on! She’s been up in the changing rooms picking everyone’s bats up, so I think just give her a bat and she’ll be out there!

Favourite KSL player?

I’m going to go for my teammate Rene Farrell. The Loud Australian as we call her! She’s a really good buzz around the team and a great team player.

Justin Bieber or One Direction?

One Direction.

Which sportswoman/women do you admire outside cricket?

I play a lot of squash and there’s a woman called Nicol David, she’s won pretty much every single title in the world. She’s been number 1 for about 7 years. Just the way that she’s persevered through everything.

Favourite cricket ground?

The Oval.

Favourite thing on the menu in Nandos?

Chicken burger and chips – medium spice!

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Hopefully with an England shirt on, playing here in a World Cup final!

Where do you see women’s cricket in 10 years?

Attracting an even bigger, packed crowd at the Oval – a full house!

 

Short Thoughts: KSL Stars v Diamonds

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This was one of those games that neither team, nor any one player, really dominated; but overall the Stars came out on top because they were able to somehow eke out those few extra runs here and there which got them over the line first – Tammy Beaumont (47) made a few more runs that Hollie Armitage (43); Bryony Smith (31) made a couple more than Lauren Winfield (29); Alex Hartley (2-18) was that bit less expensive than Jenny Gunn (2-19).

Stars v Diamonds - Over by Over

The “Over by Over” graph (above) is interesting because it shows the Diamonds cruising along at a pretty steady pace throughout their innings, at a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 10 per over.

In contrast, the Stars innings was all highs and lows – three Diamonds overs (1, 10 and 18) conceded just one run apiece, whilst 3 others (2, 5 and 16) went for 15 or more.

From the Diamonds’ perspective, perhaps eliminating 2 of those 3 expensive “peaks” could well have won them the game; but to be fair only in hindsight could you have predicted that Katherine Brunt, whose first two overs had conceded just 1 and 3, would suddenly go for 17 off Bryony Smith in her third; or that Steph Butler, who had bowled 2 overs for 10 up to that point, would disappear for 15 off Tammy Beaumont in her third.

Afterwards, 18-year-old Bryony Smith, who has stepped up to the opening role for the Stars after injury ruled out the more experienced Kirstie White, spoke to CRICKETher, having scored 31 priceless runs at the top of the Stars order:

“I’ve been opening for Surrey in county Twenty20. I like to open with the powerplay – one of my strengths is to hit through the gaps; and to bat with someone like Tammy, who has obviously got a wealth of experience, is really good – every ball we’d be talking – it’s good to have someone like her down the other end.”

“We were very disappointed after Sunday [losing to the Vipers] but we’re pleased for the team to get back on the board.”

Short Thoughts: KSL Lightning v Thunder

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First up: what an impressive effort by Loughborough to get a crowd of over 500 to their first KSL game. No, it wasn’t anywhere near the biggest crowd we’ve seen so far, but the Haslegrave ground isn’t one anyone could ever stumble over by chance and it’s pretty clear that the Lightning PR efforts have paid off big-time. Good on them.

Added to that, it was by far the best atmosphere at any of the KSL games which we’ve been at so far. There was music, bunting, people sitting on the boundary, and a real holiday atmosphere – only added to by the pink deckchairs around the boundary! Plus, there was an announcer-come-compere, whose between-overs commentary was evidently designed to make the game accessible to those who might not have seen much cricket before. We admit, we were sceptical about Loughborough being awarded a franchise – not any longer!

Secondly, this was clearly the game of the Super League (so far!) This is everything the competition should be – hard-fought, edge-of-the-seat stuff. A bit of a shock result in the end but that’s no bad thing at this stage of the competition – it just serves to blow it wide open.

In terms of the cricket itself, this was clearly a batsman’s game – as Amy Satterthwaite said speaking to us after close of play, “it was a great wicket”, and the outfield was pristine. However, Lancashire Thunder did nothing today to dispel the idea that they’ve got a very long tail – no one below number 4 got into double figures. Sure, you’ll win some T20s when your top 4 do their stuff, but you’ll lose a whole heap more. It’s got to be a worry for them going forward.

From a Lightning perspective, it was baffling that Georgia Elwiss chose to bring Ellyse Perry back on to bowl the 19th over after she’d just been tonked for 15 runs in the 17th. Actually Lightning had clawed it back somewhat in overs 13-16 with Sonia Odedra particularly doing a good job to only concede 5 runs off her 1 over of the day. So why persist with Perry? She couldn’t find her length at all today. It seemed a bit captaincy-by-reputation rather than captaining based on what is in front of you.

On Lightning’s performance with the bat, the key point to stress is that Paige Scholfield and Thea Brookes made the game into a game. Lightning were 88-7 when they came together and they could easily have holed out for 10 or 15 – in which case we’d be talking about a total wipeout by Thunder. It’s pretty much what Yorkshire Diamonds did on Saturday – by the time they were 6 wickets down they looked like they’d given up; and it turned into a walkover. Players might often talk in platitudes in post-match press conferences, but when Scholfield said today: ““We always go into batting with a positive mindset; the game’s never over until the last ball” – for once, it sounded like the player really meant it!

It’s a point made all the more impressive by the fact that Scholfield admitted after close of play that her first thought on walking out to bat in front of the 500-strong crowd was: “I’m so nervous!” Brookes said that while she was feeling “pretty devastated”, “getting within 7 runs of winning in the final over was massive…I’m over the moon for what [Paige and I] have come in and done for the team.”

One final point – it’s the small things that tell you something about a person, and it didn’t go unnoticed by us that Mark Robinson made a particular point of leaving the ECB shindig taking place in the Performance Centre after the match ended to come over and shake hands and commiserate with Scholfield and Brookes. A really lovely gesture.