The BBC have today confirmed to CRICKETher that they are committed to providing ball-by-ball coverage of the inaugural Women’s Cricket Super League, due to take place this August.

TMS producer Adam Mountford has told CRICKETher that the BBC are currently in negotiations with the ECB regarding the precise number of matches which will be broadcast, with exact details to be provided in due course.

The BBC have in recent years shown a broad commitment to showcasing the women’s game, with coverage of every ball of the last four women’s Ashes series, and being the only UK news organisation to have provided coverage of the last three women’s World Cups.

With Sky having not yet committed to showing any of the tournament, this makes the BBC the first confirmed Super League broadcaster – undoubtedly very welcome news indeed.

The ECB has announced a squad of 15 England Academy players who will be travelling to Sri Lanka to play in a tri-series against Australia’s Shooting Stars and the Sri Lanka ‘A’ side later this month.

The squad is as follows:

• Georgia Adams (Sussex)
• Holly Armitage (Yorkshire)
• Stephanie Butler (Staffordshire)
• Kate Cross (Lancashire)
• Freya Davies (Sussex)
• Sophia Dunkley (Middlesex)
• Sophie Ecclestone (Lancashire)
• Alex Hartley (Middlesex)
• Evelyn Jones (Staffordshire)
• Emma Lamb (Lancashire)
• Beth Langston (Essex)
• Sophie Luff (Somerset)
• Alex MacDonald (Yorkshire)
• Ellie Threlkeld (Lancashire)
• Fran Wilson (Middlesex)

Middlesex are well-represented, with batsman Sophia Dunkley, spinner Alex Hartley and the newly-contracted Fran Wilson – who may consider herself unlucky to have missed out on a place in the World Twenty20 squad – all included.

Kate Cross, who the ECB clearly do not see as a Twenty20 bowler and who will not feature in the forthcoming WWT20, is the other contracted player to appear on the squad list. Meanwhile both Lauren Winfield and Laura Marsh will be staying home in England, with the selectors evidently feeling that it might be time to blood some fresh talent.

The Academy team are scheduled to play in six 50-over matches and one Twenty20 while in Sri Lanka. They will be accompanied by new assistant coaches, former England and Sussex seamer James Kirtley and ex-Leicestershire batsman Tim Boon.

Here at CRICKETher, we’re passionate about women’s cricket at all levels, including club cricket. It’s our mission to offer coverage of women’s (and girls’) club cricket wherever we can! Our ‘Club of the Month’ feature will focus on one women’s or girls’ club every month, giving you the lowdown on their highs, lows, and everything in between.

If you’d like to see your club featured here, get in touch – we’d love to hear from you!

Catford Wanderers was originally formed as the women’s section of Blackheath Cricket Club in 2004, but moved across to join the Catford Wanderers club in 2012. The move came about because of Catford’s frustration at the lack of matches which they got to play on Blackheath’s main ground. Current club member Sarah Berman recalls that “in 2010 we played every home game on a different field which got quite frustrating”. In 2011 Blackheath struck a deal with Catford Wanderers for the women to play all their home games there and “after seeing the level of interest, support and commitment to us amongst the guys there, we decided to move to Catford permanently.”

They now play at Catford Wanderers Sports Club, which has good facilities: a really good square, a clubhouse with a cheap bar, and decent nets. A couple of years ago the club invested in new covers, which Sarah says has made a massive difference. They play in the Women’s Cricket Southern League, and last season won the 40-over part of their division. This season they are moving to a new, tougher division and are hoping to hold their own.

Former Kent captain Evette “Swoop” Burton is one of their star players, and Catford is also the former home club of ECB Women’s Media Manager Beth Barrett-Wild (formerly of Essex), who opened the batting for them in the 2013 and 2014 seasons. They are working on increasing their junior representation, and the club’s junior chairman does a lot of work with local schools with the aim of bringing more boys and girls through into the sport.

One thing that becomes obvious, talking to Sarah, is that the club love their nicknames! Current captain, Kiwi Greer Hill, is known as Judderbar (the word that New Zealanders use for speed bump). Sarah herself is known as Gibraltar, or “Gib” for short, due – in her own words – to her “rock-like batting”!

They are also a tight-knit bunch, and often meet up to watch cricket together and for socials out of season. As Sarah puts it, “friendship and enjoyment (on and off the pitch) is the core thing about the team.”

2015 awards night. Photo credit: Laura Daniels

Happy club memories include their Holland tour in 2009, in which “any time that wasn’t spent on the pitch was spent in a bar”, and the time in 2013 against Bishop’s Stortford when Jimmy Anderson turned up to open their new pavilion and ended up as a spectator! Cricketing-wise, the highlight to date was bowling out Stoke d’Abernon for 81 back in 2009, thus beating a team stacked with Surrey U17s including a certain Nat Sciver.

Shout-outs are due to scorer Chris – the mum of team stalwart Jemma – and the team mascot Cricket Sheep (who you can follow on twitter @cricketsheep!), as well as the team’s admin queen and umpire Yvann.

Club mascot Cricket Sheep. Photo credit: Laura Daniels

Sarah says that new players of all standards are very very welcome. Contact Yvann by email here or on 07890 269959 to find out more. The club also have a facebook page which you can visit at:

facebook.com/CatfordWanderersWomensCricket.

The ECB has confirmed that Katherine Brunt, who left the field during the second ODI against South Africa on Friday after suffering from a back spasm, will be returning to the UK and will play no further part in England’s tour of South Africa.

She will be replaced by Tash Farrant, who will fly out with Nat Sciver to join the rest of the squad prior to the three-match T20 series, which begins on 18th February.

Brunt will undergo further investigation and a rehabilitation programme while in the UK. This is not the first time her back has caused her problems – she underwent surgery in March 2014, having missed the back half of the women’s Ashes tour after sustaining a potentially career-ending injury out in Australia – but nonetheless she is expected to be back in action for the start of the World Twenty20 in India next month.

England will certainly be hoping she is back to peak fitness by then, but for now, that elusive 100th ODI wicket will have to wait a while longer.

The ECB has today announced the five venues where the 2017 World Cup will take place: Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Somerset, Gloucestershire and Lords.

The tournament will begin on June 26 and, as in 1993 – the last time the tournament was staged in England – the final will take place at Lords.

Of the five venues selected, all have previously hosted women’s internationals, with Grace Road the site of the first India-England Test in the 2006 series; they are also scheduled to host Pakistan this summer. Both Somerset and Gloucestershire staged successful televised one-day games last summer as part of the women’s Ashes series, each attracting several thousand spectators.

It is all in marked contrast to the 1993 tournament, when none of the matches bar the final were staged at county grounds, with players at times forced to roll the wickets themselves.

Of the six successful Women’s Cricket Super League bids, all bar one are located at county cricket clubs – the exception being Loughborough University. How will hosting a Super League team at a non-county venue work in practice? CRICKETher spoke to Jo Emmett, the leader of Loughborough University’s successful bid, to find out more about the details.

Emmett confirmed that – despite the ECB’s initial consideration that the Loughborough University ground would not be suitable for WCSL matches – they are intending to host their WCSL games at the university ground. “Every season Loughborough MCCU hosts First Class cricket against county opposition and in 2013 the University hosted women’s international cricket when England last took on Pakistan,” Emmett told CRICKETher. “A comprehensive facilities outline was included within our bid, and as such we don’t envisage there being any issues with the ground being used to play WCSL cricket this summer.”

Clearly the ECB were impressed with Loughborough’s bid; Emmett sees this as attributable to their “strong background in delivering performance sport programmes”, as well as the “holistic environment” Loughborough offers, in which athletes from a variety of sports train alongside each other in top-quality gym facilities.

Loughborough’s successful bid might also have had something to do with their involvement in the flourishing Netball Superleague (the elite domestic netball competition in England and Wales). The Loughborough Lightning netball team was set up over a decade ago, and has seen ticket sales and fan engagement grow year on year. Emmett revealed that those marketing the WCSL team will draw on this experience, which she considers to be “invaluable for us for setting up a new fan base as a WCSL host.”

It is interesting that Loughborough clearly intend their WCSL team to be fully integrated with their current university women’s cricket programme, with Emmett labelling the Super League squad as “the pinnacle of our development system, comprising students, national and international players who have trained together throughout the whole year where possible.” The intention, Emmett told CRICKETher, “is for a seamless player development environment… Our philosophy is based on running one women’s cricket development programme”.

Emmett confirmed that Loughborough are currently looking to work with a variety of local partners going forward, now that their bid has been successful. In particular, CRICKETher can reveal that their bid was supported by Leicester City Council, Leicestershire County Council and Leicester-Shire and Rutland Sport (the County Sport Partnership for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland) – and that they are now in talks with Leicestershire County Cricket Club regarding closer collaboration.

Loughborough’s current detailed marketing plan, submitted as part of their bid, will target students, staff and the wider local community – but Emmett also was keen to stress to CRICKETher that Loughborough’s status as the only Midlands-based Super League team means that they are also now looking to make contact with counties, clubs and cricket boards across the region, and to ensure that all cricket fans in the region “are aware of the opportunities to watch WCSL matches at Loughborough… We are very proud to be representing the Midlands.”

As for what Loughborough might choose to name their WCSL team, that is sadly to remain under wraps for now – but do watch this space!

The ECB has today announced the six hosts selected to compete in the inaugural Women’s Cricket Super League this summer. The hosts are as follows:

• Hampshire Cricket (in conjunction with Berkshire, Dorset, the Isle of Wight, Oxfordshire, Sussex, Wiltshire and Southampton Solent University)
• Lancashire County Cricket Board
• Loughborough University 
• South West (in conjunction with Somerset, Gloucestershire and the University of Exeter)
• Surrey County Cricket Club
• Yorkshire County Cricket Club

 All six teams have been awarded hosting rights until the end of the 2019 season.

The big surprise is the omission of Middlesex, who submitted a bid in conjunction with the MCC, but were ultimately unsuccessful. It is likely that the ECB felt that having two London-based teams was simply not feasible.

Another interesting inclusion is Loughborough University. Despite the fact that the ECB’s National Performance Centre is based on site, the ECB has previously stated that grounds would need to meet a certain minimum standard in order to host WCSL games, and Clare Connor stated back at the original launch event last June that Loughborough’s on-site pitch was unlikely to meet the required standards.

The Super League will run from Saturday 30th July to Sunday 14th August, with the date of the final – along with team names for the six successful hosts – still TBC.

The sad death of Jimmy Hill, described by the BBC as “one of English football’s most influential figures”, was announced today.

Hill will no doubt be remembered for his football punditry, especially on Match of the Day, as well as his reign as chairman of the Professional Footballers’ Association.

Not many will remember him for his relationship with women’s cricket. But I will.

Hill was born in 1928 in Balham. In one interview in 1985, he recalled his days growing up in the 1930s in south London:

“We were a cricketing family. My father often took me to see Fulham. My stepbrother, Wally, played football and cricket… My step-sister, Irene, played cricket for England. They were quite a bit older than me and they dragged me around to watch them.

The first time I went on a train was when Wally took me to see the Redoubtables play cricket at Beddington. It was only three stops down the line but to me going on a train was as exciting as today’s kids would feel about travelling on Concorde.”

Irene Panton never actually played a Test for England, but she certainly played at the highest level in the early organised years of the sport – the Women’s Cricket Association was set up in 1926, five years after Irene’s club, Redoubtables, formed. Sadly she was killed in a motorcycle accident in the late 1930s.

When I heard the news of Hill’s death, it took me back to the time several years ago when, going through the archives of the Surrey-based women’s club Redoubtables WCC as part of my PhD – the club still exists, and now play at Purley CC – I stumbled upon the most amazing series of correspondence between Molly Gilbert, then club secretary, and Hill himself:

October, 1985:

“Dear Mr Hill,

I was so delighted and surprised to read your ‘potted’ autobiography in the ‘Roots’ article in the Sunday Express Magazine. It was great to think that you remembered our Club name and were kind enough to mention it. We are still a club of keen players…When you came with Irene I was Match Secretary. I remember her so well, she was a lovely girl and a great player. Her early death was such a tragedy…

I also remember her friend Joyce Wawman… ‘Panton’ and ‘Wawman’ used to bring a small boy to our matches who may have been the brother of either of them, ie you.

I have a small snapshot of some of our members at that time accompanied by a small boy (Irene Panton is in the picture). We would be most interested to find out if we have a famous portrait or not. I think Irene and Joyce joined us in 1932 and we have five ‘old girls’ still interested in the Club, one as President (Miss S Swinburne OBE for Services to Women’s Cricket), two as vice-presidents, myself as Secretary (since 1935!!) and one other and we all remember Irene well.”

December, 1985:

“Dear Molly,

Thank you for your letter following ‘Roots’. Forgive my late reply… I’m certain I was the young boy in the photograph. Joyce Wawman was a kind of cousin who lived with us and who continued to take me around even after Irene’s death.

I remember your name well and Sylvia Swinburne too… Thank you for writing and do have a very happy new year.

Your sincerely, Jimmy (Hill).”

January, 1986:

“Dear Mr Hill,

Thank you so much for your letter… the Women’s Cricket Association is 60 years old this year and they are arranging a celebration match between two teams made up of first class players from all over the country. The match to take place at Bramley Cricket Club on Sunday 8^th June, afternoon… We are hoping to have several famous people at the match (to draw the crowds) and I do hope you still have enough love of the game to come along and meet present day players. If you can possibly spare the time, we should all be delighted to meet you.”

February, 1986:

“Molly,

I’m afraid I shall be in Mexico in the World Cup on June 8^th, otherwise I would have been delighted to have come along. Perhaps there will be an opportunity on another occasion. Do please keep me informed if there is another match that I might attend after August.”

Sadly the correspondence ended there. I like to think that perhaps Hill did, though, attend another Redoubtables match or two after his trip down memory lane.

So there you have it. Jimmy Hill, 1928-2015: football pundit, player, chairman, manager and analyser…and friend of women’s cricket.