An Introduction: Leather on Willow

To say that my life has been taken over by cricket over the last year is probably an understatement. 

My interest in cricket began in primary school, because, as is the case with so many others, my older brother enjoyed it. From age seven through to age ten, I was the only girl on the Kwik Cricket team, which was great as I was always on the First team - they needed at least one girl in order to compete. It should be said that I was in no way good at it; when I look at videos of myself now, my technique was unusual (to say the absolute least) and not impressive or successful in any way, shape or form. The boys on the team all had weekend cricket teams to further their love for the game, but I believed (and still believe - I was shocking) that I wasn't good enough for that. However, I loved it, and that was the main thing.

 

On joining secondary school, I knew that I wanted to continue with the cricket. However, this was a whole new world. We were abandoning Kwik Cricket for real cricket, and it was now being called the ‘boys’’ team. I distinctly remember going to the Head of P.E. and complaining that there wasn’t a girls’ team; I was told that I was welcome to join the boys’ team, so I did. What I didn’t account for was a) the attitudes from pre-pubescent boys ‘not wanting to play with a girl’, or b) the crippling blow to my confidence when I realised I didn’t actually know how to play real cricket, unlike my peers. The first match came around against a nearby private school: I vaguely remember walking out to bat and the opposing team saying “This should be easy.” I was determined to prove them wrong. So, of course, I played onto my stumps first ball and was out for a duck. I never returned to that team, and I didn’t think about cricket for a very long time. 

 

That wasn’t to say I disregarded it completely, but it definitely went on the back burner for a while. If there was a match on TV, I would sit through parts. I remember watching Sir Alastair Cook’s last test innings in 2018 and feeling sad. Growing up in a family that liked cricket, Cook’s name, along with the names of many other greats – Trescothick, Strauss, Vaughan – felt like familiar friends in my house. However, I was in no way as invested in it as I once was. All until 2019.

 

As a recent graduate living in Bristol with my parents, saving up for my eventual master’s degree, I found myself obsessing over my job with no real social life. On the 18^th April 2019 my Dad was dropping me into work and said “I was hoping your brother would go down to Taunton with me tomorrow, but he’s busy.” I thought for a moment and said “Well, I’m not doing anything tomorrow Dad. I could go down with you.” He wasn’t sure that I would have a good time; Mum was adamant that I would fall asleep. But the weather forecast was good – unusually warm for April, thanks to climate change – and I thought that I could always just sit drinking cider if I really didn’t like it.

 

It’s safe to say that I was hooked. It was Somerset’s first Royal London One-Day Cup match of the year versus the Kent Spitfires on Good Friday, and it was a sell-out. I saw Tom Banton get his maiden List A century, with an eventual score of 107, with some excellent batting contributions from Craig Overton with 66 and Lewis Gregory with 51. Somerset racked up 358-9, and it was then over to our incredible bowling unit. Reader, we demolished Kent. Craig Overton took his best List A bowling figures with 5-18, finishing Kent off for a measly 94 runs. From that moment on, a cricket fangirl was born.

 

Over the 2019 season I attended 11 Somerset matches – not bad for someone that lives almost 50 miles away from our ground. I was there when Somerset won the RLODC trophy at Lord’s, and I was there when our County Championship hopes were dashed by the late-September rainfall. It was also, of course the year of England’s triumphant Cricket World Cup campaign. I sadly wasn’t there, but I did obsessively watch every match. My return to cricket could not have happened at a better time.

 

Cricket filled a hole in my life that I didn’t really even realise was there. When I picture joy, I picture a sunny day at the Cooper Associates County Ground: the cider, the wickets, the shouting of the infamous Tractor, and the sound of leather on willow. When this pandemic is over, I would like to think that I would be the first spectator back at the ground (who knows with the trains from Bristol). Until then, win or lose, rain or shine, I will sit waiting, watching and listening to the cricket.

Above: me and Dad at the Cooper Associates County Ground for the Somerset vs. Hampshire match in 2019's Vitality Blast.