With cricket season on the horizon there is ample opportunity for female players in Parkes to take part very successfully in the sport.
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During the winter months Australia’s female cricketers participated in a terrific World Cup for women in England.
Players were well rewarded financially, especially since lucrative payments have been made available to players at the top level of the sport after the recent agreements between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers Association.
Australia has a very strong pathway available for women to play cricket professionally.
Parkes girls Maddy Spence and Miki Dunn have spent the winter months preparing their pathway to enjoying success in women’s cricket.
Back in April Maddy and Miki travelled to Wellington where they trialled for spots in the Cricket NSW Female Academy Western Squads.
As a result both girls have been travelling to Orange to participate in training sessions under the expert guidance of many high quality coaches including head coach Carolyn Sheehan, Western Zone Academy Administrator and former Australian team player Marie Cornish OAM, Andrew Litchfield, Lisa Griffith, Nick Wright, Alana Ryan and many more.
The Cricket NSW Female Academy Western Zone has an Under 18 squad, an Under 15 squad and a development squad for the younger girls.
During these training sessions Maddy and Miki have been able to meet many other female cricketers while learning lots of new skills along the way.
They have been learning about their fitness and strength as well as learning how to improve their batting, bowling and fielding.
Head coach Carolyn Sheehan of Mudgee stated that Parkes has provided some terrific female cricketers such as Keegan Tucker, Teagan Clarke and Lyndal Matthews.
Maddy and Miki recently spent the weekend in Penrith taking part in skills sessions and games with girls from the Penrith Cricket Club.
They were very fortunate to have three current NSW Lendlease Breakers – Lisa Griffith, Mikayla Hinkley and Naomi Stalenberg – on hand to help and to answer lots of questions.
Both girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Miki, as part of the Under 18’s squad will head to Raymond Terrace later this year to take part in the Country Cup Tournament.
Maddy will represent in the Western PSSA Girls Cricket team at the NSW PSSA Girls Cricket State Carnival at Maitland in October/November.
This will be her second year as a member of this team.
Parkes and District Junior Cricket Association invite all girls to follow in the footsteps of Maddy and Miki by registering to play cricket.
It was great to note towards the end of the 2016/17 season that a good number of Parkes High School girls participated very successfully in Parkes junior cricket.
Players such as Jacqui and Abigail Simpson, Alice Maier and Bailey Jones showed plenty of skill and a terrific attitude whilst being involved in the wonderful game of cricket.
