Scotland Women’s U17s 2010 Programme

The 2010 fixture programme for Scotland’s Women’s U17s has been announced and sees the Wildcats-in-waiting pit their skills against familiar foes in the ECB's Women’s U17s County Championships North Division.

Whilst there is no European action for the U17s in 2010, the programme still offers challenges. The opportunity is there, too, to progress to the ECB County Championship knock-out stages, once having achieved the small matter of overcoming the might of Lancashire and Yorkshire (twice each) in the group stage!

The ECB U17s North Division comprises Cumbria, Durham, Lancashire, Scotland and Yorkshire. Each will play the others twice, with the winners of the division progressing to the Quarter-Finals of the knock-out stages. The runners-up in the division might also progress to the next stage of the competition, provided that their record betters the runners-up in four of the five other U17s Divisions.

In 2009, Scotland did more than acquit themselves well; they provided an upset early on against Durham, beat Cumbria twice and narrowly lost to eventual Divisional winners Yorkshire in one of those nail-biters that could easily have gone the other way.

The squad was capably led by West of Scotland all-rounder Lynne Dickson and saw some exceptional performances... most notably from Leigh Kasperek (now too old!), Lois Wilkinson, Nadia Wheeler and Lorna Jack, all of whom also stepped up to the senior team as well in 2009.

Leigh notched-up three half-centuries in her final tally of 274 runs, at an average of 68.5, to add to opening the bowling. Lois’s finest moment was her 6-10 in the U17s European Championship, but she also opened the batting, picked up 16 wickets at 13.88, and chipped in a wee bit as vice-captain.

Nadia’s return of 13 wickets (average 14) could have been so many more, but she took wickets at crucial times throughout the summer to become her skipper's ‘turn-to’ bowler. Lorna Jack’s keeping was a highlight of an extraordinary summer for the U17s. With quick hands allied to a quick brain, she was the ideal support for all bowlers and skipper alike. Add to that a belligerent batting style that takes no prisoners and Scotland’s pocket battleship is a female Adam Gilchrist in the making.

The nucleus of the 2009 squad is still there with some new faces emerging from the U15s. So, with more and more girls playing cricket across Scotland, the U17s fixture programme provides opportunities for new faces to break into the squad.

Kari Anderson, U17s head coach, said: “The U17s have really developed over the last two years into a strong team unit and results on the park prove that all their hard work is starting to pay off.  Of course they aren’t the finished article yet, but their progression leaves women’s cricket in Scotland in an exciting position... thanks to Lea Tsui's appointment we have developed a strong sustainable structure!

“If we can keep bringing in new girls to the squad and develop them, then I can see no reason why the girls won’t continue to compete against the English county teams.”

Full U17s fixture programme for 2010 can be seen here.