Sophie & Emily

Emily Edgcombe of St Erme Cricket Club, has just received the exciting news that she has been selected to join Wadebridge’s Sophie Mackenzie on the England Women’s Development Programme (EWDP).  This is a group of the best nineteen Under 19 female cricketers in England and Wales – and Cornwall has two of those players!  Sophie and Emily are both just 16 and so, potentially, have the opportunity to be involved at this level for three years.  Indeed, Sophie was also selected last year and previously took part in the EWDP Under 15 Programme.  Sophie is now a Sixth Former at Bodmin College, whereas Emily has moved on from Penair School to begin student life at Truro College, where part of her time is spent on the Cricket Academy.  Both girls have played cricket this season for the successful Cornwall Under 17 Girls’ team and in the Women’s County Championship.  They are also members of the Cornwall Cricket Board’s Emerging Player Programme (EPP) and play together for Wadebridge Ladies.  The months ahead will now be extremely busy for the two friends as, additionally, they will be touring South Africa with the Cornwall U17s in February, the first overseas tour by a female county squad.

The talented pair have both been playing cricket for around eight years.  Sophie has represented Wadebridge men’s 2^nd XI for three seasons.  She is a hard-hitting batsman who hit a century and two scores in the nineties in five innings for Cornwall U17s in July and August, an almost faultless fielder and very handy medium-quick bowler.  Emily opens the bowling for St Erme second team and helped them to the Cornwall Division Five title a few weeks ago.  Her left-arm medium pace swing bowling has proved highly economical at all levels and she is another hard hitter with the bat.

The England Women’s Development Programme is delivered by high quality coaches and sport science and medicine specialists.  Girls in the England Performance groups will receive an individualised programme aimed at developing them as individuals across all areas of their game.  Winter training will include an initial Induction/Screening Camp, followed by a series of three-day development camps at the National Cricket Performance Centre at Loughborough University.  The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced three squads in all, the England Women’s Performance Squad (i.e. the senior England team), England Women’s Academy (EWA) and the EWDP.  In all, the three squads will feature 54 players this winter, ranging from England women’s captain, Charlotte Edwards, to Surrey’s fifteen-year-old Rihanna Southby, the youngest member of EWDP.  Training for all three squads will commence in October.

Our girls have put themselves in the shop window at an exciting time for women’s cricket in England as, from next season, the best players in the country and a number of overseas stars will be chosen to make up six “franchise” squads to compete in a new “Women’s Cricket Super League”.  This will start in the summer of 2016 and during its first season will be comprised solely of T20 cricket.  From 2017 onwards the structure will develop to both T20 and 50-over formats.  Beneath this, it is hoped that there will continue to be a very competitive senior county competition

ECB Website Full Details