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Jersey Women’s cricket team will be travelling to Nantes today to compete against France, Austria and Norway in a European tournament, in what will be the first major 'away' competition for most of the players.
The team will be competing in the European T20I Women’s Cricket Tournament, the results of which will be included in the T20I women’s rankings.
Hosted by France Cricket at the cricket ground of Parc du Grand-Blottereau in Nantes, the tournament will begin on Wednesday and continue until Saturday.
This is the first time in three years that Jersey is taking part in the tournament, although the island previously participated in eight or nine competitions.
Pictured: The tournament will take place in Parc du Grand-Blottereau in Nantes.
Jersey’s absence over the last few years was due to a major overhaul in the team. “We lost all our ladies, so we had to rebuild the team from scratch,” Rose Hill, the team’s captain said. “Most of the new ones have been with us for three or four years.”
Rose explained that one of the difficulties in finding new recruits is that they have to give up a lot of their time to play. “Cricket takes up a lot of time, it sometimes takes three hours or four hours to play. It’s not a sport where you just go off for an hour to play. It takes quite a lot of time if you have families or another sport.
"They are gone most of the afternoon or the morning when we play.”
Pictured: The poster for the tournament.
Luckily over the past three years, the women’s team has been able to find some new players, and the new team will be travelling to Nantes today. While the team has been practising since October last year for the tournament, some of the players are a bit anxious about the tournament, especially since they will be playing against ladies, aged from 20 to 50.
“They are a little bit nervous because some of them are young. It’s a big experience because they are young,” Mrs Hill said. “Our youngest is 10, we have two 10-year- olds and the oldest is 51."
Pictured: The youngest players on the team are aged just 10.
“There’s a big age gap but they are quite capable,” Mrs Hill adds. “We wouldn’t be sending them if we didn’t think they were capable. They will be playing against ladies, but we have been playing against boys to prepare.”
“You can mix the ages in cricket because it’s not physical. You are not going against each other physically. The younger ones are protected they are not going to get hit.”
For some of the youngest players, this will be the first time they take part in a major competition, but also the first time they are away from home and their families. “They are very excited but also quite nervous,” Mrs Hill says.
Pictured: "We are very much one unit," Captain Rose Hill said.
Luckily, they will be able to count on the other players, who will be taking them under their wing, as well as Mrs Hill. “We are a team and we look after each other, we are very much one unit,” the captain said. “They call me Mother Hen. I have two children but when I’m away I have 15 children. I have lots of responsibility, I make sure they enjoy it, that they do their best and that they are happy.”
The team will catch the ferry to St. Malo this morning before reaching Nantes by coach. This afternoon they will have a practice session ahead of their first game tomorrow morning at 10:00 against France. They will play each of the other teams twice, making a total of six games between Wednesday and Saturday.
Pictured: The team's first game in the tournament will be against France.
The team taking part in the tournament will include:
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