Charlotte Michelle Taylor (born 2 February 1994) is an English cricketer who plays for

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

and

Southern Vipers The Southern Vipers are a women's cricket team that represent the South of England. The Vipers wear an orange and black kit and play their home matches at the Ageas Bowl and the County Cricket Ground, Hove. They are currently coached by former ...

, and has previously played for

Southern Brave Southern Brave is a franchise 100-ball cricket side based in the city of Southampton. The team represents the historic counties of Hampshire and Sussex in the newly founded The Hundred competition, which took place for the first time during ...

. Taylor is an

off spin Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right arm, right-handed spin bowling, spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal Delivery (cr ...

bowler, and was the top wicket taker at the

2020 Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy The 2020 Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy was the first edition of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, an English women's cricket domestic competition, which took place between 29 August and 27 September 2020. It featured eight teams in two groups, an ...

Personal life

Taylor is from

New Milton New Milton is a market town in southwest Hampshire, England. To the north is in the New Forest and to the south the coast at Barton-on-Sea. The town is equidistant between Lymington and Christchurch, 6 miles (10 km) away. History Ne ...

, England, and went to The Arnewood School. She now lives in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, near to the Rose Bowl cricket ground, and works in customer services for an

aerospace company An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology industry. ...

. Her uncle

Neil Neil is a masculine name of Gaelic and Irish origin. The name is an anglicisation of the Irish ''Niall'' which is of disputed derivation. The Irish name may be derived from words meaning "cloud", "passionate", "victory", "honour" or "champion".. A ...

played

minor counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

cricket, and her father is the current chairman of New Milton Cricket Club. Both of them have played club cricket for New Milton Cricket Club.

Career

Taylor started playing cricket for

under-9s, and later joined

Hursley Hursley is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England with a population of around 900 in 2011. It is located roughly midway between Romsey and Winchester on the A3090. Besides the village the parish includes the hamlets of Standon and ...

Ladies cricket team. In 2010, she started playing for

as a batter. In 2015, Taylor was part of the Hampshire side that were promoted from Division 3 to Division 2 of the

Women's County Championship The Women's County Championship, known since 2014 as the Royal London Women’s One-Day Cup,Fernhill Cricket Club, taking 15 wickets in the season. In 2017, Taylor suffered a

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in a toy Jacob's la ...

tear, which meant she was unable to play for two years. After her injury, Taylor focused on her bowling. She is now an

ner who bowls mainly

arm ball In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between the ...

s. In 2020, Taylor was called up to the

squad for the

Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy The Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy is an English women's cricket domestic competition, named after former England captain Rachael Heyhoe Flint, Baroness Heyhoe-Flint, who died in 2017. The first edition of the tournament took place during August ...

, as an injury replacement. After testing negative for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Taylor was initially asked to commentate for

BBC Radio Solent BBC Radio Solent is the BBC's local radio station serving Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on Havelock Road in Southampton. According to RAJAR, the station has a ...

on the Vipers match against the

South East Stars South East Stars are a women's cricket team that represent the London & South East region, one of eight regional hubs in English domestic women's cricket. They play their home matches at various grounds, including the County Cricket Ground, Beck ...

. Instead, Taylor was selected to play in the match, where she took 2/13 from seven overs. In a later match against

Western Storm Western Storm are a women's cricket team representing South West England and Wales, one of eight regional hubs in English domestic cricket. They play their home matches at the County Ground, Taunton, the County Ground, Bristol and Sophia Gardens ...

, she took 4/41. In the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy final against

Northern Diamonds Northern Diamonds are a women's cricket team that represent the traditional areas of the North East and Yorkshire, one of eight regional hubs in English domestic women's cricket. They play their home matches at Headingley, the Riverside, Rose ...

, Taylor took 6 wickets for 34 runs, as Vipers won the match and the tournament. She was awarded the player of the match award in the final, and her bowling figures were the best of any player in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. In total, Taylor played five matches in the competition, taking 15 wickets, more than any other player. Her

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

was just above 10, and her

strike rate Strike rate refers to two different statistics in the sport of cricket. Batting strike rate is a measure of how quickly a batter achieves the primary goal of batting, namely scoring runs, measured in runs per 100 balls; higher is better. Bowling ...

was 18 balls per wicket. Taylor was included in the Vipers squad for the 2021 season, and was signed by

for the inaugural season of The Hundred. She played for them in three matches but only managed to get one wicket. In the

2021 Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy The 2021 Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy was the second edition of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, an English women's cricket 50-over domestic competition, which took place between 29 May and 25 September 2021. It featured eight teams playing in ...

, she took 13 wickets, the most of any Vipers player, at an average of 18.15. She took 9 wickets for Southern Vipers in the

2022 Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy The 2022 Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy was the third edition of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, an English women's cricket 50-over domestic competition, which took place between 2 July and 25 September 2022. It featured eight teams playing in ...

, at an average of 30.33. In April 2023, it was announced that Taylor had signed a six-month professional contract for the first time with Southern Vipers. She played one match for the side in 2023.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Charlotte 1994 births Living people Hampshire women cricketers People from New Milton Southern Vipers cricketers Southern Brave cricketers Cricketers from Hampshire