The Cheshire Women's cricket team is the women's representative

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

team for the English historic county of Cheshire. They joined the

Women's County Championship The Women's County Championship, known since 2014 as the Royal London Women’s One-Day Cup,Women's Twenty20 Cup between 2009 and 2019. The team no longer competes at senior county level. They are partnered with the regional side North West Thunder.

History

1930–1937: Early History

The first recorded match involving Cheshire Women took place in 1930, which they lost to Durham Women. After this, they played various one-off matches, often combined with neighbouring

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

, as Lancashire and Cheshire, under which they competed in the

Women's Area Championship The Women's Area Championship was a women's cricket competition organised by the Women's Cricket Association that ran from 1980 until 1996. It operated as a 55-over limited overs cricket competition, with teams organised into a number of groups, ...

and the first

Women's County Championship The Women's County Championship, known since 2014 as the Royal London Women’s One-Day Cup,1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

1998– : National Competition

Cheshire Women joined the County Championship in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, replacing Lancashire and Cheshire Women, and won Division 3 in their first season. Since then, Cheshire bounced between Divisions 2 and 3, with their longest stay in Division 2 being between 2009 and

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

. They also managed two successive promotions in 2004 and 2005. Cheshire Women withdrew from the County Championship after the 2016 season, after which they only participated in the Women's Twenty20 Cup, in which they were often in the lowest tier of the competition, but did win promotion to Division 2 in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

. Since 2019, Cheshire have not competed at senior county level.

Players

Notable players

Players who have played for Cheshire and played internationally are listed below, in order of first international appearance (given in brackets): * Laura Newton (1997) * Sarah Collyer (1998) * Megan White (1999) *

Zehmarad Afzal Zehmarad Afzal (born 24 October 1977) is a Pakistani former cricketer who played as an all-rounder, batting right-handed and bowling right-arm medium-fast Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bow ...

(2000) * Lauren Griffiths (2010) *

Sophie Ecclestone Sophie Ecclestone (born 6 May 1999) is an English cricketer who plays for Lancashire, North West Thunder, Manchester Originals, Sydney Sixers and England. In December 2018, the International Cricket Council (ICC) named her the Emerging Player ...

(2016)

Seasons

Women's County Championship

Women's Twenty20 Cup

References

{{Cheshire CCC Cricket in Cheshire Women's cricket teams in England Cheshire County Cricket Club