Kelly Shannon Castle (born 4 September 1997) is an English

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 ...

er who currently plays for, and

captains Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

and Sunrisers. She plays as an

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

, bowling right-arm

medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane *Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

and

batting Batting may refer to: * Batting (baseball), the act of attempting to hit a ball thrown by the pitcher with a baseball bat, in order to score runs * Batting (cricket), the act of defending one's wicket with the cricket bat while attempting to score ...

right-handed.

Early life

Castle was born on 4 September 1997 in

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

. She attended

Anglia Ruskin University Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is a public university in East Anglia, United Kingdom. Its origins are in the Cambridge School of Art, founded by William John Beamont in 1858. It became a university in 1992, and was renamed after John Ruskin in ...

Domestic career

Castle made her county debut in 2011, for

against

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

. She scored a duck and did not bowl. This was the only game she played in 2011, and played one more in 2012 before becoming more of a regular in the side from 2013 onwards. In 2015 she took her maiden county five-wicket haul, 5/18 against Scotland, and overall took 10 wickets at 14.80 in the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

. She was also her side's leading wicket-taker in the

2015 Women's Twenty20 Cup The 2015 Women's Twenty20 Cup, known for sponsorship reasons as the 2015 NatWest Women's Twenty20 Cup, was the 7th cricket Women's Twenty20 Cup tournament. It took place between June and August, with 38 teams taking part: 34 county teams, alongs ...

, taking 13 wickets at an average of 8.61. In 2017, Castle hit her List A high score of 47, opening the batting in a victory over

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. She was named as Essex's

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single inn ...

captain in 2018, and became captain in both formats in 2019. In the

2019 Women's Twenty20 Cup The 2019 Women's Twenty20 Cup, known for sponsorship reasons as the 2019 Vitality Women's Twenty20 Cup was the 11th cricket Women's Twenty20 Cup tournament. It took place in June, with 35 teams taking part: 33 county teams plus Scotland and Wale ...

, Castle was her side's leading wicket-taker, with 7 wickets at an average of 12.42, and hit her

high score of 48, in a win against

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

. She played six matches in the

2021 Women's Twenty20 Cup The 2021 Women's Twenty20 Cup, known for sponsorship reasons as the 2021 Vitality Women's County T20, was the 12th cricket Women's Twenty20 Cup tournament, taking place in April and May, with 36 teams taking part: 34 county teams plus Scotland ...

, scoring 42 runs and taking three wickets. In the

2022 Women's Twenty20 Cup The 2022 Women's Twenty20 Cup, known for sponsorship reasons as the 2022 Vitality Women's County T20, was the 13th edition of the Women's Twenty20 Cup, an English women's cricket Twenty20 domestic competition. It took place in April and May 20 ...

, she scored her first two half-centuries, including 75 against Suffolk, scoring 167 runs overall as well as taking four wickets. In 2020, Castle played for Sunrisers in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. She appeared in all 6 matches, scoring 85 runs at an average of 17.00 and taking one wicket. In December 2020, it was announced that Castle was one of the 41 female cricketers that had signed a full-time domestic contract. Castle was ever-present for the side in the 2021 season, and was the side's leading wicket-taker in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, with 10 wickets at an average of 21.10. She also scored her maiden List A half-century in the tournament, 52 against

Lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous release of an avera ...

. She also captained the side in the

Charlotte Edwards Cup The Charlotte Edwards Cup, initially named the Women's Regional T20, is an English women's cricket Twenty20 domestic competition organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board. The first edition of the tournament took place in 2021. The tourn ...

. Ahead of the 2022 season, Castle became the Sunrisers captain in all formats. She played eleven matches for the side that season, across the

and the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, and was the side's joint-leading wicket-taker in the Charlotte Edwards Cup, with 7 wickets at an average of 16.85. Castle was part of the

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Development Programme at Under-15 level.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Castle, Kelly 1997 births Living people Sportspeople from Southend-on-Sea Essex women cricketers Sunrisers women's cricketers