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Sports correspondent & historian with |
A big milestone in the advancement of Western Bay of Plenty women's cricket was announced last Saturday, with Bay of Plenty Women's Captain Tash Wakelin posting a century in senior men's grade competition.
Wearing the colours of Otumoetai Cadets in the WBOPCA Division Four competition encounter with Bay Blasters, Wakelin took charge of her side’s target of 182 in the forty over per side game.
Wakelin opened her side’s reply with Bay Women's keeper Amelia Harvey (23) and put on a 71 run partnership for the first wicket.
Joshua Peterson-Guy (34no) picked up the reigns after Harvey was removed, and worked hard with Tash Wakelin to deliver a winning partnership of around 120 runs.
Wakelin defied the opposition bowlers and hit a neat century before being removed just five runs short of the target.
Her 100 runs came from 87 balls and included fourteen 4's.
The first women's century in Western Bay of Plenty men’s grade cricket cemented the development of women's cricket in the region.
Two decades ago when this writer got involved in local cricket, the women's game was a fragmented union of standalone women's representative cricket, without a supporting local competition.
There was also involvement in the NZ Cricket Intermediate Schools competition and a ND Secondary Schoolgirls competition.
However, Bay of Plenty women's cricket aspirations were without an identifiable and transparent pathway.
Talented players with an eye to the future were forced to travel to such places like Hamilton and Auckland for regular competition.
A few girls scratched a pathway in playing wherever they could find a berth available, such as a college or Sunday League side.
Local contracted New Zealand Women's player Nensi Patel chased teams hard for a playing spot, and participated with real success at the annual Riverbend cricket festival in Hawke’s Bay.
The development of a women's pathway came with the appointment of a Bay of Plenty Cricket Women's Development Officer around six or seven years ago.
Rebecca Yee started to develop a new base by way of school visits and two stand-alone girls cricket festivals each season.
The Rainbow World Cup encouraged primary school teams to dress up in the colours of the rainbow and enjoy the games in a real fun environment.
Around the same time Tauranga Intermediate girls’ coach, Jake Ryan, entered his NZC Intermediate School competition team, in Western Bay of Plenty Cricket junior cricket competition on Saturday mornings.
From there, further girls sides joined the Saturday morning games competing with some success against the boys sides.
This season, there is a junior girls’ softball competition with other girls’ teams spread through the Saturday morning junior competitions.
A true advocate for girls’ and women’s cricket is Cadets Grant Manners, who has been instrumental in flying the banner of female participation in Western Bay of Plenty cricket.
A milestone moment for how far the local women's game has come, was Tash Wakelin and Amelia Harvey opening the Cadets reply against Bay Blasters, with Miah Smith also in the Cadets lineup.
