Women's cricket rep side prepares for historic match

Marlborough cricket will break new ground on Sunday.

For the first time in the province’s 128-year history, a Marlborough senior women’s team will play a fully-fledged representative fixture.

The opposition, fittingly, are Nelson with the 40-over white ball match scheduled for an 11am start on the Horton Park No1 wicket.

Momentum has been growing in recent seasons for the formation of a women’s representative team, with the Wednesday evening social league rapidly growing in popularity, alongside the various women’s social tournaments.

Eden Pettigrew, the Marlborough Cricket Association’s community cricket development manager, is one of the driving forces behind both the social league and the rep team. She said numbers had rapidly escalated in the social league, with 10 teams now taking part in the 12-over matches. Four rounds were played before Christmas, with four more planned over the next two months.

“It has proved really popular,” said Eden, “we are getting new teams wanting to become involved every few weeks.”

The resulting upsurge in interest has meant there has been no shortage of players willing to give rep cricket a try.

“We have had quite a lot of players [in the social grade] who are keen to take [the game] more seriously,” explained Eden.

Eden and co-coach Wade Cornelius, a former first-class player, had good numbers to choose from when they decided on a playing 12 for this ground-breaking match.

A large rep squad has been training once a week for the past eight weeks and, according to Eden, can’t wait to hit the park.

The Marlborough team to play Nelson is: Eden Pettigrew (capt), Nadine Rarity, Caroline Aberhart, Jody Klempel, Carly Englefield, Maddy Winstanley, Stella Cornelius, Lisa Gregg, Simone Zillwood, Anna Morris, Sarah McFadden, Courtney Bowen.

Several of the team have played club or rep cricket before, while some will step up straight from social grade, against what shapes to be a young, but handy Nelson combination. Leading the way for the “Nelson Nixons” will be the Gaging twins, Anna and Kate, who have both represented the Central Districts Hinds.

The reps have two more fixtures pencilled in. On February 19 they travel to Cheviot to play a Christchurch club side, then, on March 6, they venture across the hill for a return fixture with Nelson.

Eden views this season as a “building phase”, getting players used to hard ball cricket and taking small steps towards forming a competitive rep unit.

“The social scene has been growing and growing so we need to find a place for those who want to play more [higher level] cricket.

“This is a good, sustainable player base because they are mostly all adults who are settled here, so we can only grow from here.”

The Marlborough team’s major backer is the Churchill Private Hospital Trust, who sponsor women’s cricket in the region.