International Women's Day 2021: "It's never too late for anything!"
Although I have always cycled, it hasn’t always been my focus or main sport. Many team sports has kept me entertained and fit most of my life. Cricket was as far off my radar as it could be, which annoyed my husband, as I took an interest in most other sports, but cricket - urgh… no. It took forever to play, was slow, too traditional, and those ‘barmy army’ Union-Jack cladded men just turned me off. I argued in the pub one night when hubby was glued to the sports screen watching the LAST ball of the 5 DAY MATCH (!) which ended in a DRAW!! What a waste of time I said, why? That was then….
15 years on and we had just arrived in Edinburgh, after living in Hong Kong for 12 years and we were out for a family stroll to familiarize ourselves with the area. We heard that beautifully familiar ‘thwack’ of cricket ball on bat, poked our head through the gate, and couldn’t believe it. Not only a cricket ground but a cricket ground with Arthur’s Seat behind the boundary! Living in Asia does weird things to you. When I saw this green grassed expansive area, it was like a postcard. Surely nobody is allowed to play on this perfect pitch? For years, we played sport on artificial turf or concrete but now I remembered the lush, fresh grass playing fields! We went in.
We joined up as a family membership there and then, had a glass of wine, watched the 1st team, and I had my first women’s cricket nets the week after. Borrowing pads and having no idea what I was doing, I was hooked!
Everyone is so welcoming and I love playing for the women’s team. The team make-up is quite unique - Scottish Internationalists, upcoming youth players and us ‘oldies’. There are a few of us mums who are hooked so we called ourselves ‘The Old Bats’.
Playing and learning alongside the younger Scottish players, who are always so patient and encouraging, has been the most wonderful and unexpected find for me! I have always played team sports but never cricket, before Carlton. My English husband was the cricketer who worried that there wouldn’t be much cricket in Scotland... we laugh at how the tables have turned! Friday nights, I’m off on my bike, cricket bag on my back, ready for a fast bowl bruise on my thigh!
Carlton has not only been a fantastic family ‘find’ but it has brought me a whole new set of friends. The ‘Old Bats’ are so supportive, committed and incredibly funny but above all, good friends. We laugh at ourselves and how we have gone from a casual interest in cricket to full on commitment to improve. 2020 season was an unexpectedly busy one, albeit socially - distanced, ball-sanitisation, no bar, no teas, no lift sharing but we got to play cricket! My birthday fell on a Sunday and there was no way I was missing this match. It was our final one of the season (September) and we arranged to come back to our garden for a few beers. But, I suspect my birthday wasn’t the draw for them to come back. I had requested a bowling machine for my gift that year! I was turning 47 and really didn’t need any presents. The 5 of us, played for hours! Like a ‘playdate’ with beers. We batted, fielded, laughed and howled at the sight of us in my back garden and as I came out with a fresh set of beers, I took stock of how perfect this day was.
These women proved to me that it really is never too late to start anything. Picking up a new sport late in life is liberating. There’s no expectation from others, we are learning all the time and we have no ‘burn out’ from playing high level sport for years and then slowly losing the youthful edge. Instead cricket satisfies the thirst for competitive sport without the pressure of expected high performance. We play to win; we want to play our best for ourselves, each other and Carlton. However, we sense the empathy from our teammates, opposition and coaches. This allows us the freedom to enjoy playing and have no restrictions in our head, such as fear of failure. If we get out for a duck, which happens a lot, we are disappointed and for each other. However, there is no bat throwing, sulking or beating ourselves up for days after. We are at the stage in life where we can put it in perspective. Maybe we also have experienced doing this in the past. I remember not sleeping for weeks after missing a hockey penalty stroke to win us the title. It wasn’t saved, I missed the entire goal! I was 16 and not mature enough to handle the pressure. I carried the guilt on my shoulders for far longer than I should have. I don’t miss that pressure now. When I say I am 47, people don’t expect much; it’s then a nice feeling to sometimes bash out a fast little sprint or throw in a fast ball. It still gives me a rush and the competitiveness comes out in me. I feel alive!
We are all the same. We need that rush, that excitement, that nervous energy. My son asks me sometimes, ‘Why aren’t you like other mums?’. What does that mean? To him, I think it represents dropping him off to train (I do that), watching him play (I do that) but certainly not actually playing myself! After his Friday net session, in usual times, the bar is open - so all the mums and dads have a drink just as we start our net session. That’s our social time. Training, a bit of chat and doing something physical is all more exciting than just going out for a drink. We want to do that too but after playing sport.
We laugh and joke with each other about how we were ‘village!’ We had no idea that the thigh pad should go under your tracksuit bottoms, or that cricket bats came in different weights and sizes. We didn’t wear spikes or understand how to position the field when bowling. But I loved that. I loved being the ‘newbie’ and as long as I could bat a bit, catch a ball, bowl straight and throw the ball back, I was contributing to the team. Of course, we are no longer ‘village’. We all own our own correctly weighted and knocked-in bat, we wear our thigh pads, hidden underneath our whites and we have trained under the covid restrictions in the outdoor nets all winter, even in hail and snow. The collective fun is still strong but a more focused approached to this coming season has developed from a desire to play more and improve each game. We all agree that anyone who has a love of life-long learning can pick anything up late in life. For the Old Bats cricket is a new set of skills and we are passionate about having fun mastering them!
