The Sweep 25 End of Season Women’s Cricket Special

Words: Simon Travers

With Thanks to Debbie Horner and friends.

The last Sweep of the season is dedicated to everyone at the club who has invested in building a vibrant culture of women’s and girl’s cricket since 2009. It is no secret that Cornwood is a great place for women and girls to play our marvellous sport. The club has built a culture that welcomes young and older cricketers, players who have never held a bat or those who are pushing for county honours. With a First XI, a Super8’s side, two softball squads and a full colts pathway, Cornwood has the infrastructure to help grow anyone’s game and provide friends for life. This special Sweep coincides with the launch of a set of records for Cornwood Women’s First XI matches in the Devon Women’s Cricket League. Those records cover all the highs and lows of the past 16 seasons. The club now has a complete list of the seventy-seven players to have appeared for Cornwood in a DWCL match, with a list of debuts and appearances that are as accurate as currently possible. In this Sweep, we’ll be heading down memory lane to remember the establishing of the team, things will be brought up to date with a review of the Women’s First XI season, and there are a couple of tributes that are overdue.

The roots of women’s cricket at Cornwood go back to 2009. By then, the structure of the DWCL had started to establish with 3 formative seasons. A squad assembled who attended weekly practice sessions led by club captain and vice captain Jason Hall and Ben Warren. Having Jason and Ben available to pass on their knowledge helped attract a lot of ladies to training, regardless of whether they had plans to play or not. The squad grew organically, through local outreach and word of mouth. People who were already attached to the club in some way invited their friends and the word spread across the school playground as parents picked up their kids. It was a natural process that grew around a welcoming family vibe. Everyone was learning the game from scratch, although some were more athletic and had more hand-eye co-ordination.

One of the greatest early supporters of women’s cricket at Cornwood was Paul Dart. His contribution included umpiring and coaching. Paul was a strong advocate for the team when a few die-hard resistant voices criticised the club for developing women’s cricket. Most people at the club soon adopted and supported the team, realising that having a Women’s XI helped bring more of a family feel and nicer atmosphere to the club. Other supporters of the team included Andrew Horner, who was taught to score by Nick Goodliffe at the first ever DWCL match, and Phil Gibson who also helped with training.

First match at the Hatherleigh Tournament, 2010

In 2010, the team were ready to start playing matches and joined the DWCL. The team’s first competitive experience was at a tournament in Hatherleigh. It was an interesting experience as five of the team got stumped on the way to a total of 14 chasing 18. That was not a sign of things to come as the team kept learning and won two league games in 2010. Lynne Whitfield led both batting and bowling that season with 71 runs and 8 wickets.

The team developed to the point where they won their first promotion as Division 2 Champions in 2012. That promotion was somewhat fortunate as their three wins that year against Exmouth, Plymouth and Hatherleigh were less than Plymouth’s five wins. However, Plymouth were penalised for conceding two matches. Cornwood made the most of the chance that was given to them by winning back-to-back championships in 2013 and 2014. In 2013, Becky Piddock (now Harris) was the most valuable player in the league with 203 runs and 8 wickets. Hannah Parsons, Sam Brooks and Candy Capeling combined to form an effective bowling unit. 2014 saw Gemma Lancaster make an immediate impression on her first year in the side with 411 runs at an average of 102.75. Meanwhile, the club’s inclusive approach meant the squad was big enough to accommodate a second team from 2013-17.

19th May, 2019. A 6 wicket win over Taunton Deane in the T20 cup.

Things started to get tougher for the side with a relegation season in 2017. They bounced back immediately with promotion from Division 2 in 2018 but increasingly found life difficult in 2019 on the end of a series of difficult results. After covid, there were a couple of seasons of rebuilding before a promotion from Division 3 led to Division 1 cricket again in 2023.

2025 has been a year of transition for the Women’s Firsts with a large downpayment made on future development. The key statistic for the year is that, excluding the first year 2010, 2025 ties 2013 for the most DWCL debuts handed out in a season with eight. That continues a trend with seven debuts in 2024. This is a really positive trend as there are a stream of talented young players who want to be at Cornwood. The next generation is coming through, as evidenced by success at Super8s and Under 15s levels. However, the team will need time and support to mature. The wider changes that are happening in women’s cricket are impacting the DWCL with wider professionalisation and more opportunities on offer. The stakes and standards in the DWCL are rising, which means that the Women’s Firsts often find themselves in the role of underdogs. That means that every win is sweet, especially upsets against sides like Exeter.

Having a set of records for the Women’s First XI will hopefully help as the team grows and develops its new generation. As the philosopher Gary Barlow put it, it is always essential to ‘never forget where you are coming from’ and be able to tie the present to the past. It is also important that the achievements of the Women’s Firsts do not get overlooked or taken for granted. For instance, before the 2024 season only four women had taken 10 wickets in a DWCL season; Becky Harris, Stacey Maskelyne, Olivia Gibson and Emma Gibson. In 2024 the 10+ wicket club doubled as Kat Frost, Olivia Gibson, Shini Al Khalid and Gemma Lancaster all achieved the mark. It’s easier to see the story when you know the stats. In that spirit, there are three players whose achievements need a belated acknowledgement.

Sadie Goodliffe behind the stumps

First and foremost is Sadie Goodliffe. Sadie holds the record for First XI DWCL appearances with 83 matches since her debut in 2010. To put that number in context, the team has had 130 DWCL fixtures since 2010 and 28 of those matches have been either cancelled or conceded. Sadie has played 83 out of 102 possible matches in 16 seasons. She has only missed 6 possible matches in the past 10 years. A Men’s First XI player who had played the same proportion of matches in the same time period would have played 225 times. Sadie means so much to Cornwood, as a volunteer and a presence in the clubhouse, as the main person tasked with keeping Chairman Nick sane, but also surely as a player too. Sadie is not the most prolific run scorer, making 355 career runs at an average of 6.57, but she does have a highest score of 42* against Whitchurch in 2014 and is still capable of providing a defensive stand, as shown against Exeter last month. Sadie’s main contribution has been as a wicketkeeper, claiming approximately 40 victims across all formats. Sadie brings strength, care and resilience to the side. To borrow from Isaac Newton, if there are young women players at Cornwood who can dream of playing for Devon or beyond, it’s because they stand on the shoulders of giants like Sadie.

Hannah Bale

The second player who needs an acknowledgement is Hannah Bale who became only the third Women’s First XI player to reach 50 appearances on 22^nd June this season against Plymouth. That match was not an especially happy one, but Hannah has been a team leader through good seasons and bad. Hannah made her debut in 2012 and has become an established presence and leader in the side in 2015. Hannah has had two stints of involvement with the team captaincy, sometimes sharing the role in 2017-18 and 2021-22, which led to two promotion seasons from Division 2 and Division 3. Hannah is primarily a bowler with DWCL career figures of 199.5-15-971-46. That means Hannah has a career bowling average of 21.11 and an economy rate of 4.86. Hannah is one of only two players (the other is Stacey Maskelyne) to appear on the team’s bowling honours board on multiple occasions. Her two five-fers were against Sandford in 2018 and Bovey Tracey in 2021. Hannah is committed, competitive and hilarious to be around. She is a team player who encourages and supports everyone.

Gemma Lancaster in action vs North Devon

The final player to acknowledge is team captain Gemma Lancaster who also reached 50 caps this year two weeks after Hannah did at Oak Park against Paignton. How do you sum up what Gemma has contributed to the Women’s First XI over the years? Let’s start with this statistic. In the entire history of Cornwood Women’s 1XI, there have been 44 partnerships of 50 runs or more. Gemma was one of the batters in 28 of those partnerships. Gemma has a career total of 1954 runs for the Women’s First XI at an average of 48.85, with 16 fifties and 3 centuries. Gemma has also been a dependable bowling option who has taken 10 wickets for the past two seasons. After first leading the team in 2015, Gemma has been team captain since 2023 and has missed just one match in her tenure. That was in 2024 as part of a deserved run in the Devon squad. Gemma is the life and soul of the Women’s Firsts, an a great team-mate to play for and arguably the most talented women’s player to play for Cornwood so far.

And that wraps up the Sweep for 2025. Thanks to everyone who reads the blog and passes on their encouragement. One of the beliefs that motivates the Sweep is that nobody ever grows out of needing to be seen and recognised for doing your best. Regardless of the results, it’s always a privilege to be able to tell the stories of hundreds of people who spend their summer doing their best at the nagging, infuriating, complicated, endlessly fascinating and perfect pastime of cricket. Let’s do it all again next year.