Jonesy's
Journal
By Helen Jones
ACT Under-19 and Tuggeranong Senior Women's Cricket and Australian Rules representative, Helen Jones, gives Novo an inside look at the life of a young woman excelling in traditional 'men's sports'.
My first memory of playing cricket was when I was about 5-years-old. My
Dad was, and still is, a great cricketer, being selected by NSW talent scouts to
play for the mighty Blues when he was only 18 years of age. He declined their
offer, choosing instead to go to University. While my brother and I often rib
him about it, had he have chosen to go to Sydney, he wouldn’t have met Mum and
I never would have been born.
But, back to the original topic! My Dad has been playing backyard
cricket with my brother and I since we could walk and perform the other skills
necessary to play cricket. Maybe I inherited it from Dad, but I have always been
a good bowler. As my brother and I grew older, the once friendly backyard games
escalated into one-on-one test matches, with Gordon and I taking it in turns to
be Australia.
I played my first season of club cricket in the 1999/2000 season. I
gradually worked my way up from part-time bowler (who got to bowl one or two
overs in the middle of an innings) to one of the best strike bowlers in the
team. I also opened the batting in my first season. That quite surprised me,
because I have never been a Ricky Ponting with the bat. I have always compared
my batting talent to that of Glenn McGrath, Australia’s no.11 batsman and
prolific duck-scorer. I took the chance when it was presented to me, and managed
a high score of 17 in the last match of the season. For a Glenn McGrath style
batter, I didn’t think that was too bad.
About halfway into the season, I was approached by the coach of the Tuggeranong senior women’s team, Rex Kellar. He told me that I had great potential as a bowler and was welcome to play for the seniors if I wished. I was thrilled. I must admit though, my first half season of senior cricket left a lot to be desired. My bowling, which was fine in juniors, became a free hit to opposition batsmen, and my figures of 5 overs, 23 runs and no wickets bear testament to this. I lost a lot of my cockiness there and then. I knew I had a lot of work to do if I wanted to be a regular in the bowling attack.
After a long and cold winter the cricket is finally back! Our first few
training sessions were in track pants and jumpers, but the shorts and t-shirts
weren’t long in making an appearance. Ali Willard, one of my seniors team
mates, sent me an email telling me that I should go along with her to the ACT
squad tryouts. I agreed, after all, the worst thing that could happen was not
getting selected. After a couple of Sunday afternoon’s going through the
basics with Coach Jodie Davis, the first squad was announced and I was in it.
This was a huge boost to my confidence and I must admit I felt great having
beaten Gordon into the ACT squad. I was to have a full schedule, with 3 nights a
week of training and games on both Saturday and Sunday.
Arriving at the first under-19 game of the season on the 8th
of October, I was fired up and keen to bowl. I had been bowling well at
training, and my batting hadn’t been too bad. We went in to bat first and I
was due to come in at number 4. We lost a quick wicket, but Ali Willard and
Catherine Chippendale (Chippers) went about restoring the run rate and we were
in full voice cheering them on. When Chippers was dismissed, I pulled on the
gloves and headed out to the middle. I started the innings the way I always did,
watching the ball carefully and defending the ones on the stumps. After 15 balls
I had one run to my name, but I wasn’t too concerned about my low score. Ali
was still scoring freely, so there was no pressure on me to score quickly. I had
a quick thought to myself that I might make quite a good score once I had my eye
in, but it wasn’t to be. One of their part-time bowlers pitched a full toss at
me and I failed to block it, resulting in my middle stump doing cartwheels. I
was annoyed at myself, and now even more eager to get stuck into them with my
bowling. We went on to make 180-odd runs, a good total.
The next day was the first senior match of the season, and I was a bit
nervous. We went in to bat first, and lost only two wickets for 230 runs. Norths
had basically no hope of beating our total, so the pressure was taken off us
bowlers to some extent. After dismissing one of their openers cheaply, their
pinch hitter came in and made a quick 34 before being caught at mid-on by yours
truly. Once she was gone, the wickets fell like rain. I came on at the fifth
change and took a wicket, clean bowled middle stump. We dismissed Norths for 80
runs and celebrated that night at the club. This was the start to the season I
had been dreaming of.
Rain did its best to interrupt the second day of our under-19s game. Thankfully the storm blew itself out and Saturday was beautiful. Chippers decided to open with Verity Leaper and Alison Carson rather than me, but I was fine with that. Al took 3 wickets in 3 overs and then I came on. My first over was shocking, I was swinging the ball too much and my deliveries were being called wide. I had a rest before being brought on again later in the innings. My next 5 overs were much better. My deliveries were all nice and close to the stumps, if not on them, and I had 2 chances for catches early on. Unfortunately they were dropped, but we were in a commanding position and they weren’t crucial. In my next over I clean bowled the leg stump of their only left hand batsman and finished with figures of 1/10 off 5 overs, the same as the figures from the previous weekends seniors match. We won the match convincingly and are now looking forward to our clash with Radford next weekend.
After spending the whole week in bed
with the flu, I crawled out of bed and made it to the ground in my Dad’s old
HR. We went in to bowl first, so I was happy with that. Verity and Al opened
again and I came in at the first change. I bowled my first 4 overs without
conceding too many runs and went off for a few overs to rest. I was still a bit
off colour and didn’t want to get tired too quickly. Elysha Payne (Arnots)
took 2 wickets in my time off the field, which was great for her, being a part
time bowler. Once I came back onto the field I started my second spell of
bowling. I was warmed up now and bowling much faster than in my first spell. My
second over resulted in 2 wickets and me being on a hat trick. Unfortunately,
the hat-trick ball fell about a foot wide of Ali. I wasn’t too concerned, as I
took another wicket with the very next ball and then one more in my next over to
bring my total to 4/7 off 8. Radford were dismissed for 50 and Ali and Chippers
set out chasing their score. Ali was caught for about 17, then Alison Carson
headed out to the middle and continued scoring runs at a furious pace. We were
1/41 at the close of play, deciding to go for an outright win.
I was feeling a bit crook again on Sunday, but decided to play anyway.
We took on Yass at our home ground and were sent in to bat. Beth Willard
shuffled the batting order around to give our middle and tail order bats a go; I
got placed to come in at 6. Our two openers put on a great partnership of around
100 runs before the dismissal of Anne-Marie McGowan. I sat and watched the
proceedings with a growing feeling of unease. I’ve never been that fond of
batting. Suddenly it was my turn to go out to bat. Ali, who had come in at no.
4, greeted me on the pitch and gave me a few words of encouragement before I
took up the strike. The first ball was quite wide and I cut it for a run. I felt
quite good about that. The cut shot is definitely not my strongest shot. I went
on to make 8-not- out, while the team total ended up at 199.
