Dumfries Sports Club

Scotland Womens Dev Squad in the UAE

Already in action in 2013 is Kirsty Strachan, one of the Dumfries Women’s team.

She played for the Scotland Womens Development XI in the MCC ARCH Women’s U19 Trophy in Abu Dhabi and Dubai last week.

The Scotland side lost to Wales and a very strong Sussex side which featured several England U19 players.

Training in Abu Dhabi

However they missed out on a win against Lancashire by just 13 runs and finished on a high with a heavy 9 wicket defeat of Durham. [Tour details and photos]

Also heading for the heat is the Nunholm club’s Niall Alexander who has been selected in the Scotland U19 squad travelling to a two week training camp in Sri Lanka at the end of March.

As well as training the side will play six matches during their stay there.

The cricket season starts early for Dumfries Cricket Club’s Kirsty Strachan this weekend when she joins the Scotland Women’s Development squad as they travel to the United Arab Emirates to take part in the Sport Arabia ARCH Trophy tournament.

The side play matches against Wales, Lancashire and Sussex next week leading to a finals day. The squad is a blend of senior and U17 players and has trained hard in Edinburgh over the winter in preparation. The players have also faced the challenge of very significant fund raising to make the tour happen, with the Nunholm club also contributing to those efforts to help raise the money.

The Scotland Women’s Captain Abbie Aitken expects “that it is going to be a steep learning curve once we are out in Abu Dhabi, but I’m confident that the girls will adapt to the conditions.” As well as playing in the international stadium in Abu Dhabi and in a day/night game, they will also be taking the welcome opportunity for some warm weather training.

Strachan, who plays for the Dumfries Women’s team, played for Scotland U17s last year and was selected for the senior training squad over the winter. The Scotland Women’s coach Kari Carswell said ““Kirsty has had quite a rise to the playing national team cricket, having only taken up playing competitively just over 18 months ago. Kirsty is a very talented all-rounder who is agile and quick in the field and has an excellent throwing arm. This is such a good opportunity for her and all the girls in the squad to be play competitive cricket in February”.

The story behind the tour can be found here – preparation and final training.

The club’s Womens and Girls sessions continue this, and the subsequent, Sunday, indoors at Max High Sports Hall, 11:30-13:00. Those new to the sport are encouraged to come along for a free try or to contact the club about Womens and girls cricket. Contact dumfriescricketclub@gmail.com or see www.dumfriescricketclub.co.uk, @dumfriescricket on Twitter for details.