Dumfries Sports Club

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.

Dumfries – Grangemouth Winners

Dumfries Women won their first indoor tournament outing of the year with three wins to claim first spot at the Cricket Scotland sixes tournament at Grangemouth on Sunday.

The side beat Edinburgh University and Stirling County in their Group games with disciplined bowling and fielding restricting their opponents and Rachel Howard setting the standard by taking a special caught and bowled in the very first over against the University. In each match openers Kirsty Strachan and Rosy Ryan took charge of the run scoring to win with an over to spare.

It was a South-West final as Dumfries took on Galloway but Dumfries were able to continue the pattern. Galloway scored 41 for 2 in their five overs with Sue Jeffrey marking an impressive debut clattering the stumps to take 1 for 3. Then Strachan and Ryan again saw the Nunholm side home with an over to spare. They along with Captain Sue Strachan and Kelsey Paterson were able to collect their winner’s medals after an encouraging outing. The Parkdale Garage Dumfries Player of the Tournament went to Kirsty Strachan for a mature performance with the bat and in her debut behind the stumps.

Womens and Girls sessions continue this, and subsequent Sundays, indoors at Max High Sports Hall, 11:30-13:00. Newcomers are encouraged to come along for a try. Contact dumfriescricketclub@gmail.com or see www.dumfriescricketclub.co.uk for details.