{"id":2099,"date":"2026-06-19T09:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T08:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/?p=2099"},"modified":"2026-06-19T09:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T08:08:13","slug":"bowlers-bats-and-bucket-hats-cricket-at-bath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/2026\/06\/19\/bowlers-bats-and-bucket-hats-cricket-at-bath\/","title":{"rendered":"Bowlers, bats and bucket hats: cricket at Bath"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ah the sounds of summer... the buzz of\u00a0the\u00a0bumble bee, the sizzling\u00a0of the\u00a0BBQ and\u00a0hum\u00a0of\u00a0happy\u00a0chatter\u00a0as we\u00a0all\u00a0make the most of\u00a0the\u00a0sunshine.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These are the quintessential sounds of the warmer seasons. But for many, it\u2019s the distinctive \u2018crack\u2019 of ball on cricket bat that indicates summer has arrived. And with the ICC Women's T20 World Cup in full swing, cricket fans across the country are grabbing their sun cream and bucket hats to settle into their ideal summer of sport.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bath\u00a0alumna\u00a0and\u00a0former\u00a0professional cricket player\u00a0Fran Wilson\u00a0(BSc Sport Performance 2014)\u00a0will\u00a0certainly\u00a0be joining them.\u00a0\u201cI definitely want to catch some games in Bristol,\u201d she\u00a0says.\u00a0\"I have quite a few friends in the\u00a0England team who I played with,\u00a0so it\u2019s nice being able to support them.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Alumna Fran Wilson playing cricket for England<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With 64 appearances for England \u2014 one of her most impressive being part of the team which won the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup \u2014\u00a0and now as Women\u2019s Head Coach for Gloucestershire, Wilson will be watching with a slightly different perspective than many. \u201cI enjoy being a coach so it\u2019s fun for me to watch the games from that view,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I do have a bit of distance from the team now so I can also just be a fan and a good friend and support them which is great.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite her love\u00a0of\u00a0cricket,\u00a0it was football\u00a0that\u00a0took up\u00a0most of\u00a0Wilson\u2019s spare time\u00a0during her\u00a0studies\u00a0at\u00a0Bath\u00a0\u2014 captaining the University women\u2019s football first team in her second and fourth years.\u00a0She later\u00a0threw herself\u00a0back into cricket\u00a0and\u00a0credits\u00a0some of the lessons she learnt during\u00a0her time\u00a0playing football\u00a0to helping shape her\u00a0impressive\u00a011-year\u00a0career\u00a0as a professional player.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt taught me how to play performance sport; training every week and playing against some really good teams,\u201d she explains. \u201cBecause of my previous cricket background, the football girls maybe saw me as a bit of leader so being able to practice those leadership skills and feel like everyone was following me was a really cool experience. And that first experience of coaching in my second year \u2014 leading a programme \u2014 I still use a lot of what I learnt in that year now as a coach. It was a valuable experience.\u201d \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She adds,\u00a0\u201cI also made\u00a0incredible friendships;\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0still\u00a0some of\u00a0my\u00a0best friends now.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Her dedication to sport at Bath was recognised in her winning Sports Personality of the Year at the\u00a0<\/span>2014 Blues Awards<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0And she is not the only professional cricket player\u00a0to be celebrated at\u00a0Bath,\u00a0with Anya Shrubsole MBE and Marcus Trescothick MBE, both\u00a0<\/span>receiving Honorary Degrees\u00a0in 2018<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cricket has long been a part of the fabric of sport at the University. While it's difficult to pinpoint the exact year the women's team was established, men's cricket has been associated with the University as early as 1929.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Portrait of the 1929 men's cricket team for the Bath & West of England College of Chemistry & Pharmacy (previous iteration of the University of Bath)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u00a0think\u00a0women\u2019s cricket at Bath was very much in its infancy during my time playing for the University,\u201d recalls\u00a0Jane Mash (BPharm Pharmacy 1987). \u201cWe pulled together a team from whoever was interested\u00a0<\/span>\u2014\u00a0<\/span>whether or not\u00a0they had played before.\u00a0Our team really came into being through hockey players looking for a summer sport\u00a0and we\u00a0relied on sweet talking members of the men\u2019s team to give us some basic coaching and to umpire our games which were\u00a0mainly friendlies\u00a0against local universities.\u00a0I think it\u00a0is fair to say that, as a team, our enthusiasm\u00a0was greater than our skill!\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Alumna Sonja Ljubojevic (BEng Mechanical Engineering 1989) also fondly remembers her time playing the sport at Bath in the \u201880s \u2014 at one point taking on the role of captain. \u201cMy fondest memory is beating Exeter on their grounds to win the SWSSA cup \u2014 possibly in 1988,\u201d she remembers. \u201cWe then went onto the BUSA final against Loughborough, also on their home turf, and got completely thrashed on a muddy wicket!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Alumna Sonja Ljubojevic being awarded a Colour for her performance playing cricket for the University in 1988-89<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sonja\u00a0still picks up a\u00a0<\/span>cricket\u00a0bat\u00a0today and is the Women\u2019s Cricket\u00a0Chairman\u00a0at Duffield CC near Derby. \u201cWe have massively developed women\u2019s cricket at the club, now running two women\u2019s hardball XIs, and\u00a0eight\u00a0aside hardball team, a softball\u00a0team\u00a0and a full set of junior age group\u00a0girls'\u00a0teams.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Female<\/a>
Women's cricket club captain Sirisha Gorantla<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Both men\u2019s\u00a0and women\u2019s cricket have a\u00a0strong\u00a0presence within\u00a0University of Bath community today, having grown in\u00a0strength and\u00a0size\u00a0since it was first played on campus\u00a0all those\u00a0years\u00a0ago.\u00a0The m<\/span>en's section had an\u00a0incredibly successful year, seeing a double promotion for the 1st and 2nd teams in\u00a0both\u00a0BUCS leagues with\u00a0each\u00a0team going unbeaten. And w<\/span>ith a squad of\u00a0an impressive\u00a035 active players, the women\u2019s section\u00a0finished\u00a0third\u00a0out of\u00a0nine\u00a0teams\u00a0this\u00a0past season.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI've loved playing for the team,\u201d says women's club captain Sirisha Gorantla (BA Education with Psychology 2027). \u201cOne of the things that makes Bath special is that it\u2019s one of the few university cricket clubs that genuinely sees itself as one club rather than two separate men\u2019s and women\u2019s sections. There\u2019s a real sense of unity across the whole club.\u201d <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Man<\/a>
Cricket chairman Rupert Baverstock playing cricket<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And she\u2019s not wrong, with chairman Rupert Baverstock (BSc Biomedical Sciences 2028) already gripped by the action unfolding in the <\/span>ICC Women's T20 World Cup<\/span>.\u00a0\u201cSeeing the growth of the women's game has been incredible,\u201d he says. \u201cIt would be amazing to see us lift the trophy for the first time since 2009, and this years' squad seems in the perfect position to do so.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s\u00a0hope for no sticky wickets in this year\u2019s tournament!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ah the sounds of summer... the buzz of\u00a0the\u00a0bumble bee, the sizzling\u00a0of the\u00a0BBQ and\u00a0hum\u00a0of\u00a0happy\u00a0chatter\u00a0as we\u00a0all\u00a0make the most of\u00a0the\u00a0sunshine.\u00a0\u00a0 These are the quintessential sounds of the warmer seasons. But for many, it\u2019s the distinctive \u2018crack\u2019 of ball on cricket bat that indicates...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1926,"featured_media":2100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[180],"tags":[5,42,26,201],"class_list":["post-2099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-alumni","tag-on-campus","tag-sport","tag-sport-performance"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2026\/06\/up00836_003-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1926"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}