A record number of four girls from the Gloucestershire Cricket Foundation have been named in Western Storm’s Academy squad.
Katie Jones (Dumbleton), Isobel Patel (Frenchay), Bea Ellis (Charlton Kings) and Emily Geach have all earned call ups.
Laura Charles-Price, the GCF’s Women’s and Girls Development Officer, said:
“This is absolutely fantastic news, growing from two Gloucestershire representatives last year for the Storm Academy. To have four go through this time is wonderful. All of these girls trained really hard last winter and took that progress and improvement into their performances this summer.
Our continued investment in the County Girls programme including our EPP last winter has enabled the girls to have extra training opportunities, which they grabbed with both hands, maximising their already exciting potential.
To now come through to the Storm in such numbers is testament to the growing strength of girls cricket in the county.”
Players from across Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wales, Wiltshire, Devon and Cornwall went through trails for places in the squad.
It is hoped that the expanded Academy will lead to more female players pushing for places in the Storm’s full squad and the chance of a professional contract.