# Essex women's cricket team

The Essex Women's cricket team is the women's representative cricket team for the English historic county of Essex. They play their home games at various grounds across the county, including Toby Howe Cricket Ground, Billericay and Garon Park, Southend-on-Sea. They are captained by Kelly Castle. In 2019, they played in Division Two of the final season of the Women's County Championship, and have since played in the Women's Twenty20 Cup. They are partnered with the regional side Sunrisers.

## History
### 1949–2000: Early history

Essex Women played their first recorded match in 1949, against Buckinghamshire Women. Over the following years, Essex went on to play various one-off matches, most often against local Second XI teams.

### 2000– : Women's County Championship

Essex joined the Women's County Championship in 2001, competing in Division Three, in which they came third, with two victories. They played in the bottom tier of the Championship until 2008, when they were promoted to Division Two. In Division Two, Essex performed strongly, finishing third and second in their first two seasons before being promoted in 2011. In a rain-hit 2012 season, Essex then finished second in Division One, behind Kent. After this, however, Essex fell away, being relegated from Division One in 2014, and then again from Division Two in 2016. They managed to bounce straight back, winning Division 3C in 2017, and playing in Division Two ever since. Meanwhile, in the Women's Twenty20 Cup, Essex have been a volatile side: when the tournament was regionalised in its early years, Essex bounced between Divisions One and Two of the South section. Since, they briefly fell into Division 3 in 2018, but apart from this have played in Division 2, achieving their best finish of 3rd in 2015.
The side began competing in the Women's London Championship in 2020. In 2021, they competed in the South East Group of the Twenty20 Cup, but finished bottom. They topped their group in the 2022 Women's Twenty20 Cup, but lost to Suffolk in the group final. Essex finished third in their group in the 2023 Women's Twenty20 Cup, but won the Women's London Championship, winning all four of their matches. In 2024, the side finished 4th in their group in the Twenty20 Cup and 4th in their group in the new ECB Women's County One-Day tournament.

## Players
### Current squad

Based on appearances in the 2023 season.‡ denotes players with international caps.
| Name | Nationality | Birth date | Batting style | Bowling style | Notes |
| Batters ||||||
| Catherine Dalton ‡ | Ireland | (1992-10-24) 24 October 1992 (age 32) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | |
| Francesca Hughes | England | (1999-12-11) 11 December 1999 (age 25) | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Bella Johnson | England | (2000-11-28) 28 November 2000 (age 24) | Unknown | Unknown | |
| All-rounders ||||||
| Tilly Callaghan | England | (1998-05-05) 5 May 1998 (age 26) | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Kelly Castle | England | (1997-09-04) 4 September 1997 (age 27) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | Club captain |
| Sally Chapman | England | (2004-11-30) 30 November 2004 (age 20) | Left-handed | Unknown | |
| Emily Dack | England | (1995-05-25) 25 May 1995 (age 29) | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Beth Dodd | England | (2002-02-02) 2 February 2002 (age 22) | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Bella Howarth | England | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Emma Jones | England | (2002-08-08) 8 August 2002 (age 22) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | |
| Katherine Speed | England | (2001-10-05) 5 October 2001 (age 23) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | |
| Wicket-keepers ||||||
| Jessica Bird | England | (2003-11-21) 21 November 2003 (age 21) | Right-handed | Right-arm leg break | |
| Yasmin Daswani ‡ | Hong Kong | (1994-09-21) 21 September 1994 (age 30) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | Dual-registration with Huntingdonshire |
| Scarlett Hughes | England | (2002-06-18) 18 June 2002 (age 22) | Left-handed | – | |
| Jessica Olorenshaw | England | (2005-01-27) 27 January 2005 (age 19) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | Dual-registration with Cambridgeshire |
| Millie Rawlins | England | (2008-08-31) 31 August 2008 (age 16) | Right-handed | – | |
| Bowlers ||||||
| Prisha Bedi | England | (2000-08-20) 20 August 2000 (age 24) | Unknown | Right-arm leg break | |
| Holly Dring-Richardson | England | (2003-08-20) 20 August 2003 (age 21) | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Esmae MacGregor | England | (2004-07-31) 31 July 2004 (age 20) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | |
| Sophia Mitchell | England | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Afra Rose Mohamed | England | (2008-10-02) 2 October 2008 (age 16) | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Grace Poole | England | (2003-08-26) 26 August 2003 (age 21) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | |
| Jessica Pugh | England | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Mady Villiers ‡ | England | (1998-08-26) 26 August 1998 (age 26) | Right-handed | Right-arm off break | |
| Sophie Willson | England | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | |

### Notable players

Players who have played for Essex and played internationally are listed below, in order of first international appearance (given in brackets):
* Lucy Doolan (2008)
* Sian Ruck (2009)
* Beth MacGregor (2010)
* Beth Langston (2013)
* Kristen Beams (2014)
* Leigh Kasperek (2015)
* Catherine Dalton (2015)
* Sterre Kalis (2018)
* Yasmin Daswani (2019)
* Mady Villiers (2019)
* Heather Graham (2019)
* Sharanya Sadarangani (2020)

## Seasons
### Women's County Championship

| Season | Division | League standings | League standings | League standings | League standings | League standings | League standings | League standings | League standings | Notes |
| Season | Division | P | W | L | T | A/C | BP | Pts | Pos | Notes |
| 2001 | Division 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 31.5 | 55.5 | 3rd | |
| 2002 | Division 3 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 21.5 | 55.5 | 4th | |
| 2003 | Division 3 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 25 | 42 | 5th | |
| 2004 | County Challenge Cup G2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 14.5 | 26 | 3rd | |
| 2005 | County Challenge Cup G2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 25.5 | 37.5 | 3rd | |
| 2006 | County Challenge Cup G2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 44 | 1st | Lost promotion playoff |
| 2007 | County Challenge Cup Div A | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 99 | 2nd | |
| 2008 | Division 4 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 120 | 1st | Promoted |
| 2009 | Division 2 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 103 | 3rd | |
| 2010 | Division 2 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 63 | 143 | 2nd | |
| 2011 | Division 2 | 10 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 61 | 131 | 1st | Promoted |
| 2012 | Division 1 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 16 | 36 | 2nd | |
| 2013 | Division 1 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 32 | 52 | 8th | |
| 2014 | Division 1 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 20 | 30 | 9th | Relegated |
| 2015 | Division 2 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 39 | 69 | 5th | |
| 2016 | Division 2 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 32 | 32 | 8th | Relegated |
| 2017 | Division 3C | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37 | 87 | 1st | Promoted |
| 2018 | Division 2 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 25 | 55 | 6th | |
| 2019 | Division 2 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 94 | 3rd | |

### Women's Twenty20 Cup

| Season | Division | League standings | League standings | League standings | League standings | League standings | League standings | League standings | League standings | Notes |
| Season | Division | P | W | L | T | A/C | NRR | Pts | Pos | Notes |
| 2009 | Division 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | +0.61 | 5 | 1st | |
| 2010 | Division S&W 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | −0.75 | 4 | 2nd | |
| 2011 | Division S1 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | −1.38 | 0 | 4th | Relegated |
| 2012 | Division S2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +6.17 | 6 | 1st | Promoted |
| 2013 | Division S1 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | −2.70 | 0 | 4th | |
| 2014 | Division 1B | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | −3.44 | 0 | 9th | Relegated |
| 2015 | Division 2 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | +0.31 | 20 | 3rd | |
| 2016 | Division 2 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | +0.55 | 13 | 5th | |
| 2017 | Division 2 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 1 | −0.79 | 5 | 9th | Relegated |
| 2018 | Division 3C | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | +3.23 | 28 | 1st | Promoted |
| 2019 | Division 2 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | −0.07 | 18 | 5th | |
| 2021 | South East | 8 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 2 | −1.54 | 2 | 6th | |
| 2022 | Group 4 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +3.92 | 24 | 1st | Lost final |
| 2023 | Group 7 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | +0.54 | 11 | 3rd | |
| 2024 | Group 3 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | +0.27 | 63 | 4th | |

### ECB Women's County One-Day

| Season | Group | League standings | League standings | League standings | League standings | League standings | League standings | League standings | League standings | Notes |
| Season | Group | P | W | L | T | A/C | BP | Pts | Pos | Notes |
| 2024 | Group 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 4th | |