Amara (left), Freya (middle) and Lissy (right) pictured with the KSL trophy

Meet the former UoE students who took the Women’s Cricket Super League title

Former University of Exeter Ladies Cricket Club members and University of Exeter Sports Scholars Freya Davies, Amara Carr and Lissy Macleod were part of the victorious Western Storm squad in the Kia Super League 2017.

We caught up with the University of Exeter representatives to reflect on the competition….

Following graduation what’s your journey been?

Freya: “We met up as a storm team just a few days after I graduated so it has been a very quick transition into training full on but it’s been nice to commit fully to cricket since then”.

Amara: “After graduating last summer I spent some time travelling across New Zealand and South East Asia and had a break from cricket. Since returning in April this year I’ve been getting back into training and getting fit as well as doing various coaching across Devon with the U15 Devon Squad and as a Western Storm ambassador during the Women’s Cricket World Cup”

Lissy: “Since graduating last summer I went travelling to Australia and New Zealand. Now I’m a teacher of Philosophy and English”.

What are your sporting and non-sporting goals for this year?

Freya: “Sporting goal for the next year is just to fully commit to cricket, have a good winter of training and hopefully come back stronger to defend our super league title”.

Lissy: “Next year teaching wise I’m hoping to fully qualify as a teacher. In terms of my cricket initially I hope to make the Western Storm squad again and we’ll of course be looking to defend our KSL title”.

What have you most enjoyed about representing Western Storm in the Women’s Cricket Super League?

Amara: “Playing in green again! Being part of such a great environment is what I enjoy most about Western Storm. Everyone involved ultimately shares the same goal which I think is emphasised in how we are as a team on and off the field. Going into finals day as the underdogs made becoming this year’s KSL champions that bit sweeter, as we did it when it counted most-everyone loves an underdog after all!

Lissy: “Western Storm is a great bunch of girls and I’ve had an awesome time being around the group. Training with them challenges me in a new way each day and encourages us all to get better in a competitive environment”.

Following England winning the women’s cricket World Cup what do you think this will do for women’s cricket in the UK?

Freya: “The success of the England girls can only benefit the game going forward. They will continue to inspire girls and hopefully increase participation up and down the country”.

Amara: “Women’s cricket has been on a huge rise in the UK over recent years and the success of the England women this summer can only aid the growth of participation and the accessibility of the game. The fact that the World Cup final hosted at Lords hosted over 20000 spectators I think was something that most of us could never really have expected and to have the media coverage that it did has really for the first time created prolific role models for aspiring young girls in sport and not necessarily just women’s cricket”.

Lissy: “I hope that over the next few year’s women’s cricket will be the main team sport for girls to play in schools in the summer term, which will get so many more girls playing and enjoying cricket”

If you could give one piece of advice to an incoming 1st year High Performance athlete at University of Exeter what would it be?

Freya: “Exploit every opportunity that is offered to you. The additional support offered by the High Performance team such as nutritional advice can be really helpful in adjusting to life as a student athlete at University”.

Amara: “Embrace the opportunities given to you but also the challenges-it can be very easy to take the easy option in training but ultimately it’s these things that count in the end. You can always be the one to set the tone”.

Cricket is one of the 9 focus sports at the University with the University of Exeter Women’s Cricket 1^st team having taken 4 consecutive British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Silvers and 2 consecutive indoor BUCS Golds in recent years. The University's cricket programme is generously supported by a number of alumni and friends of the University including Prof. Jenny & Mr Stephen Harrow (Politics, 1968; History, 1967) and Sir Christopher Ondaatje CBE (Hon DLitt, 2003).

Date: 8 September 2017