Kent’s Head of Women’s Cricket Lucy Arman spoke to KSN at the start of the season about her hopes for the “Horses” over the course of the season and this weekend they could lift a trophy.

Well so far so very good you have to say, as for the first time ever, this weekend will see Megan Belt leading the Horses into Division Two Finals Day in Cardiff against hosts Glamorgan and Gloucestershire. 

Naturally enough when we caught up with Lucy this week, she was a very happy Head of Cricket.

“It’s an amazing achievement that we have reached Finals Day and a huge testament to the amount of work that has gone in from all the players and the staff in working so hard on the team in the last eighteen months.”

“We are all really proud of what we have achieved, and we are working really hard this week to prepare ourselves for an exciting weekend.” 

“We have made a huge step up from last year,” Lucy admitted reflecting on how far the team has come in the new ECB system at Step Two of the Women’s game.

“We knew it was always going to take time and I think that for me in my job with an operations and logistic point of view, I think that we look at it short term as a “scaffold effect” that we knew we had to make changes with the squad last year based on the skill set, and we did that and some of the players we have recruited have made a huge impact, but alongside that I think our coaching staff learned a lot in 2025 and coming into a new structure, our players… we are really, really happy with where we are right now!” 

The Horses’ road to Cardiff hasn’t been the flattest that they could have followed with some amazing wins, mind blowing defeats and a couple of the eight games that went to the final ball! 

“We looked at the T20 block of games as a rollercoaster of emotions, and it hasn’t disappointed in that extent. We have had some real differences in results – the last four games have been fantastic for us and where we wanted to be. We know that games that haven’t gone our way in the past have tended to define us as a team.” 

Lucy continued, “We knew that there were reasons something didn’t go very well and we reflected on that as a team – in any sport you are going to have your good days and you’re not – there will be days that just won’t go to plan but the work that has gone into the bouncing back.”

“We used a big word with our Kent women this year – that is “resilience” – and you have to say that resilience has been shown following some really big defeats there have been some big wins for us.” 

To highlight this the Head of Cricket pointed to the weekend where the Horses were beaten at Canterbury by Worcestershire Rapids as the failed to chase down just over one hundred, yet two days later went to Glamorgan and inflicted the Welsh counties only defeat in their eight qualifying games. 

“It does sum the campaign up and we won’t mention the massive defeat at Lord’s to start the season. James Hockley, his coaching team and all of playing group have all worked really hard to bounce back from these situations.”

“It’s always hard in a women’s space where emotions are sometimes going to be higher than they would in a men’s space. That weekend was very special – to bounce back from a situation against Worcester was a huge credit to the girls and their mindset as well!” 

Lucy then paid tribute to Horses skipper Megan Belt saying, “Megan has been fantastic this year. She has been part of Kent Women since the age of fifteen. She is one of the players in the group to really understand what it means to wear the badge on the shirt.”

“She still knows that in this set up with the changes, she still has so much ahead of her; she really has stepped up this year alongside her leadership group that she has been a huge benefit.” 

The Women’s format on Finals Day is slightly different as Lucy explained; “There are just three sides – Glamorgan, us and Gloucester – we will play Gloucestershire at twelve o’clock for the right to play Glamorgan atfour o’clock.”

“It’s a pretty quick turnaround when we get through – bit of food and then straight back into it which you know, probably isn’t a bad thing I feel!” 

“We’re all so excited! Success for us has already been achieved by getting to Finals Day, now we’re just going there to lift that trophy and bring back the past in what Kent Women have achieved – the buzz around the group has been amazing and off we go on Saturday!”