Some of the biggest and most important names in the history of Kent Women have been awarded county caps in 2020, the Club’s 150th Year.
Ahead of ‘The Spitfire Sessions’ this evening, Kent Cricket is delighted to announce that all Kent Women stars scheduled to appear are now capped players for the county.
This follows the announcement this past Winter that 45 Kent Women players past and present will be receiving county caps during 2020.
The Club have also now confirmed that after more detailed and extensive research, information received from members and supporters, as well as the co-operation of those informed of their county caps, this number will now rise to 49.
The names of other Kent Women cap recipients will continue to be announced throughout 2020.
Kent Women Cap no. 32: Charlotte Edwards
England career: 23 Tests, 191 ODIs, 95 T20Is, 1996-2016; Kent Women career: 2000-2016
A true titan of the women’s game, Charlotte Edwards enjoyed a 16-year career with Kent Women before announcing that she would be leaving the county in 2016, after having just led ‘The Horses’ to a domestic County Championship & National T20 double.
Edwards played 136 matches for Kent Women after her move from East Anglia Women ahead of the 2000 season, leading The Horses on 131 occasions.
She lifted ten trophies as captain of Kent, seven of Kent’s eight Championship wins and three T20 titles, and scored 6,614 Kent Women runs at an average of 61.64, with 14 scores of 100 or more. She also took 124 wickets at only 17.51.
On the international stage, Edwards led England on 220 occasions, winning three Ashes series (five overall) and a Women’s Cricket World Cup/World T20 double in 2009 as skipper.
She was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to cricket, as well as being named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 2014, the first Kent Women star and second ever woman to receive the honour.
Kent Women Cap no. 33: Lydia Greenway
England career: 14 Tests, 126 ODIs, 85 T20Is, 2003-2016; Kent Women career: 2000-2016
Born in Farnborough, Kent cricketing legend Lydia Greenway spent her entire county career with Kent, spending sixteen years with The Horses from the turn of the Millennium.
Greenway won ten trophies during her time as a Kent Women star, before taking on a coaching role at the county for three years after her retirement in 2016.
She played 137 matches for Kent as a prolific batter in the middle order, scoring 3,111 runs for the county at an average of 32.74. The left-hander amassed scored of fifty or more on 18 occasions, two of those going on to pass 100. Her top score of 112* came against Yorkshire Women in 2010.
Greenway was also a member of the World Cup/World T20 double-winning England side of 2009 and a five-time Ashes winner. She was renowned as one of the top fielders in international cricket.
In 2011, Greenway was named as ECB’s Women’s Cricketer of the Year, following ‘player of the series’ performances for England during both the NatWest Women’s ODI Series against New Zealand that summer and then again in the T20I Series against Australia that winter, as England beat the ICC World Champions at the time 4-1.
Kent Women Cap no. 39: Tammy Beaumont
England career: 3 Tests, 55 ODIs, 57 T20Is, 2009-present; Kent Women career: 2007-present
Dover-born Beaumont was appointed Kent Women captain ahead of the 2017 season after the departure of Charlotte Edwards, after having won nine trophies so far in her career which began in 2007.
Under her stewardship, Kent secured their record eighth County Championship title in 2019, with the right-hander averaging 48.60 with the bat in the competition.
In her Kent Women career to date, Beaumont has scored 3,631 Kent Women runs at 40.34 in 125 matches, 16 of those as captain. She has four Kent centuries to her name, with her current best of 136 coming against Surrey at The County Ground, Beckenham in 2009.
For England, the top-order batter was a member of England’s 2017 World Cup winning side, putting on the highest ever second wicket partnership in Women’s World Cup history of 275 with Sarah Taylor. After scoring 410 runs in total in that tournament, Beaumont received an MBE in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List.
She scored 105 for England in a WODI against South Africa at her ‘home ground’, The Spitfire Ground, St. Lawrence, in 2018 – and has eight centuries to her name to date for her country.
Kent Women Cap no. 44: Laura Marsh
England career: 7 Tests, 89 ODIs, 60 T20Is, 2006-2019; Kent Women career: 2011-present
Pembury-born Marsh joined Kent Women from Sussex ahead of the 2011 season. Originally bowling seam-up in her career, Marsh made the successful transition to become a right-arm off-spinner to devastating effect.
She has won eight trophies as a Kent Women player, taking 96 wickets in 73 matches at an average of just 15.65. Her best figures of 5/15 came against Nottinghamshire at The Spitfire Ground, St. Lawrence in Canterbury in May 2015. An effective middle to lower order batter, Marsh has also scored 1,119 runs for Kent at 27.29.
She took 217 wickets for England across her career before retiring from international cricket in 2019, finishing up as the most successful spinner in the history of English women’s cricket – and England’s third-highest wicket-taker in ODI cricket.
The leading wicket-taker in England’s 2009 ICC Women’s World Cup success, she was one of five members of that squad who went on to win the World Cup again at Lord’s in 2017.
