Girl power: players talk about historic Geraldton cricket win

We spoke to some of the Bluff Point players after their inaugural Twenty-20 women’s cricket championship victory. Here, they share how they did it — and what the game and the season meant to them. Allee Bartlett “Happy to be a part of history. I think we were all a bit nervous going into it considering it was the first women’s league, so big things were at stake. “But obviously we’re happy with the result. Towns played really, really well — we were happy that we got to walk away with the win. “Shakiya Cross helped us, she had a very, very good game bowling, batting and fielding. “Dainira Papertalk and Kavita Pepper were good at bowling and made our job easier to get the runs.” Cynthia Comeagain “It was the first time we had the competition here in Geraldton, so that was good. I’ve always played for Bluff Point for juniors, but there was no girls’ competition then, so I was pretty much playing with my brothers and my mates in their teams. “It’s good to see a woman’s comp here in Geraldton. “I was actually pretty surprised at the outcome with how many teams we had for the first season. “Hopefully next season we have more teams. There’s been quite a lot of talk saying there’ll be more teams. “It gives more confidence to girls to try different sports. When you think of girls playing sports, it’s often just netball and basketball. But now there’s cricket. “For me, I’ve always loved cricket and never really had the chance to play until a mate called Craig DeLacy got me into the team, and ever since then I’ve always been a Pointer. “When I first started, I did really well, (he) definitely backed me even though I was nervous to play against boys because they are bigger than me. “It definitely gave me more confidence in the game and my grandfather (Charles Comeagain) helped me along the way as well. “Have more confidence and give it a try and if it doesn’t work out, then just try something else.” Shakiya Cross “It was a good season. “I grew up playing cricket from (when I was) a little kid just in the yard; I played yard cricket. This is the first time I’ve played in an actual competition. “In Geraldton and Shark Bay, we played with family, backyard cricket and driveway cricket. “Home cricket was harder because I used to stand there and my uncle and my brother used to bowl. and they bowl pretty fast. “We used to play with tennis balls and we used to tape them up. I was only a little bony thing then, standing up and facing those bowls. “My uncle and brother used to play for Bluff Point as well. “(I’ll) continue to train for Impardja in Alice Springs next year; we’ve got to try out and we get picked in the squad. “I went over a few weeks ago (for the National Indigenous Cricket Tournament) — we just got back. But it rained the whole time. That’s the third time I’ve been there (Alice Springs), for cricket. We just went and tried out and got picked for the team. “I’ll play again next season.”