Research has revealed that women are six times more likely to rupture their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) than their male counterparts with football being the current hub of this epidemic. 17-year-old, Jemima Spence, a wicketkeeper-batter for the South East Stars, was ruled out of an England U19s tour to Sri Lanka, sustaining the injury in October 2023. Spence spoke to the Noughtie Child Podcast about her cricket journey so far and her recovery to get back on the pitch.
Most female cricketers are introduced to the game of cricket through a keen brother or a father who’s a club stalwart. However, Jemima found a less conventional route into the game.
“I had a best friend at my primary school when I was about seven called Poppy and she had an older brother who loved cricket and played it and so she kind of played it with him every once in a while. I really wanted to impress her so I lied and said that I played cricket as well and so our parents got us into an after school club to play together just for fun” she explained.
Successfully trialling for Kent U11s, cricket very quickly became another sport on Spence’s list of hobbies. Within a few years, Jemima was captain of her respective Kent age-group sides, realising her potential within the game.
“Once I got to the second year of U11s, I was probably at that point thinking this is something that I actually might want to become my life – I think I definitely saw that I could potentially have a future in it and then things become more real.”
Dreams became reality as a senior county debut developed into an opportunity with the South East Stars academy, a new structure at the time. “I think I joined the Academy when I was about 14/15” she said.
“Before they created the EPP structure, there was a wider squad at the Stars with just five girls, and I was one of the people in the wider squad. I ended up being picked for most of the matches for the Academy throughout the season, which I was quite surprised about.”
Spence thrived in her opportunities within the Academy, scoring a century against the Sunrisers Academy in August 2022 – her first year in the squad. Earning a senior debut a month later, made an impact on the side, despite still only being 16.
“It was a surprise, it was a really exciting thing but I was quite young. Luckily the Stars senior squad, a complete credit to them how incredibly friendly and welcoming and kind every single one of them are,” she said.
“It’s amazing how much of a part of the team they make you feel and I've been invited to come and train with them before that and come and sit around on game days with them every once in a while so I'd felt like I was already becoming a part of the team - that just was a massive help”.
After a successful summer at county and regional level, Spence went on to display her skills at the School Games in Loughborough, one of the key opportunities for scouting. With the inaugural ICC U19 Women’s World Cup, the games were the final chance to make the cut. The then 16-year-old was named as a non-travelling reserve for the competition, attending weekly camps in Loughborough in preparation.
“Those camps were honestly incredible - they were so intense, but they were so fun. I board weekly at my school, so I was Monday to Friday at school, leave on Friday up to Loughborough, Sunday night at home and then back to school on Monday for two months, but honestly, it was incredible,” she explained.
For many of the members of the squad, it was the highest level of professionalism and senior level training they had experienced, and Jemima was no exception. Within two months, Spence has developed drastically in both the physical and mental side of cricket.
After an outstanding 2022 and a positive 2023 summer, Spence was selected in the England U19 squad to train for a tri-series with Sri Lanka and Australia in March and April. With the opportunity to be on the plane to Sri Lanka, Spence was working towards her first away tour for the Three Lions. However, during a school hockey match in October 2023, she changed direction, twisting her knee and sustaining a long term injury and subsequently ruling her out of the tour.
“I got carried off the pitch and obviously didn't play for the rest of the game,” she recalled. “The next morning I went to A&E the nurse didn't seem very convinced and was like ‘you might have a meniscus tear, but other than that you're probably fine’. I went straight into the Stars physio, who said definitely it looked like I had a severe knee injury, but I'd need to get an MRI, so we managed to get an MRI that day.”
Spence had torn her medial and lateral meniscus and completely ruptured her ACL, requiring surgery and a lengthy rehabilitation process. “I had a month between my date of injury and then the actual surgery, and I'm now probably about 10 weeks port-op,” she said.
“It's definitely been a bit of a journey, definitely a bump in the road I wasn't expecting and obviously it was gutted to miss out on Sri Lanka. It's definitely been rough, but a big learning curve and I'm hoping to come back fitter and stronger than I was before so that something like this doesn't happen again.”
Despite her positive attitude, Spence admitted that the mental side has been a challenge. “I've had a lot of time to process it emotionally. I think with ACLs and probably the majority of injuries, actually the mental side is harder than the physical side because the physical side, you've got the gym, you've got your physios whereas the with the mental side there’s only really well me.”
“There's definitely a lot of thoughts that run through your mind at one point, and I think many people would deal with it differently. I think some people would feel all their emotions at once, other people would block it out for a while.”
With a strong support system of family, friends, teammates and staff, Spence has been aided throughout the process. However, although ACL injuries are prevalent in female athletes – footballers and netballers being the main victims – cricket has not been as affected due to the nature of the sport. There are a number of examples of cricketers rupturing their ACLs such as former England captain, Charlotte Edwards and Hobart Hurricanes leg-spinner Rachel Trenaman but Spence did not have teammates to turn to who understood the injury.
“It's hard to find someone who knows exactly what I’m going through so the next best thing is really just anyone else, to be honest,” she said.
“Unfortunately the majority of people, especially if you're a bit more senior in the side, have dealt with injuries at some point so a lot of people are there and understand the gist of exactly what you're feeling and understand what you're going through. Our physios are amazing, they've got complete expertise and how to get you back to the level that you were before”.
Although missing playing cricket, hockey and training have been some of the hardest moments of Spence’s recovery have been the smaller parts of live that everyone takes for granted. “For me, movement is such a massive thing and I think what surprised me that I noticed about when it was when I was finding it hard emotionally, sometimes it wasn't necessarily thinking about missing out on training or matches” she reflected.
“It was those moments when you want to suddenly run and you can't, like when your friends are greeting you, someone’s downstairs and you want to run to them, but then you're like ‘oh, actually, wait, I can't’.”
Alongside her lengthy recovery, Spence will sit her A-Levels in Biology, Psychology and PE, this summer. Jemima joked that perhaps her injury has some ‘silver linings’ as her exam results will not be affected by a tour to Sri Lanka just weeks before the exam season.
There are many things for Spence to look forward to – finishing A-Levels being on that list but the focus is returning to play. With another U19 World Cup around the corner in 2025, the tournament is a realistic target for Jemima to aim for.
“In terms of real milestones, would love to one day have a professional contract with the Stars - that would be amazing and also a Hundred contract,” she said. “My lifelong dream has always been to play for England. That would be much further down the line if I ever made it there, but that's definitely would be a massive goal for me.”
Regardless of these aspirations, Jemima has reflected on her injury and what it has taught her so far. “Something that I learned last season and also that I definitely have to take into account now is that you can't measure your progress against someone else’s,” she explained.
“You have to accept that your time and your journey is your own and no one's timeline looks the same and I think that's never been more important for me than it is right now. Knowing that I am gonna be 9 months, I guess you could say behind other people, that's OK because will it be that much of a difference in five years?”.
The full conversation with Jemima Spence is available on the Noughtie Child Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3ulqxCA3mjvVn2VKfQ58w0
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