The 1 is a competition created by former England international, Lydia Greenway, to find the next number one female all-rounder and in its third edition, Madeline Welham was crowed the champion of ‘The 1’ 2023. Trent Bridge, Nottingham hosted this years competition – the third edition – now in partnership with women’s regional cricket team, The Blaze.
40 girls aged 12-18 take part on the day for the chance to be crowned champion. Participants are be tested on the three disciplines of cricket; batting, bowling and fielding in a series of carefully curated tests created by Lydia Greenway. The winner of the competition takes home a trophy, and several prizes from partners including a pro-player contract from Kookaburra, an ambassador contract with PAYNTR and a training session with The Blaze.
Partners supporting the event included PAYNTR, Kookaburra, Cricket District, Lacuna Sports and ICENI. Lacuna provided tops and caps for all the participants, clothing specifically designed for women and girls. You can find out more about Lacuna Sports via our interview with Lydia Greenway and founders Leigh and Katie earlier in the year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA55WkwSeaA&t=878s
Last year’s winner, Rhia Sedha was in attendance and provided some inspiring words for the players about to take on the challenge. Rhia, who plays for Yorkshire U18, competed in both the 2021 and 2022 edition, seeing success in the latter.
Speaking to Rhia, she told us about how her cricketing life has changed since winning. “I got a sponsorship by Kookaburra and that's really helped me because I've got all my kit provided”.
It wasn’t just winning which aided Rhia, it was also the competition which helped her to improve her game. “I've got to find out where I dropped points because it's in a point system so that's helped me in training, focus on those areas”.
Assisted by a number of Blaze players, the players undertook a number of drills to demonstrate their all-round skills. Fielding was up first as there were three different stations to put them through their paces. High catches, long throws and direct hits were the challenges where the players could display their fielding skills.
In the break, Central Sparks EPP player, Ellie Phillips spoke about her experience so far. “It just seemed like a great competition, really exciting and great opportunity to be part of”. she said.
“It's really enjoyable. It's really competitive and the challenges really reflect cricket, just what you'd have in a game situation so it's really good”.
Like all of these players, Ellie is of a generation where from a young age, she knows the pathway to becoming a professional cricketer. “I’d really like it to my job” she explained. “Now with all the pro contracts, the franchise cricket with the Hundred, there's more opportunities to make it professionally”.
In recent years, all-rounders have proved the most valuable players, particularly in franchise cricket. More and more players are aspiring to be all-rounders and a key element of that is ‘360’ batting. One of the drills was hitting through the gaps and demonstrating the all-round batting ability.
Speaking to founder and former-England international, Lydia Greenway, she explained how the idea came about.
“It was a lockdown idea where myself and Ben Thompson, were chatting to each other and we were talking about how you can make the game of cricket a bit more exciting for young girls and to give them something a bit different”.
“We decided that we would deconstruct the game of cricket and also then bench the tests against England players” she explained.
It’s been clear in that being an all-rounder is extremely valuable. The most expensive overseas players in the inaugural WPL were all-rounders. “You look at the way that the women's game going and it is like you say, it's dominated by all-rounders and I think for young girls it's just getting them to understand that” Greenway said.
A unique element of ‘The 1’ is the use of benchmarking, enabling the players to compare their results with that of the England women’s senior team. “With the benchmarking we’ve got the times from how England measure their players”.
“We've said to them, if you get this time you're as quick as Danni Wyatt. Suddenly when you tell these girls that, their face lights up”.
The age of the players range from 13-18 meaning some of them are near the start of their cricket development, whereas others are looking towards professional contracts and senior call-ups. “This isn't about being the final product” Lydia explained.
“It's about being part of their journey and we talk a lot about progression over perfection. Sports people sometimes seek for perfection, and we all know that it's never possible and so I think trying to change that mindset and making it about the progress is a really good way to go”.
The last tasks involved the important skill of bowling at the death – in this case it was all to play for with points close. Power hitting was also in the final round, with some impressive 6s being send into the stands.
Finishing on 76/100, Madeline Welham was crowned champion of ‘The 1’, proving herself to be a handy all-rounder. Speaking to ‘The 1’ at the end of the day, winner, Madeline spoke about the different challenges she was put through.
“It was a lot of pressure, especially doing the bowling last, but it was amazing” she said. “It was so much fun, so many different activities, so many different things you can do to show how good you are at cricket!”
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