DUO MAKING THEIR MARK
EVERY dominant generation of Australian cricket has boasted a dynamic wicketkeeperbowler relationship.
The likes of Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh, Shane Warne and Ian Healy and now Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy in the women’s national team have been bedrocks of cricketing success.
Now Geelong could be building its own famous pairing with the emergence of youngsters Grace Jones and Paris Bowdler.
The 15-year-olds both play senior Premier cricket and recently returned from the under-18 national championships in Tasmania, where they represented Vic Country.
Despite copping a head knock while keeping up to the stumps, Bowdler was typically clean with the gloves as Vic Country finished fourth in its pool.
Leg-spinner Jones caught fire with the ball late in the tournament, taking 11 wickets in her final three games including 5-19 against Tasmania.
The pair first met at a cricket day held by Melbourne Renegades in Geelong and despite playing for different clubs
— Jones plays for Armstrong Creek locally and Plenty Valley in Premier, and Bowdler players for Geelong City and Prahran — they built such a bond that Jones brought Bowdler back to cricket.
“My friend Grace got me back into playing cricket after a few years,” Bowdler said.
“I was playing basketball so I had to choose one or the other, but now I just play basketball in winter.
“The first time I started keeping it was a bit confronting and a bit scary. I didn’t expect the ball to be coming at me all the time. It took about a season to get comfortable.”
Bowdler’s next representative assignment will be the under-15 national championships in Canberra, beginning on February 25.
Jones’s spin has made an impact on women’s Premier cricket so far this summer, where she has taken 20 wickets in all competitions at an average at 20.6.
She will hope to make an even bigger impact this week when she rolls her arm over as a net bowler for the Australian and England women’s international sides while they train on Thursday and Friday at Junction Oval in the midst of their T20 tri-series.