Bears, Central Sparks and Birmingham Phoenix star Eve Jones arrived back in England at the weekend after a successful campaign for Melbourne Renegades in the Women's Big Bash League. Eve was third top-run scorer for the Renegades as they finished second in the table to qualify for the challenger. Here, Eve reports back on a trip that was "great fun and a great experience."
Hello to all Bears, Sparks and Phoenix fans. I returned to England on Saturday after a truly memorable time in Australia. I am so fortunate that I was awarded a contract by the Renegades. I’ve had so much fun.
Everyone was really welcoming and the environment at the Renegades was unreal. We had fun on and off the field and I think that showed in our cricket. We had a really good start to the tournament and played some good cricket and made it through to the finals week. It was disappointing not to make the final itself but it’s been a great experience and a good learning curve for us all.
We were really fortunate in that we were able to travel all over Australia. Some teams only went to a couple of states but we got to Perth and went to Tasmania, Adelaide twice and Mackay. It was great to play cricket in all those places, see some sights and take it all in and create some great memories off the field.
On the field, I am reasonably happy with how I performed. In T20 your form can go up and down, but I managed to put in a few good performances. I would have liked to put in a couple more to help the team but it was nice to contribute. I think I adapted to Aussie conditions quite well. We started off in Tasmania so it was probably as cold as England when we got there so that helped me settle!
The time with the Renegades has been a fantastic way for me to end what has been a great year. To be honest, it’s a bit surreal how well it has gone because it doesn’t often happen that you perform so well so consistently. It has been a good year…now I just want to keep pushing for selection for England. With the Ashes coming up after Christmas this was a chance for me to show what I can do, so we’ll see what happens…it would be amazing to come back out here in January either with the Ashes squad or the A squad.
In the immediate term I’ll have a week or so off and then it’s straight back into training with the Sparks at Edgbaston. It will be great to catch up with the Sparks. The girls have been back training for over a month now so they have been kicking on and working really hard so I’m excited to see them all.
It’s been a big year and I’ve been playing cricket pretty much non-stop since the first of April so it will be nice to get a couple of weeks off over Christmas and refresh and then be ready to go again…hopefully in Australia. We’ll see!
Happy Christmas to all.
Eve
Bears Together: 2025 Membership
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