Cricket umpire Eloise Sheridan offers a glimpse into her record partnership

She made headlines as the first female South Australian cricket umpire in 2017 – now she’s preparing for her role in the test between Australia and the West Indies.

Eloise, 16-month old Harriet Sheridan and Heather Roe at their home in Banksia Park, on Friday January 12, 2024. (The Advertiser/ Morgan Sette)

Eloise Sheridan, 38, made history when she became the first female South Australian cricket umpire in 2017.

Now, she’s preparing for her role as the 4th umpire for the men’s test between Australia and the West Indies on home soil.

“Then I have the women’s international series versus South Africa just after that, which has games in Canberra, Hobart, Adelaide, Sydney and Perth,” Sheridan said.

“I’ll be on field for the test in Perth with Claire Polosak, which will be the first time two females in Australia have done a women’s test together.”

Partner Heather Rowe is the reason Sheridan has not given up making history as Australia’s first female umpire. Picture: Morgan Sette

In between her umpiring duties, Sheridan is a mum to one-year-old daughter, Harriet, and wife to Heather Rowe.

The South Australian’s umpiring highlights include a Women’s Ashes (2022), a Women’s One Day International between Australia and India (2021), T20 World Cups and the 2022 Commonwealth Games in the UK.

Sheridan, who grew up playing cricket in her Salisbury backyard, made her professional debut at a men’s premier fixture in Adelaide in 2017.

The following year she umpired alongside fellow female official Mary Waldron for a match between Tea Tree Gully and Northern Districts, featuring local batter and now international cricketer Travis Head for Tea Tree Gully.

Sheridan has carved out a nine-year career as a female umpire making the rare transition from player to umpire.

She started playing cricket at age 12 with Northern Districts, before moving to Sturt and was selected for the state junior team two years later while playing for Northern Districts.

The 38-year-old played first grade cricket for Northern Districts, Sturt and Kensington before retiring in 2014 at the age of 28 following a premiership win.

She said it was her partner Rowe, an Australian Air Force officer, who she met at an Anzac Day party in 2014, who encouraged her to give umpiring a crack.

“I met Heather in April, we started off as friends and then just started spending more time together,” Sheridan said.

“At some point, we were watching cricket and she said, why don’t you give it (umpiring) a go?

“We’ve been together the whole time I’ve been umpiring, I’ve always been open about my sexuality.

“That’s never been an issue, cricket is a really supportive community – there’s no judgment about any of that, it’s never been an issue at any level, I’ve been really lucky about respect.”

At that point in her life, Sheridan was juggling playing first grade cricket and being a high school teacher.

“When I became a teacher, it just became really difficult,” she said.

“I was teaching at Saint Columba College and the commute to get to trainings was just too much for me.

“I ended up moving clubs a couple times, playing for Sturt and then Kensington toward the end of my career.

“After we won the premiership, I took the next season off.”

Eloise Sheridan and Claire Polosak became the first two female umpires to have on-field roles in the Marsh Sheffield Shield in November 2023. Picture: SA Cricket Association

Sheridan then completed umpire training through SACA and went on to do level 2 and 3 and representative training through Cricket Australia.

But her umpiring career got off to a shaky start.

“I umpired U14 boys and I just didn’t like it at all,” she said.

“I would have been 29 at the time and I’d walk into a meeting as the only female among 100-and-something middle-aged to older white men – it was very daunting.”

However, she then joined a development squad working with a coach and group of people she met with every month.

It was here she met fellow umpires Colin Shearing and Craig Thomas, who is now her coach.

Shearing and Thomas attended her wedding to Rowe in 2019.

South Australian Eloise Sheridan was one of the first female cricket umpires in the country. Picture: Supplied

Eloise Sheridan alongside fellow umpire Bruce Oxenford at Adelaide Oval in December 2022. Picture: Getty Images

Cricket has always kept her close to her dad, who died of a brain tumour when she was just 14 and loved the game.

After becoming a mum to Harriet, Sheridan has found it once again difficult to balance umpiring, teaching full time at Saint Ignatius College and parenting.

“It’s been really difficult – the more commitments I have, particularly the last three to four seasons, I’ve been going away a lot,” she said.

“Heather would remind me of why I’m doing it and why it’s important – she’ll say, ‘it’s just one more game, keep going’.

Eloise Sheridan, 16-month old Harriet and partner Heather at their home undergoing renovations. Picture: Morgan Sette

One of the most difficult choices for Sheridan has been to umpire away from home, particularly when Rowe was having IVF.

“We always knew Heather would be the one to carry – we went through Fertility SA and they worked through some donors with us,” she said.

“Heather was quite unwell, there were issues with some of the medications they gave her.

“We were lucky the first embryo transfer worked, but when she was pregnant she lost 10kg and couldn’t eat anything, she was really sick and then at 32 weeks she found out she had a kidney stone so had a stent put in – she was basically bedridden for a few weeks.

“I ended up going to the UK for the Commonwealth Games (in 2022) but I almost didn’t go at the last minute, she was pushing me out the door saying, no you have to go.

“During Covid, I was home for three days and then went to New Zealand for about six weeks and that was probably one of the hardest things to do.”

Sheridan said she was still grateful for every opportunity life had given her, including being in a position to afford IVF knowing that a as a same-sex couple it would be their only option.

“We’re fortunate because we’re both in well-paying jobs and we could plan ahead,” she said.

“We’d been putting a little bit aside, we always knew it was something we would one day be saving for.”