Plenty Valley add English spinner for new Premier Women’s season

Plenty Valley will retain an international flavour this Premier Women’s season after securing an English spinner set to compliment existing tweakers Sophie Day and Grace Jones.

Providence Cowdrill in action for Plenty Valley. Picture: Hamish Blair

Plenty Valley will retain an international flavour this season after signing Englishwoman Beth Harvey.

The Bats might have to adopt the mantra “spin it to win it” after adding off-spinner Harvey to complement Sophie Day and Grace Jones.

Harvey, 21, has played 11 First XI games for Sussex in the County Championship while also plying her trade with Ansty in the Southern League Premier Division.

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Coach Adam Drinkwell was pleased to add another talented young cricketer to the squad.

“We think (Beth) will be a huge benefit to the squad for the full season,” he said.

“She’s an off-spinner, so she’ll complement Sophie Day, and we’ve got a young leggie in Grace Jones who’s part of the Victoria youth pathway system.

“We expect those two to play more First XI cricket this year, so we’ll have some really good options in our bowling attack and we think spin suits our home ground at Yarrambat.

Plenty Valley's Sophie Reid and Sophie Day celebrate a wicket. Picture: Arj Giese

“Hopefully (Beth) can make a difference in our bowling attack and slot in our middle order and score some valuable runs for us.”

Plenty Valley has previously had England star Danny Wyatt from Sussex, while Providence Cowdrill spent the last two seasons with the club.

The Bats finished fourth last season in the Premier Women’s competition before going down to Prahran in the semi-final.

Rhiann O’Donnell and Tayla Vlaeminck will be vying for Victorian and Australian honours, while Sophia Field will have a year away from the game.

However, Drinkwell still has confidence in the strength of his squad.

“We won’t see much of Taylor with her Australia commitments and she’s also signed with (WBBL club) Hobart Hurricanes,” he said.

“We hope Rhiann can get a few more games with Victoria this year, it looks like she’s be available for our T20 campaign this year.

“Sophie Day spent a couple of months in England playing first-class cricket with Berkshire, alongside England captain Heather Knight.”