Holly Colvin
Encyclopedia
Holly Louise Colvin is an English cricketer
and member of the current England women's cricket team
.
She currently holds the record of being the youngest Test
cricketer of either sex to play for England.
by playing in the boys' team at Brighton College
. Competing in the Lord's Taverners under-15 Cup in 2004, Colvin and fellow Brightonian Sarah Taylor
were the only girls amongst the 1,000 participating teams. Colvin and Taylor's involvement in the competition caused controversy within the MCC
, with president Robin Marlar
calling their inclusion "absolutely outrageous". He proceeded to argue that, "if there's an 18-year-old who can bowl at 80mph and he's been brought up properly then he shouldn't want to hurt a lady at any cost". Richard Cairns, headmaster of Brighton College, dismissed the comments as "show[ing] a huge generation gap"; Colvin herself commented that "we just thought it was funny... [they] don't treat me any different. They bowl at me just as fast and hit the ball just as hard". On a cricket tour to Sri Lanka
in December 2004, she was one of the last people to play at the Galle International Stadium
before it was flattened by the tsunami
of Boxing Day
that year. In December 2006, Colvin was named as 'Female Pupil of the Year' by The Telegraph
's 'School Sport Matters' campaign, receiving the award at Lord's
from Olympic gold-medallist Kelly Holmes
.
from May 2005 to July 2008. She was part of the Sussex teams that won the women's County Championship in 2005, and again in 2008. The West Sussex Cricket League has named a trophy after her, awarded annually to the most-improved young female cricketer in the county.
. She was invited to bowl against the English team in the nets
to give them practice against a left-arm spinner
, who the Australian team was fielding in the form of Shelley Nitschke
. After the practice session, Colvin was asked to be available for the four-day match by team coach Richard Bates. Team captain Clare Connor admitted that her inclusion was "pure hunch", believing that the dry, dusty wicket would be favourable to spin bowling
. Bates explained to The Times
that "the pitch [was] a little worn, and we felt that Holly could help us exploit it". Colvin made her England debut on 9 August 2005, becoming at 15 years and 336 days the youngest cricketer (of either sex) to play Test cricket
for England. She took three wickets in her inaugural game, dismissing Kate Blackwell
and Julia Price
in two consecutive balls and nearly taking Julie Hayes for a hat-trick. Reminiscing over the experience in February 2008, Colvin remarked that "I think I was fortunate... I had no idea who I was playing against – all these big names that were coming up against me and I had pretty much no idea". She described her near-hat-trick as a "pretty special [moment]".
Although Bates said that "she might have to wait a few years before she gets another chance [to play for England]", Colvin became a regular member of England's international teams. By August 2007, she had two Test match
es and eleven One Day Internationals to her credit. In the Women's Quadrangular Series in India
in 2006, Colvin took three wickets for 47 against New Zealand, and then 3 for 50 in the 3rd–4th playoff to secure the England team 3rd place.
On 10 August 2007, Colvin took a wicket and a catch in her inaugural Twenty20
match, against New Zealand at Taunton. Despite being the smallest member of the squad – a photograph published by the BBC
shows her fitting comfortably inside a cricket bag – she proved her worth in the three-match series, taking wickets in both subsequent games.
In February 2008, Colvin played her third international Test match, on tour in Australia, as part of the England Women's Team defending the Ashes
won in 2005. Colvin admitted that she felt "a little under pressure" before the one-match series; England had not won the Women's Ashes for 42 years prior to the victory in 2005. She claimed that the team were "definitely looking to win... we’ve got more to lose". The England Team won the match by six wickets, successfully retaining the Ashes trophy. Colvin set a new personal best for Test matches, taking three for 42 during the second innings. Her best bowling analysis in ODI cricket was exceeded on 1 September 2008 when she took 4 for 20 against India in the second match of the series at Taunton.
, Colvin has participated in three Test matches, 25 One Day Internationals, and three Twenty20 matches.
She was an integral part of the England attack during the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup
, taking 9 wickets at 18 in the competition and hitting the winning runs in a tense finish in the final against New Zealand. She was the highest wicket taker, with 9 for 106, in the inaugural Women's World Twenty20
in England in 2009.
, to which is attached one of England's four University Centres of Cricketing Excellence
.
Cricketer
A cricketer is a person who plays the sport of cricket. Official and long-established cricket publications prefer the traditional word "cricketer" over the rarely used term "cricket player"....
and member of the current England women's cricket team
English women's cricket team
The England women's cricket team played their first Test match in 1934–35, when they beat Australia 2–0 in a three-Test series. Their current captain is Charlotte Edwards, replacing Clare Connor after her five-year tenure, which she finished by leading England to their first Ashes series win since...
.
She currently holds the record of being the youngest Test
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
cricketer of either sex to play for England.
School level
A right-hand bat and slow left arm bowler, Colvin attended Westbourne House School, West Sussex originally as a batsman and started playing for the 1st XI in year 7 and averaging over 100. After Westbourne House, Colvin followed in the footsteps of England women's captain Clare ConnorClare Connor
Clare Joanne Connor OBE, is an English all-round cricketer who bats right-handed and bowls slow left arm spin. She made her England One Day International debut in 1995 and played her first Test match that winter. She took a hat-trick against India in 1999 and captained England from 2000 until her...
by playing in the boys' team at Brighton College
Brighton College
Brighton College is an institution divided between a Senior School known simply as Brighton College, the Prep School and the Pre-Prep School. All of these schools are co-educational independent schools in Brighton, England, sited immediately next to each another. The Senior School caters for...
. Competing in the Lord's Taverners under-15 Cup in 2004, Colvin and fellow Brightonian Sarah Taylor
Sarah Taylor (cricketer)
Sarah Jane Taylor is an English cricketer. She is a wicketkeeper-batsman known for her free flowing stroke play, opening the batting in one day matches and batting in the middle order in Tests. She was a member of the England team which retained the Ashes in Australia in 2008. She plays county...
were the only girls amongst the 1,000 participating teams. Colvin and Taylor's involvement in the competition caused controversy within the MCC
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
, with president Robin Marlar
Robin Marlar
Robin Geoffrey Marlar is an English cricketer and cricket journalist. He was educated at Harrow and Cambridge....
calling their inclusion "absolutely outrageous". He proceeded to argue that, "if there's an 18-year-old who can bowl at 80mph and he's been brought up properly then he shouldn't want to hurt a lady at any cost". Richard Cairns, headmaster of Brighton College, dismissed the comments as "show[ing] a huge generation gap"; Colvin herself commented that "we just thought it was funny... [they] don't treat me any different. They bowl at me just as fast and hit the ball just as hard". On a cricket tour to Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
in December 2004, she was one of the last people to play at the Galle International Stadium
Galle International Stadium
Galle International Stadium is a cricket stadium in Galle, Sri Lanka, situated near the Galle fort and fringed on two sides by the Indian Ocean. It is considered to be one of the most picturesque cricket grounds in the world...
before it was flattened by the tsunami
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...
of Boxing Day
Boxing Day
Boxing Day is a bank or public holiday that occurs on 26 December, or the first or second weekday after Christmas Day, depending on national or regional laws. It is observed in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth nations. In Ireland, it is recognized as...
that year. In December 2006, Colvin was named as 'Female Pupil of the Year' by The Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
's 'School Sport Matters' campaign, receiving the award at Lord's
Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...
from Olympic gold-medallist Kelly Holmes
Kelly Holmes
Dame Kelly Holmes, DBE, MBE is a retired British middle distance athlete. She specialised in the 800 metres and 1500 metres events and won a gold medal for both distances at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens...
.
County level
Colvin played for Sussex County Cricket ClubSussex County Cricket Club
Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Sussex. The club was founded as a successor to Brighton Cricket Club which was a representative of the county of Sussex as a...
from May 2005 to July 2008. She was part of the Sussex teams that won the women's County Championship in 2005, and again in 2008. The West Sussex Cricket League has named a trophy after her, awarded annually to the most-improved young female cricketer in the county.
International
Colvin's first involvement with international cricket came in August 2005, when the England team was preparing to face the Australian women's international team at the Hove County Cricket GroundCounty Cricket Ground, Hove
The County Cricket Ground, also known as the Probiz County Ground for sponsorship reasons, is a cricket venue in Hove, England. It is home to Sussex County Cricket Club. It is one of the few county grounds to have deckchairs for spectators - which are in the colours of Sussex CCC - blue and white....
. She was invited to bowl against the English team in the nets
Cricket nets
Cricket nets are practice nets used by batsmen and bowlers to warm up and/or improve their cricketing techniques. Cricket nets consist of a cricket pitch which is enclosed by cricket nets on either side, to the rear and optionally the roof. The bowling end of the net is left open...
to give them practice against a left-arm spinner
Left-arm orthodox spin
Left-arm orthodox spin is a type of bowling in the sport of cricket.Left-arm orthodox spin is bowled by a left arm bowler using the fingers to spin the ball from right to left of the cricket pitch...
, who the Australian team was fielding in the form of Shelley Nitschke
Shelley Nitschke
Shelley Nitschke is a female cricketer who plays for South Australia and Australia. A left-handed batsman and left arm orthodox spinner, she is one of the leading all-rounders in the world....
. After the practice session, Colvin was asked to be available for the four-day match by team coach Richard Bates. Team captain Clare Connor admitted that her inclusion was "pure hunch", believing that the dry, dusty wicket would be favourable to spin bowling
Spin bowling
Spin bowling is a technique used for bowling in the sport of cricket. Practitioners are known as spinners or spin bowlers.-Purpose:The main aim of spin bowling is to bowl the cricket ball with rapid rotation so that when it bounces on the pitch it will deviate, thus making it difficult for the...
. Bates explained to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
that "the pitch [was] a little worn, and we felt that Holly could help us exploit it". Colvin made her England debut on 9 August 2005, becoming at 15 years and 336 days the youngest cricketer (of either sex) to play Test cricket
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
for England. She took three wickets in her inaugural game, dismissing Kate Blackwell
Kate Blackwell
Kathryn Anne Blackwell in Wagga Wagga, but raised in Yenda, a small rural town outside of Griffith, NSW. She and her identical twin sister Alex Blackwell were part of the Australian national team that won the 2005 Women's Cricket World Cup in South Africa...
and Julia Price
Julia Price
Julia Clare Price is a cricketer for the Australian women's cricket team. She made her first class debut in 1995 for Queensland Women and her Test debut against New Zealand at Melbourne in February 1996...
in two consecutive balls and nearly taking Julie Hayes for a hat-trick. Reminiscing over the experience in February 2008, Colvin remarked that "I think I was fortunate... I had no idea who I was playing against – all these big names that were coming up against me and I had pretty much no idea". She described her near-hat-trick as a "pretty special [moment]".
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
es and eleven One Day Internationals to her credit. In the Women's Quadrangular Series in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in 2006, Colvin took three wickets for 47 against New Zealand, and then 3 for 50 in the 3rd–4th playoff to secure the England team 3rd place.
On 10 August 2007, Colvin took a wicket and a catch in her inaugural Twenty20
Twenty20
Twenty20 is a form of cricket, originally introduced in England for professional inter-county competition by the England and Wales Cricket Board , in 2003. A Twenty20 game involves two teams, each has a single innings, batting for a maximum of 20 overs. Twenty20 cricket is also known as T20 cricket...
match, against New Zealand at Taunton. Despite being the smallest member of the squad – a photograph published by the BBC
BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...
shows her fitting comfortably inside a cricket bag – she proved her worth in the three-match series, taking wickets in both subsequent games.
In February 2008, Colvin played her third international Test match, on tour in Australia, as part of the England Women's Team defending the Ashes
The Women's Ashes
The Ashes or the Women's Ashes is the Women's Test cricket series between England and Australia. It is named after the Ashes. The series was first played in 1934 and was the first ever women's Test series...
won in 2005. Colvin admitted that she felt "a little under pressure" before the one-match series; England had not won the Women's Ashes for 42 years prior to the victory in 2005. She claimed that the team were "definitely looking to win... we’ve got more to lose". The England Team won the match by six wickets, successfully retaining the Ashes trophy. Colvin set a new personal best for Test matches, taking three for 42 during the second innings. Her best bowling analysis in ODI cricket was exceeded on 1 September 2008 when she took 4 for 20 against India in the second match of the series at Taunton.
, Colvin has participated in three Test matches, 25 One Day Internationals, and three Twenty20 matches.
She was an integral part of the England attack during the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup
2009 Women's Cricket World Cup
The 2009 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup was the ninth edition of the tournament and was held in Australia from 7 to 22 March 2009, using the sport's One Day International format....
, taking 9 wickets at 18 in the competition and hitting the winning runs in a tense finish in the final against New Zealand. She was the highest wicket taker, with 9 for 106, in the inaugural Women's World Twenty20
2009 ICC Women's World Twenty20
The 2009 ICC Women's World Twenty20 competition took on a different format from that of the men's, having eight teams split into two pools followed directly by the semi-finals and final. All pool stage matches were played at the County Ground in Taunton...
in England in 2009.
Personal life
Colvin gained 10 A* GCSE passes, three As in AS-level exams, and 4 As in her A-levels. In 2009, she started studying natural sciences at Durham UniversityDurham University
The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...
, to which is attached one of England's four University Centres of Cricketing Excellence
Durham University Centre of Cricketing Excellence
Durham MCC University is a cricket coaching centre based at Durham University in Durham, County Durham, England and the name under which the university's cricket team plays....
.