An Over of News

Picture by YCCC. Women’s new-ball quick Beth Langston was one of those back in training at Headingley yesterday.

The countdown to the new season is on!

Yorkshire’s women returned to pre-season training this week ahead of the 2026 campaign, while the men do so too at the start of next week.

And added to that, the summer’s fixture list will be released by the ECB on both November 25 and 28.

Firstly, the Vitality Blast fixtures will be revealed before the rest follow a few days later.

A host of men’s and women’s players are plying their trade in sunnier climes – be it on international, franchise or club cricket duty – but a number have remained at Headingley.

The focus will initially be on fitness for the pre-season training as they build up to the new summer, which begins at the start of April.

While the women begin their Tier 1 journey next summer having just won the Tier 2 Metro Bank One-Day Cup, the men are aiming to push on from a One-Day Cup semi-final appearance and Championship survival.

Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. George Hill is in Hong Kong with England at the Sixes event.

George Hill’s opening day at the Hong Kong Sixes was ruined by rain as both of England’s matches against the United Arab Emirates and Australia were washed out because of the wet weather.

England were due to open up their account against the UAE just after midnight UK time before facing the Aussies at 8.35am. Unfortunately, however, they will have to wait until tomorrow to get things going.

The event is played across three days – six overs per side, six players per side.

England will be captained by Kent batter Joe Denly.

There were 10 matches scheduled today, with seven played.

Australia’s Test new boy Jake Weatherald may well etch his name into Ashes folklore over the next couple of months. For England’s sake, let’s hope not. But he certainly wrote his name into the record books in the Yorkshire Premier League South back in 2022.

Weatherald, a prolific run-scorer with Tasmania and former Big Bash winner with Adelaide Strikers, has broken into his nation’s squad for the first Test at Perth, starting on November 21.

Back in 2022 and 2023, he spent two seasons playing in the YPL South for Barnsley Woolley Miners, where he scored more than 2,500 runs and won a pair of T20 titles.

And in one particular league match, against Whiston Parish Church, the left-hander amassed a league record 270 opening as his side posted a league record total of 512-9 from their 50 overs in a thumping win.

Picture by Steve Bell/Getty Images. Ashes pick Jake Weatherald has starred for Barnsley Woolley Miners.

Yorkshire’s emerging batting star Will Luxton has taken over as captain of Victorian Premier side Greenvale Kangaroos last month and hit a superb 120 as he made a winning debut in the role last month.

Coming in at number four with his side at 30-2, batting first in a two-day game, Luxton hit eight fours and six sixes in 163 balls to help the post 242 all out, which they defended.

It was their first win of the season, which they came into having only won once in the last two years. Luxton and Ben Cliff have returned to the same club they represented last year, although Cliff has only just started playing having rested for a few weeks following the end of the county season.

In that competition, Greenvale, Essendon and Melbourne University are all in the bottom half the table, the latter two clubs where Harry Duke and Fin Bean are.

Bean has a top-score of 43 in a couple of appearances, Duke 56 not out.

Also in Melbourne, Dan Moriarty claimed an excellent 4-9 from 10 overs of left-arm spin as Caulfield beat Ivanhoe late last month in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association competition. They have won two of three games so far.

Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Will Luxton is enjoying his winter in Melbourne.

In the Souther Bayside competition, Noah Kelly’s Beaumaris have lost two from two, with the White Rose wicketkeeper-batter posting a top-score of 72 so far.

Jess Woolston, meanwhile, has helped her North Geelong side to the top of their women’s Geelong Cricket Association Grade A table, with three wins from four T20s games, the other rained out.

While Woolston hasn’t taken the wickets she would have wanted, she has been impressively miserly with the new ball.

Ami Campbell and Rebecca Duckworth are playing for Gordon in Sydney and Gold Coast in Queensland and are yet to really get going in terms of run-scoring.

Yash Vagadia’s Onslow have won three out of four T20s. Last time out, Vagadia has started nicely with bat and ball, contributing 32 from number three and two wickets with his off-spin in a victory over Upper Hutt United.

He has a best of three wickets and 38 to his name so far.

Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com Dan Moriarty, another Yorkshire star playing grade cricket Down Under.

Lauren Winfield-Hill, meanwhile, has helped Queensland win four from four to top the WNCL table.

The state 50-over competition now breaks until the start of January, with the Big Bash about to start.

Winfield-Hill has started well with the bat, posting scores of 38, 59, 101 not out and nine not out.

Yorkshire women’s new overseas signing Jess Jonassen begins her latest Big Bash campaign this weekend, with history on the agenda.

Left-arm spin bowling all-rounder Jonassen, captain of the Brisbane Heat, has taken 179 wickets in her WBBL career, which has included a pair of titles in 2018/19 and 2019/20.

No other bowler has taken more in the history of a competition that started in 2015, meaning she is set to become the first bowler to reach the 200-wicket mark.

Jonassen was named as last year’s joint player of the tournament – alongside Sydney Sixer Ellyse Perry – having taken 17 wickets added to 218 runs. She helped her side reach the final, where they were beaten by Melbourne Renegades.

Picture by Chris Hyde/Getty Images. This way to Headingley in 2026! Jess Jonassen is coming to Yorkshire, but not before representing Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash, starting this weekend.

She celebrated her 33rd birthday earlier this week and has signed a two-year contract to play at Headingley in 2026 and 2027.

Jonassen and the Heat are involved in the opening game of the WBBL on Sunday, against the Renegades in Brisbane (2.40am UK).

One of Yorkshire’s 2025 overseas players Will Sutherland has captained Victoria during a superb start to their four-day Sheffield Shield campaign in Australia.

Victoria are sitting pretty on top of the table with three wins from three, all-rounder Sutherland playing in two of those.

In matches against New South Wales and Tasmania, he has contributed 46 and one wicket and then 29 and three wickets.

Sutherland represented the White Rose in both this summer’s Vitality Blast and Rothesay County Championship.

Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWPix.com. Will Sutherland in Yorkshire colours this summer.

Jackson Gillespie, the son of former Yorkshire fast bowler and Championship-winning coach Jason, has been making headlines in Australia.

Jackson, an up and coming quick himself in South Australia’s pathway system, played for an Australian XI as part of an Indigenous national training camp at the MCG.

Jackson picked up a wicket at the famous old venue, where his father first struck for Australia in ODI cricket back in 1996.

Jason also has another son with sporting talent, Brandon, who is playing semi-professional basketball with Southern Tigers in South Australia.

Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWPix.com. Jason Gillespie has sons with sporting pedigree.

NO BALL…FREE HIT!

Former Yorkshire batter and County Championship winner Jack Leaning says the chance to work with Paul Farbrace once again was a big reason for his switch from Kent to Sussex ahead of 2026.

Leaning, aged 32, has signed on at Hove on a three-year to play for a county coached by his ex-Yorkshire second-team coach Farbrace.

“Farbs was a really big pull for me,” he said.

“I worked with him a lot as a youngster at Yorkshire, and he was really good for my game and got the best out of me as a kid.

“He’s someone I’ve always been in contact with throughout my career, so I’m looking forward to working back with him again.”