Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Will Luxton is in sparkling form in Melbourne.
Will Luxton scored another century for Greenvale Kangaroos on Saturday, his third in succession in Victorian Premier Cricket. In the same competition, Fin Bean racked up an unbeaten 142 for Melbourne University last weekend.
Luxton recently took over the captaincy of the Kangaroos, where he is playing alongside county colleague Ben Cliff. It is their second successive winter with the club.
In a 32-run defeat chasing 243 in a 50-over game, Luxton contributed a fine 115 off 114 balls batting at number four. With him and Cliff at the crease at 206-7, they still had hope of victory. But they were two of the last three wickets to fall for four runs, Luxton being last man out. Earlier, Cliff took the new ball and returned 0-51 from 10 overs.
The two weekends before that, in-form Luxton had posted scores of 120 and 124.
Greenvale and Essendon, where Harry Duke is playing, are struggling at the wrong end of the table having won one and lost four games this season.
On Saturday, Duke hit 46 batting at three in a defeat to Kingston Hawthorn, following scores of 43 and 56 not out in the previous two games.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Fin Bean celebrates his 53-ball century against Durham in this summer’s Metro Bank One-Day Cup. He has been raising his bat in Melbourne this winter too.
As aforementioned, Bean is also playing in the same competition for Melbourne University.
They beat Carlton on Saturday, Bean opening with five in a successful chase of 214.
However, he starred last Saturday in a 50-over win against Dandenong as they chased 260 to win by four wickets. He posted a superb 142 not out off 145 balls.
The league is made up of a combination of two-day and 50-over cricket. They have won two and lost three so far.
Also in Melbourne, playing in different competitions are Noah Kelly (Beaumaris), Dan Moriarty (Caulfield) and Owen Smith (Deepdene Bears).
On Saturday, wicketkeeper-batter Kelly hit a composed 73 batting at three for Beaumaris in a two-day defeat against Mentone, bowled out for 144 in reply to 279-9.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Yash Vagadia, pictured sub-fielding for England at Headingley, is currently enjoying a winter of club cricket in New Zealand.
Kelly didn’t get chance to bat the game before that as it was abandoned due to weather halfway through, but he posted 72 in the game before that and 42 opening the batting in a T20 win over Cheltenham last Tuesday night.
They have lost three of four games and sit bottom of the Southern Bayside Premier competition.
Moriarty has played six times for Caulfield in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association Premier competition and has returned notable hauls of 4-9 from 10 overs and 3-17 from six with his left-arm spin. They have won three of five completed games so far.
They are currently in the midst of a two-day game against Brunswick (233-8). Moriarty didn’t strike on Saturday.
Young wicketkeeper-batter Smith is playing for Deepdene Bears in the Eastern Cricket Association Premier competition and has posted best scores of 68 and 65 in five innings.
Over in New Zealand, Yash Vagadia’s Onslow side have won five of seven games in Wellington’s ROBLAWMAX Senior competition – a mixture of 50-over and T20 cricket.
Vagadia has contributed with bat and ball, with best of 63 and 3-27 to his name so far.
Picture by Gareth Copley/Getty Images. Matthew Revis at the crease for the England Lions against a Cricket Australia XI in Perth this weekend.
It has been a frustrating weekend for the English in Perth, with the Lions also losing their four-day game against a Cricket Australia XI at Lilac Hill.
Yorkshire’s Matthew Revis featured in an eight-wicket defeat, which finished today. The hosts chased 232 with comfort.
Revis posted middle-order scores of 21 and 12 and struck once with the ball in the first innings. He didn’t bowl in the second. A number of Test squad players featured across both sides. Jacob Bethell, Will Jacks and Matthew Potts for the Lions, Josh Inglis for the Aussies. Inglis scored a second-innings unbeaten 125.
England’s Under 19s will today hope to level their seven-match Youth ODI series in the West Indies at 2-2.
Yorkshire’s Will Bennison has played one match and scored 20, while Jay Singh has taken one wicket in two appearances.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWPix.com. Jess Woolston is representing North Geelong CC this winter.
There is an outside possibility that Yorkshire women’s fast bowler Jess Woolston could line up in the same North Geelong team as Australia men’s coach Andrew McDonald this winter.
Woolston is playing club cricket on the outskirts of Melbourne this winter, and the same club where McDonald occasionally turns out alongside his son Ollie.
She is currently playing women’s cricket Down Under, helping her side to five wins from six T20 games so far.
Yesterday, they beat Lethbridge by five wickets chasing 115, Woolston returning 0-12 from four overs of seam and 12 not out in the middle order.
But Yorkshire coach Rich Pyrah says that as the winter goes on, there is the option for Woolston to play some men’s cricket.
“Wooly’s taking this first month or so to get settled in and see what things are like,” he explained. “We’ve organised for her to go train with one of the Big Bash teams and Victoria moving forwards.
“I’m just going to let her come to me and say, “I’m ready to play some men’s cricket now”. Or it may be that she’s getting enough out of training with Victoria.”
Last Saturday, before the first Ashes Test in Perth, former international all-rounder McDonald made a rare appearance opening the batting for North Geelong’s fourth grade men’s team alongside his son Ollie.
They shared a century stand in a win over St Peter’s, with both hitting half-centuries.
In New South Wales Premier cricket in Sydney, Ami Campbell has posted scores of 61, 40 and 33 in her last three T20 innings for Gordon’s women. They won seven of nine group matches but were beaten in the semi-finals yesterday.
They start their 50-over campaign this coming Sunday.
Rebecca Duckworth’s time with Gold Coast Dolphins has been heavily rain-interrupted. She has a top score of 21 in four innings for the Queenslanders.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Scotland’s Hannah Rainey is one of three Yorkshire women’s players competing in the Emerging Nations Trophy in Bangkok.
Sterre Kalis, Hannah Rainey and Rachel Slater are all currently in Bangkok playing in the Emerging Nations Trophy for the Netherlands and Scotland respectively.
Kalis has posted scores of 1, 40 and 24, helping the Dutch to two wins out of three T20 games. She has played her 50th T20I in the process.
Scotland, meanwhile, played in a Quadrangular series beforehand with hosts Thailand, Papua New Guinea and Namibia and won all three matches in that as well as their three matches so far in the Emerging Nations Trophy. They currently sit top of the table, with the Dutch third.
Across the two campaigns, Rainey has taken three wickets in four matches and fellow seamer Slater five in four added to a crucial 21 down the order in their opening win over Thailand – by two wickets chasing 137.
The Emerging Nations Trophy runs through until Sunday. The Netherlands and Scotland meet on Friday.
Picture by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images. Jonny Bairstow is set to play in two overseas T20 leagues either side of Christmas. He will represent Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the SA20 after his ILT20 commitments.
Jonny Bairstow is set to reach 250 career T20 appearances next month when he lines up for MI Emirates in the ILT20 competition in the UAE, which begins on December 2 and runs through until January 4.
Yorkshire’s County Championship captain, who recently signed a new three-year contract with the county, will play T20 cricket in both the Emirates and South Africa either side of Christmas.
He will be in the same squad as former county team-mate Jordan Thompson, a regular in the MI squad across the first three seasons of the event.
MI Emirates were champions in 2024.
Bairstow, aged 36, has been involved with Yorkshire in the early stages of pre-season training over the last few weeks.
In all in T20 cricket, including internationals, he has played 244 times. The wicketkeeper-batter is the only man to score three T20 centuries for Yorkshire.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. We will be sitting down to chat with general manager of cricket Gavin Hamilton about the 2026 fixture list this week. You can read a piece on this website on Friday.
A reminder, when the Vitality Blast fixtures are released by the ECB tomorrow there will be a reduction in games for both the men’s and women’s competitions in 2026.
The Tier 1 women’s event sees its format relatively unchanged but for a reduction in group games from 14 to 12.
The men’s Blast, however, will no longer see counties split into two groups of nine, instead it will be three regional groups of six to bring the group stage down to 12 games per side.
That means Yorkshire will be in the North Group with Derbyshire, Durham, Lancashire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. Each of those counties will play each other twice. The White Rose will then play two teams from the South and Midlands groups, one at home and one away.
The top two teams in each group will advance to the quarter-finals alongside the best two third-placed finishers.
The women’s Blast will see the top three teams qualify for Finals Day, with the top team advancing directly to the final and the second and third-placed finishers playing off in a semi-final.
The women’s Blast final will be at the Kia Oval on July 17, the men’s Finals Day taking place at Edgbaston the following day.
While the Blast fixtures are released tomorrow, the full domestic fixture list will follow on Thursday.
Picture by Martin Keep/Getty Images. Jess Jonassen will represent Yorkshire’s women in 2026 and 2027 having signed a two-year overseas deal at Headingley.
NO BALL…FREE HIT!
New Yorkshire women’s signings Sarah Glenn and Jess Jonassen will both be involved in Thursday’s Indian WPL auction.
The two spin-bowling all-rounders – England’s Glenn and Australia’s Jonassen – will both go under the hammer ahead of the fourth edition of the women’s version of the IPL, which is due to take place in January and February.
Glenn is one of 22 English players who will hope to attract interest from one of the five teams.
England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt has been retained by the Mumbai Indians, who are the defending champions.
Jonassen is currently playing for Brisbane Heat in the ongoing Big Bash League in Australia, while Glenn is holidaying ahead of overseas training camps with England through the winter. Yorkshire captain Lauren Winfield-Hill has also played two games for the Heat and has been undertaking commentary duty for the competition.
Unfortunately, the Heat sit bottom of the table having lost all five games.
