Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Fin Bean acknowledges the applause following his record-breaking Metro Bank One-Day Cup century against Durham at Scarborough in August.
Fin Bean, Noah Kelly, Dan Moriarty and Owen Smith have all scored recent fifties in Melbourne club cricket, while Harry Duke and Will Luxton have also posted scores of note.
Bean, playing for Melbourne University, rekindled memories of August’s blistering 53-ball 50-over century on Sunday with an unbeaten 71 off 45 balls whilst batting at five in a T20 win over Kingston Hawthorn.
Bean, Duke, Luxton and Ben Cliff are all playing in the Victorian Premier grade competition. Duke is playing for Essendon and Luxton and Cliff for Greenvale Kangaroos.
They are playing a mixture of two-day, 50-over and T20 cricket, with the latter currently in-play.
Duke hit 43 opening for Essendon in a defeat to Casey South Melbourne last weekend, while Luxton opened with 45 in a DLS defeat against Melbourne. In the same match, Cliff returned 2-23 from three overs having taken the new ball.
There has been quite a lot of weather disruption in recent weeks for Yorkshire’s men’s and women’s players who are wintering Down Under. Since our last Over of News late last month, for example, Rebecca Duckworth has had a game abandoned with the Gold Coast Dolphins in Queensland added to a bye week.
Jess Woolston, playing for North Geelong women, took 1-4 from three overs in a thumping victory over Barwon Heads at the weekend, while Ami Campbell hit six in a win for Sydney side Gordon over Parramatta.
Young men’s duo Kelly and Smith are in third round knockout T20 action for Beaumaris and Deepdene Bears next Tuesday in Melbourne. Beaumaris face Murrumbeena, the Bears are up against North Balwyn.
In the last round, Kelly hit 70 off 49 balls opening in a win over Hampton, while Smith – in his role as vice captain – opened with 50 not out off 39 in a win over Balwyn Saints.
Moriarty recently hit 57 batting at six for Caulfield in a two-day defeat to Brunswick.
Yash Vagadia is in Wellington with Onslow, but their most recent fixture was abandoned.
Jafer Chohan, preparing for his second Big Bash stint with Sydney Sixers, has been playing Premier grade cricket in Sydney for the St George club.
As many English players have to do, he started in the second grade for them last month and hit 37 and claimed two wickets with his leg-spin in a victory over North Sydney before being elevated into the first team.
Picture by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images. Jess Jonassen during the early stages of this winter’s Big Bash competition.
Yorkshire are confident that Jess Jonassen’s shoulder injury, which has required surgery, will not adversely impact their overseas plans in 2026.
Australian all-rounder Jonassen has been ruled out of action for three-to-four months in order to correct a long-standing issue with the AC joint in her right shoulder.
The Brisbane Heat captain has had to pull out of the ongoing Women’s Big Bash competition as a result.
Jonassen, who has already had her surgery, has signed a two-year overseas contract at Headingley as the White Rose county begin their Tier 1 journey.
Timing wise, if things go swimmingly and the recovery time is closer to three months, Jonassen could return to finish the Australian state season with Queensland in March. If not, she will make her return to playing with Yorkshire next April.
Even if Jonassen takes a bit longer to gain full fitness and can’t bowl her left-arm spin immediately, she is absolutely capable of playing the early stages of the English summer as a specialist batter.
Picture by Matt Roberts/Getty Images. Sarah Glenn will be centrally contracted with England for the year ahead.
Sticking with the Brisbane Heat, and come the end of the WBBL next weekend, they will have fielded three Yorkshire players in their team this season.
As aforementioned, Jess Jonassen played for them before injury, whilst current and former England stars Sarah Glenn and Lauren Winfield-Hill have been wearing the teal.
White Rose captain Winfield-Hill has played five games, while new signing Glenn has played once. Both have been signed as replacement overseas players.
They have one more group game to play having lost eight of nine games so far.
Winfield-Hill has a top score of 47 and Glenn a best of 4-18.
Glenn had a particularly memorable day on Wednesday. She took four wickets for the Heat against Sydney Thunder before earning an England central contract later in the day.
Picture by Gareth Copley/Getty Images. Matthew Revis in action for the England Lions.
Matthew Revis is not in the England Lions team which is facing Australia A in a first-class fixture which started in Brisbane today.
Revis played his part in the Lions first two fixtures on tour in Perth, against the England senior Test team and a Cricket Australia XI.
In the first, he returned one wicket across the two innings, that of Ollie Pope for a second-innings 90.
In the second, he posted scores of 21 and 12 and again struck once with the ball.
Revis was listed on the scorecard for the pink ball game against the Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra last week but didn’t bat or bowl.
In their final fixture on tour, against Australia A, the hosts dominated the first day with a score of 155-2 in reply to 166 all out.
Picture by B. Gomer/Getty Images. The late Robin Smith.
English Cricket was shocked by the sad and untimely death of Hampshire and England legend Robin Smith earlier this week, the former batter passing unexpectedly aged 62 at his home in Perth.
Smith scored three centuries for Hampshire against Yorkshire – two in the County Championship and one in the Axa Equity and Law League – during his illustrious career.
In 1994, at Headingley, he scored a second-innings 134 in a Championship draw.
In 1995, at Southampton, he hit 119 in a Sunday League White Rose victory. Yorkshire’s current general manager of cricket Gavin Hamilton removed Smith as one of four wickets that day.
In 1997, at Portsmouth, in a Championship draw, Smith hit a first-innings 110 in another draw. Hampshire were forced to follow-on in reply to 501-8 declared, and Hamilton removed Smith second time around for a golden duck.
Smith scored 10 home centuries across all formats for England, one of them coming at Headingley (128) in an ODI defeat to New Zealand in 1990.
Picture by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images. Jonny Bairstow has a pair of T20 assignments on his agenda for the winter.
Jonny Bairstow is underway with the MI Emirates team in the UAE’s ILT20 competition. But, unfortunately, they made a losing start yesterday.
Bairstow opened the batting and scored 11 in a defeat to the Gulf Giants.
Bairstow has a busy few months of T20 cricket ahead, playing in this competition before going on to represent Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the SA20 in South Africa.
MI Emirates posted a total of 163-6 yesterday, which was reeled in by the Giants for the loss of four wickets.
Bairstow is playing alongside the likes of Tom Banton, Chris Woakes, Rashid Khan, Kieron Pollard and Nicholas Pooran. Jordan Thompson is also in their squad but didn’t play yesterday.
The ILT20 runs until January 4, while the SA20 starts on December 26 through until January 25.
NO BALL….FREE HIT!
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Dawid Malan will return to Headingley next May.
Former Yorkshire Vitality Blast captain Dawid Malan will make an immediate return to Headingley next May.
Malan left Yorkshire after six seasons a fortnight ago before signing on with Gloucestershire less than a week later as a T20 specialist recruit.
The county fixtures for 2026 were recently released, and Yorkshire will host Gloucestershire at Headingley on May 31 in the revamped Blast competition, which sees all counties play two opponents who are outside their regular groups. Yorkshire are in the North and Gloucestershire in the Central.
Yorkshire will travel to face Hampshire at the Utilita Bowl having hosted Glos.
Interestingly, Yorkshire and Gloucestershire have never met in this competition.
