Some sporting nicknames can be amusing, some brutal and others difficult to live up to. For childhood buddies Will Fraine and Hollie Armitage, they are certainly doing a pretty decent job of living up to theirs.
The Yorkshire pair grew up at Huddersfield club Meltham, opened the batting together and won a decent amount of silverware in the process.
“I’m not so sure Hollie will want me to tell you this,” said White Rose men’s batsman Fraine. “But they used to call us Geoffrey and Geraldine Boycott. That’s what we went by.”
Fraine needn’t have worried, with Armitage laughing: “Ah yes, ginger Geraldine!”
“We were both in the Yorkshire pathway system then. It’s a long time ago, but they were good days,” the newly turned Northern Diamonds professional continued.
“That nickname’s actually a good memory for me because maybe a girl mixing in a lads’ team could have been quite awkward then. It’s a bit more common now. But they just treated me as one of the lads. I loved it.
“They got stuck into me the same as anybody else.”
Fraine, 24-years-old, continued: “Those nicknames came from the fact we used to block it loads.
“I was 10 or 11 when I first played there, and Hollie’s a year younger. We played together at under 11s and 13s, and I captained. We won all the local competitions.
“From other sides there was a bit of, ‘Ooh, there’s a girl playing against us’. But they quickly realised she was an absolute gun.
“We also played a bit of second-team cricket together before I moved to Honley at 16 and then went down to Bromsgrove. That was when we lost touch a bit.
“But she’s done really well and progressed her career fantastically.
“I see her mum and dad down at Meltham still and Hollie sometimes when we’re at training.
“We reminisce about the days when she was the slowest person ever between the wickets. She’s not rapid now, but much quicker!”
