CRICKET prospect Jaimee-Lee Woolfe is looking forward to a busy 2020.
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The 14-year-old will be heading to England in July with an invitational schoolgirl side for a two week tour. This will include training sessions at Lords and Old Trafford along with six matches.
Before then she'll play for ACT/NSW Country in the Australian under 15 girls' championships to be held in Canberra, where she'll be aiming to win a place in a national train-on squad.
She'll be one of the youngest players in the team heading to England. She gained selection after playing for Hunter at the State Combined High School Championships earlier this year.
A left arm seamer, Jaimee-Lee's been playing cricket for five years.
"It's a family sport,'' she explained.
"I started playing in the backyard with my dad and brother and it went from there.''
She decided to have a crack at competition cricket in the Manning juniors and now plays with Old Bar in the Manning under 16s. Jaimee-Lee's the leading wicket taker in the competition and in the opening match of the season she tore through the Taree West batting to record her best figures, an impressive 7/5 from just three overs. From six games Jaimee-Lee has 11 wickets, nearly double the number of the next best. Her average is a miserly 4.55.
This year Jaimee-Lee signed on to play with Northern Districts in the Brewer Shield, an under 18 girls' competition played in Sydney. She's made a bright start and is the top wicket taker in the shield after two games. Northern Districts have won both.
She said the competition is a mixture of T20 and 40 over games and while it's early days yet she's enjoying the experience. It's a similar path Melbourne Renegades WBBL star Maitlan Brown took when she was starting out in her career. Like Maitlan, Jaimee-Lee also attends Wingham High School.
Jaimee-Lee has represented the Manning at Mid North Coast inter-district level in the past, however, commitments in the Brewer Cup will rule out playing for the Manning this season.
She gives herself a 'fair chance' of making the under 15 train-on squad next year, pointing out that she'll be playing against girls the same age.
Jaimee-Lee's dabbled in a number of sports and still plays league tag, but said cricket takes up much of her year, between playing and training. She hails from Burrell Creek, home of the Manning's most famous cricketer, Johnny Martin.