Some of you may have seen one of our local villages, Colwall, on Countryfile recently. On the Hereford side of the Malvern Hills, it is distinguished for several reasons. Malvern Water is bottled in Colwall, the contract with Schweppes actually going back to 1890, but how many people know that it is the home of English Ladies’ Cricket? The Women’s Cricket Association was born in Colwall in 1926 and there is a Women’s Cricket Week held every year.

More generally, Colwall Cricket ground is the largest in the county and the Worcestershire County Cricket players Joseph and Henry Horton, both came from Colwall, although Henry was better-known for playing for Hampshire.

Colwall maintains two pitches even now and fields four adult teams in Saturday League Cricket as well as entering other competitions. There are girls’ teams as well as boys’ teams and a number of juniors have been selected to play in regional and county teams. I believe that there is still a ladies’ cricket team too!