Picture by Mark Evans/Getty Images. Jess Jonassen is congratulated by her Queensland team-mates, including Lauren Winfield-Hill in her sunglasses, after taking a wicket against New South Wales last week.
Yorkshire’s women have been given a huge boost ahead of the new summer with the return to fitness of overseas signing Jess Jonassen back home in Australia.
Spin bowling all-rounder Jonassen underwent surgery in November to correct a right shoulder issue.
Having played for Brisbane Heat in the Women’s Big Bash on November 25, she was then expected to be out of action for around three to four months.
Yorkshire head coach Rich Pyrah was in touch with Jonassen throughout her recovery.
Had it been required, Jonassen could have even started the new county season in April as a specialist batter. However, she is now back on the field and has played a full all-round role for her state Queensland over the last week.
She played two Women’s National Cricket League 50-over matches against New South Wales in Sydney on Tuesday and Thursday, alongside Lauren Winfield-Hill.
Queensland lost both against a home side including Alyssa Healy and Ellyse Perry. In the first, Jonassen contributed 3-58 with her left-arm spin and 31 with the bat. In the second, she posted 1-26 and 31.
Winfield-Hill contributed 0 and 21.
New South Wales and Queensland are the top two sides in the table and could meet again in the March 20 final.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Fin Bean is having a superb winter for Melbourne University, scoring his third hundred for them on Saturday.
Fin Bean scored his third hundred of the winter for Melbourne University and gained the early upper hand in the battle of the Yorkshire team-mates in Victorian Premier Cricket over the weekend.
Bean is coming up against Ben Cliff and Will Luxton, who are playing for Greenvale, in a two-day game which started on Saturday and concludes this weekend.
On day one, Bean totalled 105 off 120 balls in his side’s 409-9 declared before Greenvale replied with 39-0 before close. Luxton is yet to bat, Cliff went wicketless on day one but did take the catch to help dismiss Bean.
The previous round saw Bean post 12 in a two-day defeat to Prahran, while Cliff took 4-61 from 18 overs in Greenvale’s defeat to Kingston Hawthorn. Luxton made six.
It has been a productive few weeks for Yorkshire’s stars, with Harry Duke to the fore with a superb century of his own in the same competition for Essendon.
In the most recent completed round, which finished last Saturday, Duke hit 106 off 168 balls in a defeat against Northcote. Unfortunately, on day one against Footscray on Saturday, he made only one.
All three sides – Essendon, Greenvale and Melbourne Uni – are in the bottom half of the Victorian Premier competition.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Harry Duke has scored a Victorian Premier Cricket century, just like Fin Bean.
In New Zealand, where Yash Vagadia is playing for Wellington club Onslow, the batting all-rounder hit a notable 92 off 50 balls opening the batting in a recent two-day defeat against Karori in the ROBLAWMAX competition.
In an ongoing clash with VUWCC, he made two and took a wicket with his off-spin. Onslow have won nine of 14 matches and are third in the table.
Back to Melbourne, where Dan Moriarty is playing for Caulfield in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association senior competition.
The White Rose left-arm spinner hit 37 and contributed 3-76 from 26.3 overs in a two-wicket defeat to Malvern, which finished on Saturday. They are fifth in the table with eight wins from 12.
Owen Smith hit 43 opening for Deepdene Bears in a 50-over defeat to Surrey Hills in the Eastern Cricket Association competition and has not batted in an ongoing two-day game against Marcellin (285 all out). Smith struck once with the ball. His side have three wins from 12 to their name.
Noah Kelly is playing for Beaumaris in the same city – in the Southern Bayside competition – and hit 76 opening the batting in a two-wicket one-day defeat to St Brigid’s St Louis. He was dismissed in that game by White Rose Academy seamer Bradley Sylvester.
Kelly is yet to bat in an ongoing two day game versus Bonbeach (282-9).
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Yorkshire batter Rebecca Duckworth has taken over as the Gold Coast Dolphins captain.
A trio of Yorkshire’s women’s players are also in Australia playing club cricket, with another joining them from the county’s Academy.
Academy batter Amelia Kemp is playing alongside Rebecca Duckworth for the Gold Coast Dolphins in Queensland. Duckworth is now captaining the Dolphins and Kemp opening the batting.
Duckworth hit 17 in a 50-over defeat to Sunshine Coast, with Kemp making 54. In a nine-run win over Sandgate-Redcliffe, Duckworth made 11 and Kemp 60. Those two sides are the bottom two in the table.
In Melbourne, seamer Jess Woolston is playing for North Geelong and has played a pair of one-day games recently, winning one and losing one. In the first – a defeat to East Belmont – she returned 1-20 from six overs and hit three opening the batting. In the second, she hit four in the lower middle order and was miserly with the ball for 1-14 from four overs in victory over St Joseph’s.
North Geelong are second in the Geelong Cricket Association table with nine wins from 12.
And, finally, Ami Campbell is playing for Gordon in the New South Wales Premier competition in Sydney and has contributed scores of six not out and 30 not out to a pair of wins over Northern District and Sydney University. They are third in their table with five wins in eight games.
Picture by Wang Zhao/Getty Images. British figure skater Luke Digby (centre) from Sheffield.
It may well be freezing outside and the Winter Olympics are on the TV, but one of the athletes competing in Milano Cortina with a Yorkshire connection has a background which screams bat and ball more than bobsleigh.
Off piste from cricket for a second, but there are five athletes competing over in Italy with a connection to the Broad Acres, including bobsleigh pilot Axel Brown.
Born and raised in Harrogate, Brown is a pilot for the Trinidad and Tobago bobsleigh team, qualifying courtesy of his Trinidadian mother.
That will, of course, evoke memories in some Yorkshire supporters of the time the county beat T&T in the 2012 Champions League T20 event out in South Africa – by six wickets chasing 149. Ryan Sidebottom and Gary Ballance were the stars at Centurion that day with 3-13 and 64 not out.
The other Yorkshire athletes at the Winter Olympics, which started at the weekend, are Luke Digby (Figure skating, Sheffield), Leon Greenwood (Bobsleigh, Batley), Jacques Jefferies (Biathlon, Middlesbrough) and Olivia Smart (Figure skating, Sheffield – competing for Spain).
Picture by YCCC. Yorkshire Group CEO Sanjay Patel MBE at St James’ Palace. He is the feature interview in this year’s YCCC Yearbook.
The 2026 Yorkshire CCC Yearbook is due to be published at the start of April.
The 128th edition of the county club’s annual will be sent to the printers inside the next fortnight.
It includes an in-depth interview with chief executive Sanjay Patel MBE and season previews with men’s and women’s head coaches Anthony McGrath and Rich Pyrah.
Patel was initially interim with the county before taking on the role full-time in October.
He said: “The plan was never for me to stay long-term. But I put a lot of time and energy into it, and over a period of a year you start to get to know the people here and you start to get a real feel for just how much cricket means to the people in this county.
“You also get to understand that the best thing for English Cricket is for Yorkshire to be strong. Headingley and Yorkshire teams need to be strong.”
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Former Yorkshire men’s bowling coach Kabir Ali has taken up the same role with Lancashire.
Kabir Ali, Yorkshire’s former men’s fast bowling coach, has taken up the same position over at Lancashire.
Kabir, who was with the White Rose between 2022 and 2024, returned to the Red Rose county last week, where he spent time as a player towards the end of his career in 2013 and 2014.
Since leaving Headingley, he spent time working with Warwickshire’s women – under their head coach Ali Maiden.
Over at Emirates Old Trafford, he replaces former Yorkshire captain Craig White, who left his bowling coach role in October.
Kabir said: “I’m incredibly excited to be back at Lancashire in this new role. This is a club with a proud history and traditions, and I’m looking forward to working with the whole professional squad.
“It’s a great challenge to help shape our bowling group, and equally important to support the development of the next generation of fast bowlers coming through our pathway.”