{"id":208017,"date":"2025-10-12T14:32:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T14:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/208017\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T14:32:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T14:32:15","slug":"from-swansea-to-sydney-the-cricketer-smashing-it-out-of-the-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/208017\/","title":{"rendered":"From Swansea to Sydney – the cricketer smashing it out of the park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Swansea cricketer Libby Thomas is just 21, but her ferocious batting and fearless wicketkeeping are already attracting global attention.<\/p>\n

The right-handed Glamorgan keeper and opener has just touched down in Australia ahead of a season’s contract to play for Sydney women’s champions St George Sutherland, nicknamed the Slayers.<\/p>\n

She’s also just graduated with a forensic psychology degree from the University of Worcester.<\/p>\n

Her achievements are all the more remarkable as, for the past three years, her family have also been coming to terms with the four life-changing strokes suffered by her father Michael.<\/p>\n

\"Shortly<\/p>\n

Libby has already represented Shrewsbury School, University of Worcester, Glamorgan, Wales and an England under 21s XI [Libby Thomas]<\/p>\n

“You could say that we’ve got each other through it,” she said.<\/p>\n

“The successes I’ve had in cricket and at uni I think have helped him to recover to a certain extent, but also the pride and enjoyment he gets from my matches have been a real motivation for me to get my head down and reach my true potential.<\/p>\n

“When he was unconscious in hospital, I’d sit by his bed and read out the scorecards to him, just hoping that somehow he could hear.<\/p>\n

“Now he’s back home in an adapted house, we try to livestream all my matches for him, and you can guarantee that five minutes after I come off the field he’ll be on the phone with a tonne of questions about how it went.”<\/p>\n

\"Libby<\/p>\n

Libby scored her first half-century for Morriston Cricket Club aged 12 [Libby Thomas]<\/p>\n

Libby described how Michael was sobbing “tears of pride” as he waved her off to the airport.<\/p>\n

She said: “I first got into cricket when I was about 10, because my older brother was playing.<\/p>\n

“That brought out my competitive streak, and I knew I could be better than him, but before long it was just me and dad training.<\/p>\n

“We used to go to the nets, even if it was raining, snowing, hailing.<\/p>\n

“We’ve gone out under floodlights before now. Just going out even if we didn’t always want to.<\/p>\n

“That’s how we would spend our time together… almost every day before this happened really.”<\/p>\n

Before settling on cricket, Libby turned her hand to karate, football, table tennis, and \u2013 most usefully for her cricketing career \u2013 gymnastics.<\/p>\n

\"Libby<\/p>\n

Libby has been representing Wales since she was 12 [Libby Thomas]<\/p>\n

“Believe it or not, I actually started out as quite a cautious batter,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Though for most of my life I’ve played men’s cricket, where they mainly seemed to be trying to take off my head with bouncers.<\/p>\n

“So being nimble and quick on my feet to pull and hook became important if I didn’t want to be constantly wearing it on my grill.”<\/p>\n

\"Libby<\/p>\n

Libby learnt to face short-pitched deliveries with aplomb [Libby Thomas]<\/p>\n

Libby came to international prominence when, representing an England XI at the inaugural Women’s T10 European Championships, she blasted 63 against Spain at a strike-rate of 136.<\/p>\n

Glamorgan currently play in Tier 2 of the new ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) female structure, but after her stint in Australia, Libby faces a nervous wait to learn if she’s secured a place in a Tier 1 county side, via the Central Sparks Academy – the ECB’s women’s elite player pathway to franchise cricket and the England team.<\/p>\n

\"Libby,<\/p>\n

Libby, standing up to the wicket, completes a stumping for Glamorgan Women last season [Libby Thomas]<\/p>\n

“Fingers crossed, but if I can get a Tier 1 spot then it changes everything,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Tier 1 is where you start getting paid, and can focus full-time on being a professional, including all the elite coaching that comes with.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been lucky so far, but even at Tier 2 it’s a struggle for us – even after all the support I’ve received, I’ve still had to set up a GoFundMe page just to get over here.<\/p>\n

“With the time difference between India and Australia, I haven’t been able to see much of the Women’s World Cup, but watching the highlights with England doing so well I would love to be at the next one.”<\/p>\n

Though like all class cricketers, Libby has a Plan B.<\/p>\n

\"Libby<\/p>\n

Libby’s performances at the T10 European Championships have seen her come to international attention [Libby Thomas]<\/p>\n

“I don’t even want to think about that possibility at the moment, but if I can’t become a professional cricketer, then the plan is to join the police and become a detective.<\/p>\n

“I’m a proper ‘Morriston Monkey’, growing up there and playing for their club, so you could say I’ve had the ideal background for either career.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Swansea cricketer Libby Thomas is just 21, but her ferocious batting and fearless wicketkeeping are already attracting global…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,128447,128446,128444,128449,128448,85,128445,128450],"class_list":["post-208017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-forensic-psychology-degree","tag-glamorgan","tag-libby-thomas","tag-morriston-cricket-club","tag-shrewsbury-school","tag-sports","tag-university-of-worcester","tag-wicketkeeping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}