{"id":523589,"date":"2026-04-10T16:12:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T16:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/523589\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T16:12:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T16:12:22","slug":"grace-ballinger-column-the-blaze-bowler-excited-for-new-season-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/523589\/","title":{"rendered":"Grace Ballinger column: The Blaze bowler excited for new season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The women’s One-Day Cup welcomes a new side into Tier 1 this summer, Yorkshire, who were previously competing in the level below. They will play in the professional league<\/a> for the first time. <\/p>\n

This takes Tier 1 from an eight-team competition to a nine-team one, leading to sides missing a round of fixtures while everyone else plays against each other.<\/p>\n

For the Blaze, this has fallen on the first round of fixtures. While every other team will start their season on Saturday, we will wait a few days longer, opening our account on the 15 April at home against Lancashire. <\/p>\n

At first I was unsure how to feel about this. Naturally we are eager to kick-start our campaign and get into the season. <\/p>\n

However, since seeing the weekend forecast of a gusty and cold Saturday in West Bridgford, waiting a few extra days doesn’t feel too much of a chore. <\/p>\n

I love playing at Trent Bridge and calling it home. Previously, we have played our fixtures all around the East Midlands, however this season marks a huge increase in our fixtures at the historical ground. <\/p>\n

Six out of eight home One-Day Cup games are at Trent Bridge, with two at our fond alternative ground Chesterfield, whilst all six T20 Blast home games are based there.<\/p>\n

All are double headers alongside Nottinghamshire Outlaws. <\/p>\n

There are a few wrongs to put to right for us this season. Last year, by our own standards, was in many ways a disappointing one. <\/p>\n

Despite reaching all three semi-finals in the One-Day Cup, Vitality Blast and County Cup, we didn’t manage to progress any further. <\/p>\n

This is certainly something we will look to rectify this summer, with strong desire to bring silverware back to Trent Bridge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The women’s One-Day Cup welcomes a new side into Tier 1 this summer, Yorkshire, who were previously competing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-523589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}