Elspeth Marinha Compton Fowler (born 14 August 1992) is an English-born

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er resident in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, who plays for the Spanish women's national cricket team as a right-handed batter. In May 2022, she captained Spain in its debut

Women's Twenty20 International Women's Twenty20 international (WT20I) is the shortest form of women's international cricket. A women's Twenty20 international is a 20 overs-per-side cricket match between two of the International Cricket Council (ICC) members. The very firs ...

(WT20I) against

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Early life and education

Born at

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, she was raised at

Chesham Chesham ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom, south-east of the county town of Aylesbury, about north-west of Charing Cross, central London, and part of the London metropolitan area, London ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

. At the age of 8, she first attended Sunday morning sessions at her local cricket club, where she was enthused by the coaches. From 2003 until 2010, Fowler attended Chesham High School (''now'' Chesham Grammar School). In 2005, she played for Buckinghamshire Girls Under-13 team, and then from 2006 through 2008 she progressed through the County Girls Under-17 and Under-19 teams. In 2010, Fowler went up to

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...

, where she read Modern and Medieval Languages, graduating in 2014 as BA (proceeding MA). Fowler played for the

Cambridge University Cricket Club Cambridge University Cricket Club, established in 1820, is the representative cricket club for students of the University of Cambridge. The club was recognised as holding first-class cricket, first-class status until 2020. The university played ...

, being awarded

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

half blues in 2011, 2012 and 2014; she also represented her college at basketball and played in the Cambridge Philharmonic Orchestra and Philharmonia.

Domestic career

In 2010, Fowler was selected to play for Buckinghamshire CCC 1st XI. In 2016, she played two

Women's Twenty20 Cup The Women's Twenty20 Cup, known for sponsorship reasons as the Vitality Women's County T20, is a women's Twenty20 cricket competition organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board. Until the end of the 2019 season, teams were organised in tier ...

matches for

Cambridgeshire CCC Cambridgeshire County Cricket Club is one of twenty minor county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Cambridgeshire including the Isle of Ely. The original Cambridgeshire club ...

. Since 2019, she has played for the La Manga Torrevieja Cricket Club, in the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

Murcia Murcia ( , , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the Capital (political), capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the Ranked lists of Spanish municipalities#By population, seventh largest city i ...

, southeastern Spain. In November 2019, while touring with the LMTCC men's team in

Cártama Cártama is a town and municipality in the province of Málaga, part of the autonomous community of Andalusia, southern Spain. The municipality is situated approximately from Málaga. It is one of the most extensive towns in the province, coverin ...

, she helped bowl the team to victory in a weekend tournament. In 2020, Fowler was appointed Director of Women's Cricket for Cricket Spain, in which capacity she is involved in training women cricketers. In July 2021, she made her captaincy debut, at the helm of LMTCC's Development XI, in a 40-over match against Torre-Pacheco CC at the La Manga Club Ground. Also in 2021, she played for Team White in Cricket Catalonia's Women's T10 tournament.

International career

On 5 May 2022, Fowler made her WT20I debut for, and also captained, Spain against

in the first match of the 2022 France Women's T20I Quadrangular Series, held at Dreux Sport Cricket Club,

Dreux Dreux () is a Communes of France, commune in the Eure-et-Loir Departments of France, department in northern France. Geography Dreux lies on the small river Blaise (river), Blaise, a tributary of the Eure (river), Eure, about 35 km north of Cha ...

, France. The match was also Spain's first ever WT20I, and Fowler top-scored hitting 26 runs off 36 balls. The following day, 6 May 2022, against

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

, Fowler scored 29 runs off 46 balls. She did even better in a second match against Austria on 7 May 2022, with 44 in 50 balls, and in Spain's final match of the tournament, against

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

on 8 May 2022, with 42 * in 58 balls. She finished the tournament as the leading run-scorer, with 141 runs, and with a WT20I batting average of 47.00. The Spanish team did not win any matches but, according to Cricket Spain's website, "... took positives from all the four games they played in."

Off the field

Since 2016, Fowler works in

as an account manager for G's Group,www.gs-fresh.com
/ref> a fresh produce business headquartered in

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

. Fowler's cricketing nickname,

Hermione Granger Hermione Jean Granger ( ) is a fictional character in the ''Harry Potter'' series of novels by J. K. Rowling. She first appeared in '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' (1997), as a first-year student on her way to Hogwarts. She becom ...

, came courtesy of her then-new teammates at La Manga Torrevieja in 2019. While on cricket tours, she is accompanied by her mascot, a

stuffed toy A stuffed toy is a toy with an outer fabric sewn from a textile and stuffed with flexible material. They are known by many names, such as plush toys, plushies, lovies and stuffies; in Britain and Australia, they may also be called soft toys ...

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...

named ''Crookshanks''.

References

External links