Award-winning Eve relishes Red Rose challenge
Shropshire ace Eve Jones is relishing the chance to get started on her 2025 campaign after her switch to join Lancashire on a three-year contract.
Left-handed opening bat Eve decided to sign for the Old Trafford based set up as part of the new era for professional women’s cricket with eight Tier One sides battling it out for honours.
It marks a return to Lancashire for her after her five-year stint as captain of the Edgbaston-based Central Sparks where she continued to score runs heavily in all formats of the game – picking up accolades along the way.
She has been back in pre-season training at Old Trafford since November, and for the past couple of months has been globetrotting ahead of the start of the new campaign later this month.
She said: “I went to Mumbai with the Academy in a sort of player/coach/mentor role – Lancashire like to get their senior players involved with the junior sides where possible – and due to niggles and other things ended up playing most of the games.
“Then the senior side has been Dubai and then Bangalore for warm weather training ahead of the season so I’ve got plenty of cricket in.
“I’m really enjoying the environment and can’t wait to get started. I think we’ve got a really good squad that has been developing over the last couple of years.
“There’s a great spirit and our aim is to win some silverware this year.”
Eve’s prolific form in the domestic game continued throughout her five years at the Sparks – and saw her pick up a prestigious award at Lord’s at the end of last year.
She received the Walter Lawrence Women’s Award 2024 for the player who makes the highest individual score in the season in either ECB domestic cup games or all England Women’s matches played on home soil.
Her winning feat came in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, ironically against her new side the Lancashire Thunder at Old Trafford.
Captaining the Sparks and opening the innings, her side were facing a formidable chase after Lancashire finished their innings on 284-7. She hit an unbeaten 136 off 148 balls to see her side to victory by three wickets with just two balls remaining.
Eve also recorded the second highest score in the competition last season – 130 for the Sparks against Western Storm in the same competition – and was second highest run scorer in the competition with 650 runs at an average of 42.76.
The award was presented actor Jim Carter, best known for his role as the butler Carson in Downton Abbey.
During her time with the Sparks, she was also named as the first-ever PCA Women’s Overall Domestic MVP for her performance in all competitions in 2021, and was later voted the overall PCA Player of the Year.
At a time when England have been short of left-handed options at the top of the order, it is perhaps a surprise she has not been given a chance to earn a full cap, although she did captain England A in Australia.
Eve came through the age group ranks in Shropshire and then was leading run scorer for the full county side before moving on to play for Staffordshire where she was the leading run scorer for three consecutive seasons
Next, she joined Lancashire where she was part of the side that won the County Championship/T20 double in 2017.
She has been involved in coaching as part of the Shropshire girls’ pathway in recent years and has also helped deliver coaching courses in the county alongside Dad Rod.
“I’ve been part of the women’s professional game for the past five years and seen how the women’s game has really progressed in that time.
“We made a couple of finals while I was at the Sparks but never quite got over the line, so I’m hoping I can get a bit of silverware with this new challenge.”