Polkinghorne named Ballarat’s best

As told by David Brehaut of the Ballarat Courier, Polkinghorne last week became the first cricketer to receive Ballarat’s premier individual female sporting award.

She said she was proud to be playing a major role in putting women’s cricket on the map in Ballarat.

Polkinghorne was a member of the Australian team to claim the world women’s indoor cricket title in South Africa last year.

The 29-year-old was crowned at the 37th presentation of the award by the Sportmen’s Association of Australia Ballarat Associates, attended by almost 300 people.

She said the competitive sporting spirit instilled into her by her brothers and older sister Trear as a youngster had played a significant part in her carving out a successful outdoor and indoor cricket career.

Polkinghorne said when it came to playing in the backyard with her three older brothers, it had either been football or cricket.

Her path to representing Australia in the world championships began in earnest in 2009 when she was in the Victorian team which took out the national indoor cricket titles and named in an all-star squad.

While she plays outdoor cricket with Napoleons-Sebastopol in the Victorian Women’s Cricket Association, she has to pursue her indoor endeavours in a metropolitan-based competition.

She plays with Frankston and makes the weekly trip to Melbourne each Friday night during the season to play at venues predominantly in the eastern suburbs.

Polkinghorne said her initial objective this year was to represent Victoria in the Australian masters (30 years-plus) championships in Adelaide in May.

She is hoping this will pave the way to representing Australia in the world masters in Sri Lanka next year.

She will play in the open nationals in Melbourne in July with a view to wearing Australian colours in its world championship defence in New Zealand in 2014.