BALLARAT teenager Sophie Van De Heuvel has continued her rise in the world of women’s cricket, taking out the award for best first year player in the Victoria Premier Cricket competition on Friday night.
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Van De Heuvel received the June Cole Award for her breakout season with the Plenty Valley Cricket Club after playing her junior cricket at Golden Point Cricket Club and a senior season at Napoleons Sebastopol Cricket Club.
On top of the accolade the 15-year-old Loreto College student was also Plenty Valley’s highest scorer in the league’s best and fairest award, the Una Paisley Medal.
Van De Heuvel made 228 runs for the season while opening the batting, including a half-century. The youngster also showed her skill with the ball, recording best figures of 3-25.
During her inaugural season at Plenty Valley Van De Heuvel got to play alongside a number of state representatives as well as English international Danni Whyatt.
Van De Heuvel said while playing against sides fielding international cricketers had proven to be a challenge, she had been given ample guidance by the likes of Whyatt and Plenty Valley captain Kirsty Lamb. “Playing against the likes of (Australian captain) Meg Lanning is pretty hard,” Van De Heuvel said.
Plenty Valley coach Michael Sheedy said Van De Heuvel had made a big impact at the club in a short space of time. “She’s a fantastic prospect for Victoria and hopefully Australian cricket,” Sheedy said. “Her consistency in getting starts was a real positive.”
Van De Heuvel comes from a strong cricket family, with 17-year-old brother Bailey playing in Golden Point’s 2015 premiership in the Ballarat Cricket Association firsts division. Her father Mark Van De Heuvel is also the club’s president and a 300-game player.
Van De Heuvel, who is also a talented footballer, has chosen to take the football season off to focus on the upcoming cricket season.
