BY MICHAEL ESPOSITO
TAYLAH Lynn won’t just be representing Victoria at the Australian under-15 National Championships next week. She will be flying the flag for the western suburbs, as the only girl from the region to have been selected for the state side.
Lynn said she was surprised when she found out earlier this month that she made the final cut.
“I wasn’t expecting it at all. When I found out I was pretty excited, and I rang everyone,” the West Footscray resident said.
But she shouldn’t have been too surprised.
In January she captained Western Spirit in the Under-14 State Championships, and made a high score 40 in the quarter final, as well as taking five wickets for 33 runs over the duration of the tournament. She proved to be handy with both bat and ball.
The best players from that tournament were chosen to trial for the state team, and after several training sessions, the final 13 girls were selected.
Lynn, a right-hand batter and medium pacer, admires Michael Clarke’s batting style but also looks up to Victorian ladies state squad player Natalie Schilov, who is also the junior coach at her local club Essendon Maribyrnong Park.
“She’s helped me a lot, we’ve had lots of one on one training sessions,” Lynn said.
The Caroline Chisholm Catholic College student opens the batting for Essendon Maribyrnong Park’s Third XI in the Victorian Women’s Cricket Association One Day North West competition. She is averaging 19.67 with the bat and her highest score was 38. She has taken four wickets at an average of 17.75.
Her goal at the national championships in Sydney on December 6-15 is to “score over 30 in a couple of games, and bowl really tight, a good line and length, and get a couple of wickets.”
Beyond that, she will represent Western Spirit at the Under-16 State Championships in January.
