Events

Women's Capping Celebration

18 Sep 2026

On Thursday, 27th August 2026, Sussex Cricket was thrilled to host the Inaugural Women’s Capping Celebration.

This was a proud and historic moment to honour their incredible achievements, dedication, and contribution to the game of cricket. It was attended by players who made their debuts for the county from across seven different decades, including several players who also represented England.

Laurie Walker, former Sussex WCA Treasurer and Women’s scorer, spent months trailing through every match ever recorded on Cricket Archive and compiling the full playing history, match archive, including different formats with some data going back to the start of Sussex Women’s cricket in the 1930s.

This detailed information allowed us to start to build a comprehensive database of past players and, with the help of many former players, we managed to reach out to over 50 players. Those we celebrated on this first event either played at least 10 times for the county or made significant contributions to the playing programme. A huge thanks also goes to our main event sponsors: Roebuck, Quaff Wine and Cast Iron Coffee who contributed significantly to the purchase of the caps and the running of the event.

The day was spent with players reconnecting, sharing memories and then receiving their caps. Head Coach, Alexia Walker, spoke about each player and their time playing for Sussex and they then received their caps with their name and date of debut embroidered on it from Sussex Chair, Ed Warner and Director of Cricket, Paul Farbrace. The players who have represented the county over 100 times received a golden version of this cap to recognise this immense achievement – Georgia Adams, Izzy Collis, Alexia Walker and Chiara Green.

There are many more players who will be recognised over the next few seasons as we continue to connect with them and celebrate those who have earned their cap for Sussex. There will also be an entire playing history of the women’s programme displayed at the ground from next season.

On the celebration, Paul Farbrace, Director of Cricket, said: "Many congratulations on such a lovely occasion to bring so many former players to Hove, and to recognise their commitment to women’s cricket and cricket in general. Without a lot of those players the game as we know in England for women and girls would not be where it is, and what a lot of them gave up to play was impressive.

It would be great to keep building on this, not only bringing other players back for their caps, but also creating a cricketing community that brings former players together and gives them somewhere to come and keep the relationships strong."

On receiving her cap, Sally Walker (née Titmus), said: "Thank you for organising such a memorable day. I felt very honoured to receive my county cap and the whole occasion captured the essence of how special it is to represent Sussex.

With huge appreciation for all hard work of you and your team."

The list of those who received their cap at this first event are listed below:

SA Hodges | 1962

J Fears | 1963

V Hodges | 1966

J Johnson | 1975

S Martin | 1975

J Southgate | 1975

A Simmons | 1984

L White | 1985

B Oldman | 1986

SL Streete | 1987