Home is where the art is: North West Thunder and Lancashire women to make Old Trafford their own

The club pledge to fill the surroundings with branding and celebrate past performances from players, similar to the home dressing room used by the men

Lancashire have committed to re-decorating the away dressing room at Emirates Old Trafford to make it a designated home for the North West Thunder and the Red Rose women.

The home dressing room is currently adorned with Lancashire men’s branding and celebrates past performances and great victories.

Now, the away dressing room will follow suit and will be used by the women’s teams every time they play at headquarters.

“We will redecorate it into the Thunder dressing room, and it’s a place that will feel like home,” confirmed Thunder director of cricket David Thorley.

“When an away men’s team travels there, it will be full of Thunder and Lancashire women’s pictures, stand out performances and moments. We will also bring to life some of our values.

“We will use that as our home dressing room every time we play there. 

“The feeling is that we’re not just guests at Old Trafford, it’s a place to call home. We see it as Lancashire women and Thunder. It will be an important part of our identity.

“We will be training at Old Trafford this winter, and hopefully when the schedule comes through for next summer we can have some more games there as well.”

It is a sign of how encouraging a campaign 2021 was for Thunder that they will not be short of wins or individual performances to celebrate when it comes to sorting out the refurb.

^{North West Thunder made good progress under Alex Hartley in 2021}

A developing side, they beat Central Sparks at Worcester, who were top of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy table at the time, before seeing off the Northern Diamonds in the Charlotte Edwards Cup. The Diamonds have made all three regional finals since last summer.

Then, in the final game of the season, they beat CE Cup winners South East Stars in the RHF Trophy.

Individually, Emma Lamb was outstanding. For both Lancashire and Thunder, she scored three competitive centuries.

Two games, in particular, are worth recalling. Both were in the Charlotte Edwards T20 competition. 

The first, in victory over the Diamonds, she hit 58 at the top of the order and claimed 4 for 13 with her off-spin. The second was against Sunrisers at Old Trafford - also a win - when she hit a superb unbeaten 111 and added 3 for 16.

The likes of Kate Cross, Hannah Jones, Laura Jackson and young seamer Sophia Turner also impressed. And there are others.

“Emma’s importance was illustrated when we lost her to England and then her broken thumb at the end of the season,” said Thorley. “It was just rewards for her when she got the England call.

“That game at Old Trafford against Sunrisers was great for everyone, not just Emma.

“It was a doubleheader with Lancashire men, and it was a brilliant chance for some of the members to watch the team in action. It was fantastic to see the girls put on a show that day.

Charlotte Edwards Cup: Team of the tournament

“Hannah Jones also performed and progressed her game. She was our top wicket-taker (18 wickets in 13 matches) and was very consistent. 

“Hannah has had a cracking 12 months. She’s worked with Stephen Parry and has gone from being an economical bowler to being a real wicket-taker.”

Thunder’s message throughout 2021 was that they are a young and developing squad and that winning a trophy or two was not their primary objective. In the end, they won five of 13 games across both competitions. 

“We can be happy with how we progressed, but we want to achieve more,” said Thorley.

“To use a football analogy, it was a season of two halves.

“We wanted to be competitive in more games, and we were. There were only a couple where we weren’t.

“Before the Hundred, I think we were in an excellent position. We were winning more games than losing, and we were playing great cricket, putting a lot of runs on the board.

“Then, I’d say coming back from the Hundred the team were disappointed with how performances and results went. We struggled to pick up wins after the Hundred.

“Regarding that, there have been lots of discussion around the physical and mental side of things. The Hundred was a very draining experience. It was the same for all teams, so we can’t just blame that.

^{Old Trafford's dressing rooms will now pay homage to all three home teams}

“We set out the season wanting to be competitive, and that started to turn into winning cricket. 

“Coming back from the Hundred, we started putting some expectations on ourselves, coming into games thinking, ‘We should win this’. So maybe it was a bit of a struggle with expectation.

“But that’s just how the team is evolving. They’re turning up wanting to win games.

“We had a higher win percentage in 2021 than we did in 2020. We want that to keep increasing. It’s a passion of ours to drive things forward.

“We’ll be definitely raising the bar again this winter in terms of our expectations.” 

Thorley also pointed to the unavailability of Australian overseas seamer Piepa Cleary as a reason for their post Hundred struggles.

He also said that the T20 win over the Diamonds at Headingley was “probably most of the players’ highlight of the season”.

And he added: “Our aims and objectives for next summer will be worked through over the next couple of months. But we’ve shown we can beat the top sides. We now just need to start beating the teams around us.

“Overall, I’m delighted with how we’re progressing.”