Surrey’s Alice Capsey and Bryony Smith have been selected for the England Women’s A squad for a 50-over fixture v South Africa on Thursday.
17-year-old all-rounder Alice Capsey rose to prominence after a breakthrough season in 2021. Capsey won both the Charlotte Edwards Cup with the South East Stars and The Hundred with the Oval Invincibles. She scored 495 runs and took 23 wickets across the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, Charlotte Edwards Cup and Hundred in 2021.
Capsey topped off her season by winning the first PCA Women’s Young Player of the Year award and gaining her first professional contract with Surrey in October.
Offspinning all-rounder Bryony Smith has enjoyed a highly successful start to the season for the South East Stars in both the Charlotte Edwards Cup and Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. Smith, who captains the South East Stars, led her team to Finals Day in the Charlotte Edwards Cup where they were beaten by the Central Sparks in the semi-final. In total, she has taken nine wickets and scored over 140 runs in four matches since the beginning of June.
When the Stars hosted the Sunrisers in a T20 at Guildford, Smith put in an outstanding all-round performance scoring 50 with the bat and taking 2/17 with the ball. In the first Racheal Heyhoe Flint Trophy match against the Sunrisers at Beckenham, Smith scored 66 at the top of the Stars order and took 3/37 with the ball as the Stars completed the double over the Sunrisers across the two formats.
Her impressive performances gained her a nomination for the PCA Player of the Month award.
As well as Surrey’s Smith and Capsey, South East Stars’ Freya Davies also makes the squad for the game at Leicester – which will be live-streamed on Leicestershire CCC’s YouTube
The warm-up fixture at Leicestershire precedes the white ball leg of the multi-format series vs South Africa.
The squad in full is: Georgia Elwiss (Southern Vipers, cap), Maia Bouchier (Southern Vipers), Alice Capsey (South East Stars), Freya Davies (South East Stars), Dani Gibson (Western Storm), Sarah Glenn (Central Sparks), Eve Jones (Central Sparks), Freya Kemp (Southern Vipers), Grace Potts (Central Sparks), Bryony Smith (South East Stars), Mady Villiers (Sunrisers) Lauren Winfield-Hill (Northern Diamonds).
