Photo Credit: Cricket Scotland
Scotland international Chloe Abel is spending the winter in her home state, Tasmania, continuing her cricket development alongside her university education.
Abel, who made her debut against Italy in the Women’s T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier in September, will be detailing her experiences down under throughout the winter on cricketscotland.com:
I finished my three-week nursing placement last week in the Whittle Ward, which is the palliative care unit.
I really enjoyed the challenges that brought, it was quite emotionally challenging at times, but it’s really nice to be able to make a difference. It’s always a difficult time for the families, so building that relationship with them to try and help make a difficult time easier is super important.
Our main role is comfortability, we’re not an acute ward so it’s more about managing symptoms rather than treating conditions.
We just want our patients to be as comfortable as possible, helping them do everyday things such as going to the toilet, showering, etc. that maybe their families had to do at home.
It’s really important for us to do that so that when their families visit, they can just spend quality time together.
There are tough days that can be emotionally exhausting, and that can really take it out of you on some days.
If I had a morning shift I’d come home and quickly get changed and go to training, and sometimes after a difficult day you don’t have that motivation to train, but you have to do it, because it provides that balance and a distraction from your day at work.
I’ve finished my third year of studies now, so I’m starting my fourth and final year at the end of January, which is quite exciting.
The final year is predominantly hospital training, we have two seven-week placements at the start and end of the year, so it’s going to be a busy 2024, both on and off the field!
On the field, we’ve just started our 50-over competition, which I feel we’re more suited to at New Town; we’re the reigning champions, so hopefully we can bring back the cup again this year!
In our first game we had a really good win against Clarence, we ended up on around 350 with some big contributions from Tanja Lee, Sterre Kalis and Kathryn Bryce who scored 71.
We bowled Clarence out for just over 100 and I took three wickets, so that was really pleasing on both a personal level, and also for the team to put in such a good performance.
It’s incredible for Brycey to be heading to the Women’s IPL, and I’m super proud of her.
I don’t think she found out until quite late on with the auction being in the middle of the night, but as soon as I woke up I rung her up, and it’s such an exciting opportunity for her.
Hopefully she can take the next step because she’s a gun of a player and a great person as well.
I feel like I’ve had quite a big six-eight months, especially with the placement, so I’m looking forward to a little break now over Christmas, and it’s important to have a bit of a reset and then kick-on for what will be another hectic year!
At Christmas, we do a swap each year with our different sides of the family, so this year we’re off to Sydney to be with my mum’s side of the family.
We try to make sure that we see everyone, we’ve just been with my dad’s family this week, but it’ll be good fun to spend some time in Sydney over the festive period!
Name of Author: Cricket Scotland
Cricket Scotland, formerly the Scottish Cricket Union, is the governing body for cricket in Scotland, based at the National Cricket Academy in Edinburgh. Established in 1908 and restructured in 2001, it became an ICC Associate Member in 1994. The organization includes three sub-associations: the East of Scotland Cricket Association, Western District Cricket Union, and Aberdeenshire Cricket Association.
