The acronym Wags first entered popular consciousness in 2006 during England’s football World Cup adventures in Baden-Baden. Victoria Beckham, Cheryl Tweedy and the gang became a sneering tabloid obsession, their matching outfits, nightclub antics and hair extensions gleefully picked apart.
Twenty years later, a very different set of Wags are causing a stir at Oswestry Cricket Club on the north Shropshire-Wales border. The thriving Women and Girls section (WaGs) has an astonishing 10 mother and daughter pairs who have played competitive cricket together, ranging from 12 years old to 67.
The oldest member is the irrepressible Jools Payne, team manager and founding player. “We embrace the Wags moniker,” she says. “And we’re incredibly proud of our mother and daughter pairs, we may even explore if it is worthy of the Guinness Book of Records.”
Jools’s oldest daughter, Naomi, is the driving force behind the success of the women’s section, which has been going only since 2018. That year she organised a women’s softball competition at the club and cast around for six people to enter, persuading her mum and younger sister Holly. She managed to recruit enough players to run a proper women’s team a year later and now the club have 33 players on their books, entering hard-ball and soft-ball tournaments, indoors and out, with two-thirds of their youngsters from the state sector. And they are the proud reigning champions (2024 and 2025) of the top Shropshire recreational hardball league.
But how on earth did they manage to attract so many mother and daughter pairs, during what can be a famously tricky period for relationships during adolescence? “We play competitively but we have a hoot on the field as well,” says Jools. “Some mums started playing first and brought their daughters along, sometimes it was the other way round.
“We have a very nurturing side too. It might have something to do with the mother-daughter dynamic but also that we have a few teachers on board as well, including our vice-captain, Lisa Bladen, who is head of girls’ PE at the local state school. It’s a bit like if you’ve ever been on a PTA and get a group of individuals who just all gel – wonderful things happen.
“The beautiful thing about cricket is that you have that chance to shine as an individual but within a team setting. There are no egos at all. The young girls all get on like a house of fire and the older ones like a bit of gin and prosecco bonding.”
There are challenges – selection for one, because if a mum goes on holiday, so does the daughter – but Jools is always available. “I am the most inept player on the field. I can’t bend and I can’t throw. I’ve got rheumatoid arthritis and a wonky right hand. I’m very good at shouting and clapping though.”
The coach for this year is Jools’s husband, Ian, who was an all-rounder for Surrey and Gloucestershire from 1977 to 1986. He has a dodgy hip but that was no excuse to shirk from his duties. “I said to him: ‘Come on, no more lie-ins on a Sunday morning.’ It is such a great resource having an ex-pro with all that technical expertise and cricket nous, helping the girls understand how to rotate the strike, nurdle the ball down there. He brings a cricketing brain to the party.”
A 2022 survey by Women in Sport found that a million teenage girls who considered themselves sporty in primary school disengaged once adolescence hit. This huge drop-off in participation when periods and body consciousness hit is one reason why Jools is such a huge enthusiast.
“We know that where mums either play or encourage the playing of sport, whatever it may be, their daughters are likely to follow a path into active participation. I listened to a fascinating Mumsnet webinar a couple of years ago on just that issue and determined then that we would do what we could to nurture our mums and their daughters into the game.
“This is where playing within the sisterhood comes in. There is something about being in that nurturing female-only environment that can help you through. We have a Wags dedicated training night, play with women and against women – though some of the good cricketers play mixed cricket with school or club third or fourth XIs.
“Also, a big up to whoever invented period pants. Who wants to wear whites if you’ve got your period? And to Alex Hartley for mentioning her period on TMS, good for her.”
It probably won’t come as a surprise to learn that there is a big social element to the Oswestry Wags. They regularly go to watch England women at Edgbaston and will be there on 12 June for the opening night of the Women’s T20 World Cup, England against Sri Lanka. Look out for them if you’re watching, sitting in a block in the Hollies Stand dressed as lifeguards in yellow T-shirts and red shorts.
The Wags are also holding a party on 5 July for the T20 World Cup final, hosting a softball festival at the club in the morning, and setting up the television for the 2.30 start in the afternoon. It should be a ball.
If you’re in the Oswestry area, the Wags train on Tuesday nights from 6-8pm in the summer. Naomi Payne is keen to start an under-12s team as well as a pathway to the senior side. “The more the merrier,” says Jools. And you don’t have to bring your mum.
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