Lightning Burnt Out

 

Some man (probably) has decided the whole situation with cricket's conflict of Lightnings was too much! So some man, it's not clear if it was the same man or not, has rebranded the East Midlands Elite Women's side (the one that's not called Trent Rockets that is) as The Blaze.

Please note that there's absolutely not connection with Coventry Blaze (men's Elite Ice Hockey), who once upon a time were Solihull Blaze and before that, Barons. The women's ice hockey team in Coventry is the Phoenix which shouldn't be confused with the cricket Phoenix of Birmingham, rivals of the Rockets - are you confused yet? There is a finite number of meaningless, yet inspirational names favoured by those marketing men it appears.

Lightning Now Blaze

Interview on TB Pravda

No he's not The Man, he's just another man that's alittle confused about the distinction between his women's regional elite side and the other women's regional elite side that's also based at Trent Bridge, for the same region.

Meanwhile facilities, wickets and storage space get squeezed even further at little ol' Trent Bridge. Whose ground is it, and who are the tenants?

16/09

[Trent Bridge Article]

IT'S LIGHTNING, BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT!

Once upon a time there was Loughborough Lightning, an elite women's netball team. One day someone, probably a man, decided that a women's cricket team based at Loughborough University, Leicestershire should be called Loughborough Lightning too, as Loughborough was now a hub for elite women's sport and having the same name would make some sense, and could create an identity.

Meanwhile in Manchester, where Lancashire men's cricket team had a long established name of Lancashire Lightning, the women's team thought that they couldn't possibly be Lightning too as Loughborough had nabbed that name already, so keeping the same theme, went with the name Thunder.

Some time later, some marketing suits realised that the commercial value for a team based in Loughborough was fairly limited if you called it Loughborough Lightning even if you played games all over the East Midlands. So, someone (again probably a man) decided to drop the word Loughborough from the elite women's cricket team, based at Loughborough University but playing games all around the East Midlands, but still mainly in Loughborough, Leicestershire.

In 2019, elite women's cricket was organised with eight regional centres covering various geographical areas. Lightning being one.

All was good, many regional centres were building the starts of a fan base, but then some men wanted lots of money "to make things better for everyone" (for all, men and even women) and decided not to rename the elite women's regional teams but to introduce some new bigger and better "regional" teams, covering much less of the country but better nevertheless. These teams would have better, with more snazzy names. The East Midlands team would be called Trent Rockets and would play their games at Grace Road Leicester and at Derby as well as at the Test venue of Trent Bridge.

In 2020 we had a global pandemic, the Trent Rockets never got off the ground, their launch put back 12 months. 

In 2021 cricket resumed, Lightning played home games around the East Midlands again but with various restrictions because of on going issues with the pandemic. However by August, restrictions were just a memory but for Trent Rockets Women there would be no travelling around the East Midlands as promised, because all games were doubled up with a men's fixture, solely at Trent Bridge.

Similarly in 2022, Lightning played games around the East Midlands and even had a T20 match at Trent Bridge, initiallly scheduled to be a double header with Notts Outlaws but the Notts game was moved because of clash with football demands. Again, Trent Rockets Women played all their home matches at Trent Bridge as the warm-up act for Trent Rockets Men.

Now comes the twist in fate; women's regional elite side Lightning no longer Loughborough Lightning are no longer to be based in Loughborough but to be primarily based at Trent Bridge, the home of the other women's elite East Midlands' representative side Trent Rockets Women. There are also Nottinghamshire women's representative sides as well, but they rarely get a look-in at Trent Bridge.

Lightning's move, brings them into line with the other elite regional women's representative sides, all now based at Test venue counties, except for Central Sparks who still share their base between Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

So anyone in Nottinghamshire looking to support a women's cricket team, you're got a choice: Lightning, not to be confused with Lancashire Lightning or Thunder for that matter, or a completely different squad of players who, they would have you believe, also represent you in the East Midlands but of course some of your Lightning players (that represent the East Midlands in May, June and July) could be Welsh Fire Women or Oval Invincibles Women in August. This is not confusing, I'm told just follow the money! 

But wait, the plot thickens... the Lightning tag can't follow the elite women's team up the A60 after all, they're going to have to be renamed. It took those marketing men millions to come up Trent Rockets, so what other lame name will the ECB come up on a tight budget?

Read the article above and observe the name that features. That's one the people the ECB are consulting with with their proposals for shaping the men's game in the future...