Home-Grown Star

Ashleigh “Ash” Gardner emerged as one of Revesby Workers‘ Cricket Club’s finest talents. She developed her all-round game before eventually debuting in the Australian women’s Twenty20 team against New Zealand in 2017.

Jumping forward, Ashleigh is currently in England playing for Australia in the Women’s Ashes Series, which is played with several formats of the game. The first match was a rare 5-day match, where Ash excelled with her spin bowling taking an amazing 4 wickets for 99 runs in the first innings and an even more amazing 8/66 in the second innings – a total of 12 wickets for 165 for the match, a record tally for any Australian woman, also winning the Player of the Match award. Earlier this year she was also selected by the Gurjarat Giants to play in the inaugural Women’s Premier League in India for a huge valuation of $558,000.

At only 26 years of age, Ash has already amassed many achievements and awards including the Women’s World Cup championship in 2022, ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Championships in 2018 and 2020, Commonwealth Games Gold Medal in 2022, Women’s National Cricket League Championship in 2016-17 and 2018-19 and Women’s Big Bash League Championships with the Sydney Sixes in 2016-17 and 2017-18.  She was awarded the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup player of the Final in 2018 and the very prestigious Belinda Clark Medal in 2022, having been judged the most outstanding Australian female cricketer of the season.

During the COVID-19 lockdowns, Ash set up her Ashleigh Gardner Foundation, took up painting Indigenous art, at which she is considered to be excellent, and spent time discovering her Indigenous heritage, of which she is immensely proud.

The Ashleigh Gardner Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation established to give Aboriginal children a positive experience at school and a healthier start to the day by providing breakfast and unstructured play, encouraging them to complete their education, long term.

Ashleigh “Ash” Gardner

The Talented Trio

Revesby Workers’ Netball Club had three (3) outstanding athletes recently competed in the Netball NSW HART Senior State Titles; Izzy McFarlane, Megan Hallowes and Lexi Dredge.

The HART Senior State Titles is a flagship event within the Netball NSW pathway. The 3-day tournament, held from 10-12 June 2023, showcases the strength of grassroots netball with players from all over the state coming together to play the game they love.

The road to playing in the State Titles has been a long and drawn-out process that has seen immense dedication to the sport from these young ladies.

All 3 girls successfully made representative teams in U12s, U13s and U14s, but unfortunately did not get the chance to play State Titles.

The Under 12s in 2020 was cancelled due to COVID-19. The Under 13s was delayed due to COVID-19 Lockdown the week before State Titles and then cancelled a few months later. The Under 14s in 2022 went ahead at Penrith. Day 1 was played in torrential rain. Days 2 and 3 were cancelled as Penrith and Surrounding areas all flooded.

Despite the numerous set-backs, these girls trained hard and stayed committed.

2023 saw them move into the Under 15s, which is the Senior Representative Platform. All 3 girls were selected into their respective teams and continued to train hard.

The June long weekend saw them travel north to the Maitland District Netball Association where other talented players from all over NSW would all come together and compete in the intra-state competition.

They played 19 games of Netball over 3 days. It was high quality Netball and Izzy, Megan and Lexi played with grit, determination and passion.

The State Titles showcase the best that netball has to offer at a community level and Revesby Workers’ Netball Club are lucky to have these ladies within the club and could not be prouder of their achievements.

These young ladies continue to play in the club’s top team on a Saturday. Lexi and Izzy are also coaching the youngest Workers’ Superstars (Under 8s) to hopefully inspire a new batch of Netball lovers and future representative players.

Continue to shine bright ladies.

Izzy McFarlane, Lexi Dredge and Megan Hallowes