When Tighan Tosen rekindled her love affair with cricket six years ago, she could not imagine where it would lead.
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The Eleebana 41-year-old is now the captain of Wests in Newcastle District Cricket Association (NDCA) women's division one competition, a NSW representative and coach of her daughter's team in an all-girls competition.
"I started playing in high school, that's when I fell in love with the game and joined the local club and was playing with the boys," Tosen said.
"I was the only girl out there. There was no such thing as a girls team or a girls-only comp and when you got to a certain age there was nothing more for you to do unless you were willing to travel.
Tosen continued to play women's cricket in Canberra while at university but the only option available when she moved to Newcastle in 2008 involved travelling to Sydney.
That was until the NDCA offered women's social sixers in 2017. Tosen was quick to sign up.
The midweek T20 competition followed two years later and has since grown from four teams to 14 across two divisions.
Last week, the right-arm pace bowler represented NSW at the Veterans Cricket Australia women's over 40s division one championships in Wollongong.
The Blues were narrowly beaten by Queensland in the final. Tosen finished the five-day carnival as equal top wicket-taker for NSW as well as their player of the final.
"I was just happy to be back playing again ... Never had I thought that an opportunity to play at state level would come up, particularly at this stage of my life, so it's pretty cool," Tosen said.
"I've definitely learnt a lot in the last week, and the quality of cricket was amazing."
It hasn't been the only highlight this summer for the lawyer and mother of two girls.
Tosen is coaching Wests in the Newcastle Junior Cricket Association stage one girls competition. The team includes her 10-year-old daughter Scarlett.
"Last year we didn't really have a coach, it was parents just getting together," she said.
"This year I thought I'd put my hand up, so I did a coaching course and got my accreditation."
In round one, the opposition team from Charlestown also had a female coach.
The significance of going from being the only girl on the cricket pitch as a 15-year-old to coaching a junior all-girls team against another side with a female coach was not lost on Tosen.
"It's interesting on the Saturday morning when the coaches go looking for each other and invariably they'd go up to some of the dads and they'd point my way and say, 'No, she's the coach'," Tosen said.
"And that morning, there were two girls coaching so we were both really excited by that and thought it was something really special to be a part of ... to know now that there's pathways for those girls to keep playing cricket as they grow is awesome."
The NDCA women's competition reaches the semi-finals stage next week with division one and two finals on December 13 at No.1 Sportsground.
Talks are underway for the introduction of a development league in the new year to offer more opportunities for women to play cricket.
As far as Tosen goes, the more cricket the better.
"I want to keep playing for as long as I can, as long as the body holds up," she said.
"Being at the nationals tournament, there were three divisions and in the third division there were women in their 70s still out there giving it a go.
"I'm keen to do nationals again next year. The hunger is definitely there.
"But locally, just to see the women's game continue to grow and develop. I think that's really something that I'd be keen to be a part of, in whatever way that might be.
"I'd love to keep coaching the junior girls, let them know that this sport is for them. That there's a space there for them to be the strong, powerful girls that they are."
