AILSA LISTER’S playground chat is a bit different to her friends’. After all, not many 16-year-olds are playing cricket for their country.

“My pals are definitely all very encouraging,” explained the fifth-year pupil at Gordon Schools. “But it is quite weird as most of them have no idea about cricket or the rules.

“I scored my first hundred this year playing for Caledonian Under-16s and told all my pals at school about it afterwards. And one of them replied: ‘Is that good?’. So it’s hard to explain sometimes.”

Following in the footsteps of another Huntly native, Kirstie Gordon, who went on to play for both Scotland and England, Lister has made significant strides of her own.

All being well, she would have been logging on to Zoom tonight for the Scottish Women in Sport awards – where she is a finalist in the Young Sportswoman of the Year category – from La Manga in Spain where the Scotland full squad had been meant to be playing Ireland in a five-match series.

Instead, she is isolating at home after a close contact tested positive for coronavirus, the trip called off due to that and a number of other issues.

She was still just 15 when she earned her one full Scotland cap to date last year.

“I made my debut for the Wildcats last year,” she revealed. “It was against England Academy at Loughborough and a load of other girls made their debuts that day as well. We actually didn’t finish the game because rain stopped play! It still counts as a cap luckily as we had played a certain number of overs. But I’m still waiting for my first proper full game.”

Lister has ambitions to follow Gordon in making a career out of cricket but has her sights set on going to university, too.

“Kirstie is from the same town as me,” she added. “So when I was in my Kwik Cricket days at primary school she was actually coaching my sessions. She went on to play for Scotland and then moved on to the England set-up which was brilliant to see. So she’s definitely a role model of mine.

“I’m in my fifth year at school and doing my Highers. At some point I’d like to go to Australia and have a season over there to help with my learning and then I’d like to go to uni to study physiotherapy while continuing with my cricket.

“I just want to play at the highest level that I can. I have been doing a bit of coaching myself, too, so I’m trying to get as many girls as possible up here to get involved in the sport. I love it and can’t really see myself doing anything else.”