Rhiannon Blake is cricket-mad and refuses to let anything get in the way of turning out for her village club, even an MS diagnosis.
A keen cricketer playing as a leg spinner for her local club St Chad’s Broomfield Cricket Club in Headingley, West Yorkshire, Rhiannon was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in 2025.
MS is a chronic neurogenerative disease that affects the body’s central nervous system, causing the immune system to attack myelin, a protective coating around nerves. Symptoms range widely from person to person living with MS.
Rhiannon first noticed symptoms a year before diagnosis in early 2024, feeling fatigued along with a numbness in her limbs.
“I couldn’t feel my feet when I went to bowl,” Rhiannon told Fen Regis Trophies. “My captain, Hannah, said just do what you need to do – if you are not feeling well, we can work around it.”
MS Diagnosis
After undergoing several tests and scans over a year, Rhiannon was diagnosed with MS. She was not left to face the news on her own, with her St Chad’s Broomfield teammates rallying around her in her time of need.
“MS was always in my peripherals, speaking to loads of people who have MS – being told not to Google!” Rhiannon said. “I was talking to all my teammates about it, and they are all so supportive.
“Sarah, one of my teammates, and her wife, Beryl, actually came with me to the appointment when I was diagnosed because my dad couldn’t make it.
“I call them (Sarah and Beryl) my adopted Leeds mums.”
Despite her diagnosis, Rhiannon refuses to allow MS to get in the way of turning out for her village club, and learning how to manage her condition.
“Nowadays,” Rhiannon says. “I make sure I am okay on a matchday and manage my symptoms so that I can still play.
“So, on a Sunday, I make sure that I am cool enough so that my symptoms don’t flare up so I can bowl.
“That has proven difficult, bowling leg spin, but my teammates are all so incredibly understanding.”
From “Football Kid” to Cricket Mad
Rhiannon was born in Bristol before moving to Leeds in 2019 with her dad after attending the University of Plymouth. Originally a self-proclaimed “football kid”, Rhiannon’s first sporting love was – and still is – Bristol Rovers.
“My dad was a football dad,” explained Rhiannon. “I was a football kid, so we would go and watch Rovers on a Saturday.”
Though Rhiannon joined St Chad’s Broomfield Cricket Club with no playing experience or cricket trophies to her name shortly after arriving in Yorkshire, her love for the sport was first ignited back in 2005. As Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen starred in the 2005 Ashes series win for England, winning back the urn from Australia for the first time since 1987, Rhiannon was hooked.
“The 2005 Ashes seems to have been a catalyst for a lot of people my age to get into playing cricket,” Rhiannon told Fen Regis Trophies. “Freddie Flintoff was my idol…he probably still is!”
It would not be until the summer of 2019 that Rhiannon would follow up on her interest in cricket. Living a stone’s throw away from Headingley Cricket Ground, one of the host venues for that year’s Cricket World Cup, there was something about watching fans entering the stadium that captured her imagination.
“It was cricket that I had not seen before…cricket, to me, was white test match cricket, but they were wearing fun shirts which looked more like football.
“People were coming from all different countries…natural, I was like I’ll give this a watch and popped it. We watched the World Cup final at my dad’s.
“After that, I got really, really into the Ashes and it went from there…I’m an anomaly in terms of women in cricket, as it wasn’t like my dad or brother played.
“I played because I wanted to play, and so I did.”
Rhiannon’s story will no doubt resonate with many, and her drive and determination to keep playing is clear. This bowler won’t allow MS to get her into a spin.
By Aaron Gratton
