Northern Districts Spirit

The Northern Districts women's cricket team, previously known as Northern Spirit, is the women's representative cricket team of the Northern Districts Cricket Association, based in the northern half of New Zealand's North Island. They play their home games at Seddon Park, Hamilton. They compete in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield one-day competition and also the Women's Super Smash Twenty20 competition, where they are known as the Northern Brave. History Northern Districts joined the New Zealand women's domestic structure in 1999–00, finishing bottom of the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield in their first year of competing. Northern Districts have consistently been one of the poorest performers in both the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield and the Twenty20 Super Smash, which began in 2007–08, and are the only current side to have not won a trophy. Northern Districts' best finish in the Super Smash came in its inaugural season, when they finished 3rd with 3 wins. In 2019–20, they reached the final of the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield, but lost by 67 runs to Auckland, despite batter Felicity Leydon-Davis scoring 124. Northern Districts' Caitlin Gurrey was the leading run-scorer across the whole tournament, with 576 runs. In 2020–21, the side finished 4th in both competitions, with 5 wins in the Shield and 3 in the Super Smash. On 9 October 2021, it was announced that the Northern Districts Cricket Association were combining the brands of the men's and women's teams for the Super Smash, with both teams becoming known as Northern Brave.