Charley Phillips feels the experience in The Blaze camp can prove crucial as they prepare for their first away trip of the season.

Phillips is part of an unchanged 13-strong squad travelling to Durham for a Metro Bank One Day Cup Clash at Banks Homes Riverside (Sunday 27 April, 10.30am start).

The seamer made her debut for The Blaze in the season-opening contest against Lancashire at Trent Bridge – in which the Red Rose county ultimately prevailed by eight wickets.

But it was the calibre of player she made her Blaze bow alongside that was most heartening.

“To be making my debut in the same game as Amy Jones and Georgia Elwiss, who’ve both had such great careers with England, was really cool,” she said.

“Their experience is really important – they bring a level-headedness that is really useful, and you can learn so much from chatting to them on and off the pitch.

“A lot of the team asked me if I was nervous on Wednesday, but it was more of an excited feeling really. We’d done a lot of the preparation over the winter, so I was raring to go with the team.”

Phillips’ Blaze debut came after initially moving on loan in September 2024.

The nature of a congested winter cricketing schedule, however, meant that opportunities for the side as a whole to come together were limited until the weeks immediately preceding the summer.

“A lot of people were away over the winter with their countries or playing in franchise tournaments, so the start of the winter had much more of an individual focus,” said Phillips.

“It made the trip to Abu Dhabi even more important; it was really nice to have everyone together so we could gel as a group, and start playing together and understand each other as a team.”

The Blaze’s pre-season tour saw them retain the Abu Dhabi Women’s T20 competition, before returning to the UK for 50-over friendlies against Warwickshire and Essex.

The build-up made striding out on the Trent Bridge turf all the more special for Phillips.

“It was a really good day for it – we had lots of support, which was really nice,” she said.

“The result didn’t go the way we wanted, but you can take a lot from games like that.

“We have to make sure we learn from those experiences, and take those lessons with us up to Durham.”

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