Girl meets World – Cricket World ! Love at first sight for Ms Topanga!

A few miles from Woodley Field on the winding Topanga Canyon Blvd is a beautifully quaint cafe called Cafe Mimosa. Stop for coffee and organic muffins,and feel like its the 60’s or 70’s. One almost expects Jimi Hendrix to saunter in, or to see Neil Young in a corner, not on a laptop, but strumming on his guitar. It’s the kind of place where the Eagles’ “Peaceful Easy Feeling” plays in your head as you sip your latte or tea.

Cafe Mimosa is where we found Amanda McLeod, Ms Topanga Canyon 2010 and competitor in the 2012 Ms California Pageant. Amanda also happens to be pursuing a Ph.d (in Traditional Chinese Medicine & Acupuncture. Amanda describes herself, “I live on a sustainable farm where I grow the majority of the plants and fruit that we consume, I have goats, chickens, rabbits, cats and a aussi shepperd. I am a simple girl, not afraid of hard work, love to hike, camp, and go to hot springs, I sing and write opera.”

Though Amanda has played sports like volleyball & soccer before Friday November 26 she had had no exposure to cricket. However she was intrigued by the opportunity to report on the American College Cricket West Coast Championship for AmericanCollegeCricket.com and the next day had her first taste of America’s original sport, cricket. It was love at first sight for Ms Topanga, and when encouraged by Lloyd Jodah,the Trojans’ Tarun Sandhu showed her how to bat whilst Nino DiLoreto bowled (and made a tumbling fielding stop), Amanda took a few shots and connected well enough to excite everyone !

This led to a conversation with women’s cricket pioneer David Sentence and now Amanda says, “hopefully I will soon be attending practice and competing with a women’s team. I do see this as a political opportunity as well as a chance to participate on a national level in a sport that I am every day growing to love more.”

Not a surprising statement, as everyday American College Cricket is finding Americans who, as long as they are not excluded by being burdened with lbw & other complicated rules at the beginning, come to love cricket !

Amanda had a final word, “I am honored that American College Cricket allowed me to participate in their West Coast Championship and I look forward to traveling to the National Championship in March and rooting on my homies USC! FIGHT ON! ”