Ella May McCaughan was born in Southampton, Hampshire on 26th September 2002 and is a right handed batter and right arm leg spin bowler.
Despite being born in Hampshire, McCaughan has played for neighbouring Sussex since 2018, and became part of the Southern Vipers in 2020 with the new regional hub domestic system.
McCaughan made her debut for Sussex against Surrey in 2018, and played in four matches as the county were promoted from Division Two in the Women’s County Championship.
In 2019, aged 16, she was Sussex’s joint-leading run scorer with 135 runs in the County Championship as Sussex finished third in Division One.
McCaughan then recorded a T20 best of 40* in the 2021 Women’s T20 Cup where she scored 96 runs.
She made her Vipers debut in 2020 and played in all seven matches of the first ever Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy and scored 172 runs as the Vipers emerged victorious against Northern Diamonds in the final.
The opener recorded her first two half-centuries with 50 against South East Stars and 63 against Western Storm, along with 35 in the final against the Diamonds.
McCaughan then played ten matches for the Vipers in 2021, and, like many of her teammates, was picked up by Southern Brave in the Hundred although she didn’t play a game and was re-bought by the Brave for the 2022 Hundred.
She played five matches in the 2022 Charlotte Edwards Cup, and scored 71 runs at an average of 35.50, and scored an unbeaten 30, hitting the winning runs in the final against Central Sparks at Northampton as the Vipers sealed their first Charlotte Edwards Cup title.
McCaughan was subsequently called up to the England A squad to play South Africa in a three-day match on 20th June.
She continued her rise in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, and after three games had scored 87 runs with a career-best of 72 against Lightning at Derby on 16th July, and she ended the competition having scored over 150 runs.
With almost 500 runs to her name and four domestic finals across her short Vipers career, McCaughan earnt her first professional contract at Southern Vipers in November 2022.
At the end of 2023, McCaughan was named the Vipers’ Young Player of the Year after another solid season in orange and black - she scored 436 runs in 20 matches, including two half-centuries and a CEC best of 42 against Thunder at The Ageas Bowl.
The majority of her runs, 331, came in the 50-over competition opening the batting, but in just four Charlotte Edwards Cup matches in 2023, she scored more runs than in her previous eight in the same competition, with a strike rate sitting at 109.
McCaughan had a strong start to the 2024 season, surpassing 30 in each of the opening three matches, with a career-best of 83 coming against Northern Diamonds at Utilita Bowl where she also reached 1,000 runs for the Vipers.
She scored 369 runs in 16 matches over the summer of 2024 – 340 of which came in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.
Still only 21 years old, McCaughan was awarded a pro contract with Hampshire at the end of the 2024 season and flew out to Australia to play for Manly Warringah CC in Sydney along with Megan Sturge, where Georgia Adams played the winter before.
