As part of our International Women’s Day celebrations, we take a look at the work being done by the Club and Derbyshire Cricket Foundation to grow the women and girls’ game in the county.
Across Derbyshire, there are now more women and girls involved in cricket than ever before! This is not only in a playing capacity, but in volunteering roles within clubs and the community as well. For 2022, we believe that this is only going to continue to grow throughout the county.
Women’s Softball Cricket
In 2021, we saw 18 festivals take place across the county, a record amount which attracted a record number of Women and Girls from 36 different clubs into the game! This allowed for 490 women to access playing cricket in a fun and exciting format throughout the summer.
When it came to the winter, we ran three different women’s indoor softball leagues with the help of our friends at Willows Sports Centre. Two leagues ran before Christmas seeing 12 teams take part across the leagues with 8 of these teams being brand new to the indoor league for 2021! We then ran a big league in the new year which featured 10 teams and saw five weeks of nail-biting action and competition between the teams.
2022 is looking like a great year for women’s softball cricket with 20+ festivals being planned for a summer full of fun! If your club has yet to show interest in entering a festival, please complete the form here: https://forms.office.com/r/pnUgUwzZUJ
Girls’ Cricket
We have a FREE Girls ‘Have a go at Cricket’ Session for those aged 10 and under at Willows Sports Centre, Derby on Sunday 3rd April! This is a good opportunity for girls to come along for a couple of hours and give cricket a go with some of our amazing coaches, and hopefully some special guests! You can book a place here: https://forms.office.com/r/si0NFFVDc5
In the summer, girls U9 softball cricket will be ran by all junior leagues in 2022, and will be the same format as all other U9 cricket played in Derbyshire. The 6-a-side pairs format will be the first step on the Girls Playing Pathway at club level.
We will be running a girls U12’s league in 2022. This format ran in 2021 with some success, we had 10 teams enter from across the county who played four/five games across the summer. Recently we have spoken to a number of clubs and conducted a review of Girls club cricket and decided now is the time to introduce a county wide playing offer for girls. The offer will begin as the next league offer after Girls U9 Kwik Cricket that is currently offered by most junior leagues.
Female Volunteers
More female volunteers within clubs helps to make them more sustainable, family friendly, and provides excellent role models to younger members of the club! To find out more about the benefits of engaging with the women and girls game, check out our website here: https://dcfcricket.com/w-g-club-development/
At our Annual Cricket Derbyshire Day event on Saturday 26 March, we will be running a Women and Girls Workshop. This is aimed at providing clubs that are looking to start and/or grow their women and girls offer with useful tips and information that can be implemented at their clubs. A perfect opportunity to pick the brains of our excellent Club & Community Cricket Officers! You can sign up to the day here: https://forms.office.com/r/tvV8p15hGQ
In 2021, there were 28 female coaches trained via our coach education programme. Looking forward to this year, we are aiming to raise that and have plenty of opportunities coming up for female volunteers and players to get involved in coaching. To see our range of courses and our female only courses, see below:
Support Coach Courses: https://dcfcricket.com/support-coach-courses/
Foundation I Courses: https://dcfcricket.com/foundation-i-coaching-courses/
Women and Girls Performance Pathway
The women and girl’s pathway is going from strength to strength here in Derbyshire! The start of training for the 2022 season saw 150+ girls, a record number of girls, have the opportunity to train at the Indoor Performance Centre at the Incora County Ground this winter.
Derbyshire Women’s Captain and Pathway Coach, Lauren Tuffrey, said:
“It’s brilliant to see so many girls having the opportunity to train at the county ground each week and make use of the amazing coaching team that we have here at Derbyshire. There are seven female coaches for our girl’s pathway which is incredible! Having those female role models in place for the girls is essential to showcase the different pathways that exist for the girls within cricket now.
What’s nice to see is the number of different clubs that are represented throughout the pathway. Gone are the days where all the players instantly know each other, we truly are bringing together girls from across the county. I know that all the coaches can’t wait for the summer to come around so that each age group can get stuck into their games and show off their hard work this winter!”
East Midlands Women’s Cricket League
In 2021, Derbyshire had 17 teams involved in the East Midlands Women’s Cricket League across the different formats on offer. 2022 will see 23 teams entered from across Derbyshire, with more looking to join for the 2023 season already!
This league provides competitive cricket for those playing Softball, Super 8s, and Hardball 40/45 over cricket on Sundays throughout the summer. If you are interested in finding out more about the league, contact [email protected]
We have an exciting year ahead for Women and Girls Cricket across Derbyshire, make sure you don’t miss it!
If you want more information relating to any of the opportunities above, please contact Charlie at [email protected]
If you are interested in supporting any of the work that we are doing above, please contact Lauren at [email protected]
