I grew up in Sedgwick, right next to the cricket club. From the moment I was old enough to recognise cricket was being played, I kept asking my parents when I could go. I joined the youngest age group at the time, which was under-10s mixed juniors, and I’ve stayed with the club ever since. It’s been 17 years now.
Throughout that time, I’ve represented all the junior teams, the second XI, and been involved with junior coaching for the last seven years. In 2023, we decided it was time the club had a women’s team. Towards the end of that summer, we held some taster days, and in 2024 a core group of 25 players ensured our women’s team completed its first ever season.
That just shows the appetite for women and girls to get involved. It was something I hadn’t anticipated when I was one of only three girls playing at the club.
We play in two open-age women’s leagues, which is for players aged 13 and over. These leagues are brilliant for the development of girls’ cricket. Previously, the lack of opportunities meant we would lose girls who felt uncomfortable about playing hardball cricket with boys who were developing faster and stronger. Girls can now build confidence and skills at their own pace and decide if and when they want to transition to hardball. We’ve promoted the team through club posters, word of mouth, and social media. A lot of the women who’ve joined are wives, partners, or daughters of our male players. They were people who’d been around the club, but didn’t really know each other, Now, through the women’s team, the social side of cricket has flourished, giving the ladies a stronger sense of community and friendship, both on and off the field.
Last year, our women’s team entered the Westmorland T12 Softball League and the Cumbria T20 Softball League, reaching the finals day for both. This was a fantastic achievement for the players, bolstering their confidence and leading to the decision to enter the Northern Pyramid Super8s hardball league for the 2025 season. To this day, I still don’t know who nominated me for the Metro Bank Champion of Girls Cricket Award and I had absolutely no expectation that I’d win. But I was delighted to do so, and after winning the award I really wanted to build on it. Over the winter I did my ECB Core Coach qualification, and in May this year I successfully applied for a new role of Women and Girls Development Officer at Cumbria Cricket.
It's been an amazing role so far. Every day is different, and I feel honoured to get the opportunity to inspire our next generation of female cricketers.. What’s been especially rewarding is going into schools as a female role model. Until now, they’ve only seen male coaches. You can see their eyes light up when they realise cricket is a game for them, too.
The Metro Bank Girls In Cricket Fund has been vital in all of this. It enables Cumbria Cricket to promote girls’ cricket in such a powerful way. It will help fund our first league awards night, involving the presentation of 14 trophies in recognition of some outstanding performances. It’s really accelerated the growth of female cricket across the county.
This acceleration isn’t limited to Cumbria. Women’s and girls’ cricket is exploding across the country right now. The 2017 Women’s World Cup was the starting point and every year the momentum just keeps building. Next year will be the biggest yet with the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup being played here. Even in Cumbria, a rural county with a small population spread across a large area, we’re seeing more and more teams wanting to get involved. Instead of us having to persuade people, they’re coming to us to ask how to get started.
I always say the same thing: let your passion drive you. There’s definitely an appetite for it and you won’t be the only one thinking ‘I want this to happen.’ When I started the team at Sedgwick, so many people said: ‘I can’t believe we didn’t do this sooner.’ Once you get going, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve.