Stephen Naylor, committee member and cricket dad at Lightcliffe CC in West Yorkshire reflects on the growth of girls’ cricket at the club, and why it’s so important for the future.
Last year, we celebrated our 150th anniversary at Lightcliffe CC and have a strong history at the heart of the community here in West Yorkshire. Our junior section is one of the biggest around with nearly 200 boys and girls joining us for training on a Friday evening week-in, week-out from the age of four all the way through to 18, and teams competing in 13 different competitions. But, up until this season, there’s been a gap for girls-only cricket – and it’s one we’re proudly closing.
Women’s cricket has been embedded here for some time - we started with a team in 2011 and for over a decade they played in Yorkshire Division 2. But the challenge of finding players, opponents and somewhere to play prompted a merger with other local clubs a few years ago and the North Halifax Women’s Cricket team continues to compete today. What has been much harder is getting girls into the club to train with our juniors - but that has been changing in recent years, and it’s been brilliant to have some younger girls coming through our U7 Minis and progress into our U9 & U11 teams this season.
I think it’s important to be honest though – it’s really not easy. There’s no shortage of commitment, but just like every village cricket club in the land, finding the volunteers to give up their time and energy to run training, coach our children and keep the lights on in the pavilion is getting harder and harder. We are lucky to have such brilliant people involved, but keeping hold of them and attracting more while looking to do more takes incredible effort and perseverance. What makes it all worthwhile is the faces of the children involved and the impact that cricket has.
So, how did we address the gap and what are our plans going forward? Well, our first task was to establish the structure that would ensure this wasn’t a one-off but something sustainable. Gary Lewsley, a hugely experienced ECB Core Coach and our 3rd XI captain, stepped forward to be our Girls’ Cricket Activator and has developed a team that includes one of the North Halifax Women’s players and one of our senior cricketers who also happened to be the dad of a girl who is a budding young cricketer.
A team established, we then needed to spread the word. We are lucky to have children coming to the club from every background from far and wide in the area, but we needed to tell them about the new offer. We felt it was vital to make this as easy and accessible as possible so we wrote to every school in the area inviting girls aged 7–11 to give it a go for free. We promoted our weekly sessions centred on fun activities and coaching in a positive environment designed to build confidence with every catch, hit and run.
That tone matters. For many girls, especially those with no prior connection to club cricket, the most important first step is not selection or scorecards; it is feeling that the game is welcoming, enjoyable and theirs. Learning, skills and fun at the core... plus, a few cartwheels for added value.
We hoped for 10 girls. One month in, we have 20. Some of them had tried cricket before. Some had never picked up a bat. All were passionate, committed and happy to give everything a go. We are now several weeks in and already girls’ cricket feels embedded into what we’re doing at Lightcliffe – and coming from a standing start, with an exciting summer of women’s cricket ahead, we think that’s some achievement.
We’re not going to stand still though – and this is where the Roses story becomes especially exciting. We want to play games and keep developing the girls’ skills and love of the sport. We’ve already been talking to clubs who are in a similar position and are hoping that by the end of a summer, when there’ll be more focus on women’s cricket than ever with the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup - including matches just down the M62 at Headingley - we’ll be able to play some friendlies. Even if that first match is informal, it would be a powerful milestone - proof that a girls-only entry route can quickly grow into something visible and lasting. After that, who knows – but we’re excited to see what comes next.
There is also a wider performance story here. Lightcliffe’s junior section is one that gives opportunities to everyone and also competes at the highest level. Our U15s won the Vitality U15 Cup Yorkshire Final last year, our U11s and U13s won the Halifax Junior Cricket League’s Collinson Cup. We have a pathway for those who want to follow their dreams but we have a setup that rewards anyone who wants to give cricket a go, and that is a combination we’re proud of. We hope our girls’ section can grow into something similar – and that our Roses, like 7-year-old Rita, have the opportunity to be the Grace Hall of tomorrow. And we know she will have that chance, if she wants it, because these girls are stepping into a club with a proven habit of nurturing young cricketers and exciting talent.
That makes the challenge for the next phase clear - convert a promising launch into a durable pathway, keep the Friday sessions vibrant, turn first-time attendees into regular players, deepen school and family links, and create enough match opportunities for girls to feel that this is their team as much as their session. The good news is that the foundations look strong. For a club proud of its past, the Roses story feels like exactly the kind of future-facing chapter worth telling.