Wiltshire’s Women’s & Girls’ Cricket Offers for the 2023 Season
The 2023 Cricket Season has started to take shape and there is certainly no shortage of Women's & Girls' Cricket on offer in 2023! Over the past weeks and months, Wiltshire Cricket and the ECB have been working tirelessly to put together a year of opportunities, activities, fixtures, and events that will provide numerous cricket offers for female cricketers of all ages.
The following article provides a brief description of the Women's & Girls' Cricket offers, available in Wiltshire.
Additionally, clubs are now able to enter each competition, activity, festival or event.
ENTER HERE!
(Deadline: 15th January 2023).
Wiltshire Cricket would also like to thank PensionBee for their continued support of Women's & Girls Cricket in Wiltshire. Their support goes a long way to ensuring cricket is accessible to Women & Girls across the county!
Girls' Summer Playing Offers
Girls-Only Dynamos Cricket
In 2021, the ECB launched a new National Programme, known as Dynamos Cricket. This programme follows on from the hugely successful and popular All Stars Cricket.
All Stars Cricket offers an entry opportunity for children between 5-8 years old, whereas Dynamos Cricket provides a similar product for 8-11 years old, offering both an entry point into cricket, but also a progression from All Stars Cricket.
Dynamos Cricket caters for boys and girls, but many clubs across Wiltshire and the rest of the country made the decision to offer a "Girls-Only" Dynamos Programme, which proved to be very popular and for many clubs, created their first-ever Girls Section. In fact, clubs enjoyed this "Girls-only" offer, as it gave their teams an element of independence (i.e. their own kit bag) and encouraged more girls to play cricket!
In 2023, Girls-Only Dynamos Cricket will also be an option for cricket clubs and could perhaps be the start of a girls’ section at your cricket club!
U9s Girls’ Countdown Cricket Festivals
With festivals spread across the summer months, cricket clubs can pick and choose those that they wish to attend. U9 festivals allow young players at clubs who run All Stars Cricket, Dynamos Cricket and/or the U9s age group to play multiple games of cricket. For many, this will be their first experience of playing cricket away from their own club and against other teams. The pairs format ensures that all players have an equal chance to bat, bowl and participate in the game in a friendly and inclusive environment.
The games will be 6-a-side and the format is countdown cricket, based on the Hundred competition. Each innings will be 60 balls with everyone getting the opportunity to bowl, batters will bat in pairs for 20 balls. The aim is to gain as many runs as possible in the 60 balls, ensuring everyone has equal opportunity to score runs and take wickets.
There will be at least two festivals run throughout the year, likely to be the end of June and mid-July.
Under 11s Girls' Festivals
For girls who have recently started cricket (maybe through Dynamos) and are not yet ready for the transition to hardball cricket during the season.
In addition to the league, there will also be several opportunities for Under 11 Girls teams to participate in county-wide festivals, offering several fixtures on the same afternoon. These festivals are a fantastic option for clubs who may not be able to commit to regular fixtures or travel distances. They also provide brilliant developmental and coaching opportunities for the teams, in a social, fun, and enjoyable environment!
Festivals will be 6-a-side pairs cricket and there will be four during the season (May June, July, and August).
Under 11s Girls' League
The U11 Girl’s league will provide weekly opportunities to girls across Wiltshire, in small localised groups. The league will be 8-a-side pairs cricket and will begin with a number of soft-ball fixtures before club’s progress into hard-ball cricket for the remainder of the season (mandatory).
The outstanding contributions and ideas from several Girls clubs during the winter months have helped to shape this league, aiming to provide equal opportunities for boys & girls, whilst keeping travel distances reasonable across the league.
Under 13's Girls' League
The Under 13's Girls' League is a county-wide group, which allows for each team to play a number of fixtures against teams from across Wiltshire. Where possible, fixtures will be determined based on locality to reduce travel distances and encourage participation. The league is a brilliant opportunity for the girls to play with and against their peers in 8-aside pairs cricket formats, played with a hard ball.
ECB National U13s and U15s Club T20
These ECB Competitions (formally Lady Taverners Competitions) provides a national competitive offer for Under 13s and Under 15s Girls teams. The competition starts with localised groups within Wiltshire before progressing onto regional and national finals. In recent years, Wiltshire has seen some fantastic success in these competitions, with the most recent being South Wilts CC who finished 3rd nationally in the Under 13s competition in 2021.
This competition requires direct entry with the ECB;
03 Vitality Girls U13 & U15 Club T20 Entry Letter 2023.pdf
03 Vitality Girls U13 & U15 Club T20 Competition Rules 2023.pdf
03 Vitality Girls U13 & U15 Club T20 Entry Form 2023.xls 1
The deadline for all entries is Friday 10th February 2023 & the draw will be published by Friday 24th February.
Under 15's Girls' “Franchise Cricket” Days
Across Wiltshire, there are far fewer Under 15s Girls sections with large numbers, but this certainly shouldn't restrict their ability to play cricket against their friends and peers. As a result, Wiltshire Cricket will offer two “Franchise Cricket” days during the summer to which we will invite all female U15 cricketers from across the county. Players will be split into “franchise” teams to play competitive fixtures throughout the day.
There may also be clubs interested in some friendly fixtures, if your club would like some support with arranging friendly fixtures for your Under 15s Girls, please don't hesitate to contact [email protected] or [email protected]
Under 19's Girls' Club T20 Competition
Following the outstanding success of The Hundred this season and the subsequent interest in Girls' Cricket, an opportunity has arisen to launch a new ECB competition. This competition bridges the gap between U15s and the National Women's Club T20 Cup Competition and provides an alternative to the mixed-gender Vitality U19 Club T20, that is already popular across Wiltshire.
The competition will culminate with the National Semi-Finals and Final being held at the end of August with the winner also receiving complimentary tickets to the Women's Eliminator match of The Hundred competition.
This competition requires direct entry with the ECB;
04 Vitality Girls U19 Club T20 Letter & Entry Form 2023.doc
05 Vitality Girls U19 Club T20 Competition Rules 2023.pdf
The deadline for all entries is Friday 10th February 2023 & the draw will be published by Friday 24th February.
Women's Summer Playing Offers
Women's Soft Ball Festivals
Women's Soft Ball Festivals have been at the heart of Women's Cricket in Wiltshire for 5 years and have brought over 300 people into the game, many of which are now playing in Women's Soft Ball and Hard Ball Leagues. The Women's Soft Ball Festivals are social, relaxed, friendly, and centred around participation and 'having a go'! Each club offers a unique spin on their own festivals, with some offering food, drinks, music, "Champagne Moments" and much more!
Each Women's Soft Ball Festival is free to attend, and beginners are encouraged in a supportive environment. Throughout Wiltshire, there are usually 10-13 festivals scheduled throughout the season, in all corners of Wiltshire making these an accessible option for anyone wanting to
participate in cricket.
Women's Soft Ball League
The Women's Soft Ball League was formed as an extension to the Women's Soft Ball Festivals, following similar rules (8-aside, pairs cricket) but providing individual fixtures against local clubs. The Women's Soft Ball League is one of the most popular Women's Competitions in Wiltshire and remains "socially competitive", allowing players to feel welcome regardless of cricket experience.
The league is usually split into 3 local groups (East, West, South), which helps to keep fixtures within a reasonable distance. In previous years, the South group have also played across county borders, in the Hampshire league to provide additional fixtures, closer to home.
Women’s 100-Ball Cup (Soft Ball) (NEW)
Following the outstanding success of The Hundred, Wiltshire Cricket is delighted to be running a Women ‘s Soft Ball 100 Ball Cup this season. This will be a knockout tournament following the Countdown Cricket format of the game.
Women's Hard Ball Championship (T20)
This year The Women's Hard Ball Championship has taken on a slightly different form this year with the introduction of the Women’s WEPL.
The Women's Hard Ball Championship bridges the gap between the Women’s Soft Ball League and the Women’s WEPL. The League promotes a more competitive fixture than the Women's Soft Ball League, but still offers a fantastic social and supportive atmosphere. The Championship also encourages players of all abilities to take part, including those who represent a County Squad or perhaps those who have had previous cricket experience.
The Women's Championship League follows the traditional ECB T20 Regulations. This competition will be a minimum of 9-aside competition, with the option to mutually agree to play with 11 players if available.
Women's West of England Premier League (WEPL)
The Women's West of England Premier League (WEPL) has become the 'top tier' of Women's Club Cricket in the Southwest.
Eight clubs from across Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire have agreed to merge with WEPL to form only the second Women’s Premier cricket league in the country, having closely watched the success of the East Anglia Premier Cricket league (EAPL) and their support of a Women’s structure within a premier league.
The new 40-over league, featuring the use of pink balls and coloured clothing, is being established as a direct result of the tremendous growth in the number of girls and women playing cricket across the region.
Matches will be played on eight allocated Sundays that do not clash with any fixtures being played by Western Storm, the regional representative squad which currently bridges the gap between county and international cricket.
The eight founding members are: Golden Hill, Frenchay, Dumbleton (Gloucestershire), Bath, Taunton Deane, Bridgewater (Somerset), and Royal Wootton Bassett, and Devizes from Wiltshire.
Vitality National Women’s Club T20 Cup & Plate Competition 2023
Following the success of last year's ECB Women's Club T20 Competition, it's great to see this competition return in 2023. This competition is an ECB-managed, open-age competition, which starts in May with localised rounds. The fixtures take place on the same dates as Women's County Fixtures, presenting an opportunity for all club cricketers to enjoy a national competition alongside their club league programme. Clubs are also able to invite 4 guest players from other clubs to form a team, ensuring a full team can be raised.
The competition follows a "knock-out" cup format, starting locally and leading to regional and national rounds.
The entry for the 2023 season is managed directly by the ECB and requires clubs to complete entry forms and email them to [email protected] or [email protected].
Vitality National Women's Club T20 Cup & Plate Letter & Entry Form 2023.doc
Vitality National Women's Club T20 Cup & Plate Competition Rules 2023.pdf
Wiltshire Seniors
Wiltshire Cricket has a thriving and growing Seniors Club. Currently, the Wiltshire Seniors offer two teams playing in the 50+, 60+ and 70+ age groups. All teams play in formal leagues against other southern and south-western counties and each have had some notable successes in previous seasons.
Wiltshire Cricket has made a significant commitment to developing the senior teams. The Wiltshire Cricket strategy for 2020-2024 sets out the aspiration for a Women’s Senior team and additional Men’s teams at 60+ and 70+ in the coming seasons, as well as encouraging those over 40 years old to continue playing, return to the game or take it up for the first time.
Courses, Events, Workshops and Activities
Wiltshire Women's & Girls' Fixture Meeting - Thursday 9th February @ Avebury CC
An evening where all participating Women's & Girls Clubs come together to schedule a season of fixtures. Each club will come prepared with available dates for home/away fixtures before networking with other clubs. This fixtures evening tends to save hours of email exchanges and has proved very useful in previous years.
Young Storm Champions Course – Date TBC
A course, in association with Western Storm, that introduces coaching, umpiring and scoring to Girls, aged 14 to 17. Throughout the day, the attendees will cover modules similar to those in a Foundation 1 course, before learning how to officiate fixtures. On completion of the course, each attendee will leave with some Western Storm Merchandise and a volunteer log book to track their voluntary hours at their club. At certain voluntary milestones (E.g. 15 hours, 25 hours, 35 hours), the girls will receive more Western Storm merchandise, such as water bottles, power banks, hoodies and free tickets!
The course costs £30 and is a brilliant introduction to some key roles within cricket that not only benefit the girls, but also their clubs whilst they are helping with coaching or officiating.
Play-Cricket Website Workshop ( TBC)
The Play-Cricket Website will become an essential part of cricket planning and fixtures during the 2023 season. All league fixtures will be required to use the Play-Cricket website, as this will automatically monitor and record results, league tables, player statistics and county-wide activity. In turn, this informs ECB planning and future funding for the Women's & Girls' game.
The Play-Cricket website has many capabilities, and some may require a clear understanding of the tools and functions, hence, Wiltshire Cricket are currently considering a Play-Cricket workshop to support volunteers with this understanding. If you are interested in this workshop, please complete the 'Expression of Interest' form at the top of this article.
Secondary School Girls Programme
Alongside the exciting club offers this season, Wiltshire Cricket are delighted to be working with Chance to Shine and The ECB to deliver a Secondary School Programme to 3-8 schools within Wiltshire. The programme aims to introduce cricket to over 400 girls, across Years 7, 8 and 9 and is inclusive of taster sessions, young leaders’ workshops, after-school clubs, community sessions and competition elements. Stay tuned on the Wiltshire Cricket social media pages to see how this programme is progressing.
Female-Only National Programmes Activator Training
All Stars Cricket and Dynamos Cricket relies on an inspiring volunteer workforce to deliver the energising, thrilling and supportive national programme sessions. With many clubs offering 'Girls-Only Dynamos' and with nearly 30% of all participants being female, it would be fantastic to see a wealth of inspiring, female role models as National Programmes Activators in 2023!
Becoming an activator is really straight forward and has a huge positive impact on the experience for Wiltshire's Young Cricketers, regardless of previous cricket experience. Every activator brings unique skills to the sessions, whether this be energy, motivation, support, care or people-management skills.
To become an activator, there are 3 simple prerequisites;
a) Attend a free, 3-hour activator training session.
b) Complete a few quick, e-learning modules and 'Safeguarding Young Cricketers' Qualification (Free)
c) Hold a valid ECB DBS check. (Free for volunteers)
Female-Only Foundation 1 Course (Spring 2023)
Following on from the success of the 2022 "Female-Only" Foundation 1 course, where we saw several new female cricket coaches become qualified to deliver cricket sessions across Wiltshire, we are really pleased that there has been some initial interest in running another female-only Foundation 1 Course in 2023!
The Foundation 1 course provides candidates with the skills, confidence and qualifications required to lead coaching sessions at their club. The course consists 4 face-to-face evenings, which cover the coaching foundations for batting, bowling and fielding, along with some key coaching tools and ideas.
The course dates are 21st & 28th February and 07th & 14th March 2023. The venues are yet to be decided. If you are interested in the ECB Foundation 1 Course, please complete the relevant Questions on the entry form.
Scoring & Umpiring Workshops
As the Women's & Girls' Cricket Playing offers continue to grow, so too does the need for scorers and umpires to support the growing game. Scorers and Umpires are essential personnel and sit at the heart of cricket activity.
Wiltshire Cricket are currently considering a workshop to support female scorers and umpires, who may be interested in learning about these roles, gain some confidence or perhaps learn more about 'How to get involved'. If you or your colleagues, team-mates, club members are interested in a Wiltshire Cricket 'Scoring & Umpiring' workshop, please answer the relevant questions on the 'Expressions of Interest' Form.
Additionally, there are also some online courses available, via the ECB website which provide a useful introduction to officiating. These courses can be found below:
Scoring Courses - Click Here
Umpiring Courses - Click Here
Coaching Opportunities
Within Wiltshire, there are often many coaching vacancies, in both voluntary and paid roles. As Women's & Girls' Cricket continues to grow, many of these vacancies are created each year and with so many dedicated coaches across Wiltshire, it would be great to set up a community to support clubs, Wiltshire, and coaches, alike.
With this in mind, if you are a club who requires some coaching support or if you are a coach, looking for further coaching opportunities, within the W&Gs game, please do contact [email protected] or [email protected].
Women's & Girls' Voluntary Cricket Committee
To continue to improve and develop the Women's & Girls' Cricket offers in our county, Wiltshire Cricket would like to form a small voluntary committee, consisting of volunteers from the Women's & Girls' game. The group would aim to tackle some of the challenges/barriers associated with Women's & Girls' Cricket in Wiltshire and support with the management and development of current offerings.
A voluntary committee would encourage a wide range of suggestions and opinions to ensure that Wiltshire Women's & Girls' Cricket goes from strength-to-strength. If this is something that you would like to be involved with, please contact [email protected] or [email protected]
Coaching “Wicket Keeping” Workshop – 1st March 2023
A good wicket keeper is highly sought-after, as they create wicket-taking opportunities, generate energy/atmosphere and very often can be the difference in close contests, resulting in a narrow victory!
Wicket-keepers are one of the most important players on a cricket field, and yet, coaches and training sessions often overlook these players. This is often a result of limited knowledge/experience about the skills involved or the understanding about how to incorporate wicket-keeping into a training session, without excluding the rest of the team.
Wiltshire Cricket is therefore delighted to be able to offer a “How to coach Wicket-Keeping” workshop for players and coaches working in the Women’s & Girls game. This 2-hour workshop will cover a variety of topics including:
- Wicket Keeping Technique & Coaching Points (For all ages/experiences)
- Training Session Ideas and Games (For all ages/experiences)
- How to incorporate Wicket-Keeping into weekly sessions
- Technical, Tactical, Physical and Mental skills of an effective wicket-keeper.
The wicket keeping workshop will take place on Wednesday 1st March (Venue TBC).
All players and coaches, within the Women’s & Girls game are welcome to attend.
Further details will be shared in early 2023.
Women's & Girls Performance Cricket
The 2023 season is very exciting for Women's & Girls' Performance Cricket, with plenty of incredible sporting moments to come! These include, but are certainly not limited to:
- Wiltshire County Age Group Fixtures (U11s, U13s, U15s, U18s)
- Wiltshire Women's 1st XI Fixtures
- Wiltshire Seniors (NEW THIS YEAR)
- Western Storm Regional Academy Fixtures
- Western Storm Fixtures in the RHF Trophy and Charlotte Edwards Cup
- The Women's Ashes Series
- England Women Home Series
- The Women's HUNDRED
What's Next?
All of the above creates an exciting 'buzz' about Women's & Girls' Cricket and we can expect the visibility of the Women's & Girls game to be better than ever before! This could result in plenty of new cricketers, of all ages, joining your club!
2023 is definitely a season to be excited for!
The information gathered from this form will be used to formulate leagues, provide exciting opportunities, and create a whole season of Women's & Girls' Cricket for Wiltshire. The deadline for completion is Sunday 15th January.
Wiltshire Cricket are looking forward to a cricket-packed summer and everyone is welcome to join us, as the Women's & Girls' game goes from strength-to-strength!
For more information about any of the above or if your club are interested in starting a Women's and/or Girls' section, please contact;
Sam Dent
Cricket Development Manager (Clubs, Programmes, Women's and Girls)
- [email protected]
- 07484 916777
