Junior Girls
What opportunities are there?
FREE This Girl Can Coaching sessions are available at the following clubs for 2017
Lady Taverners Club Competition (Softball)
This summer we will be once again running the U11 & U13 Lady Taverners competitions which have run over many years now.
The dates for these festivals are as follows;
Under 11’s
11th June at Wembdon Cricket Club 1pm start – 4pm*
22nd July Wells Cathedral School, 1pm start - 4pm*
Under 13’s
28th May at Wembdon Cricket Club 1pm start – 4pm*
25th June at Winscombe Cricket Club TBC 1pm start TBC
*Time are subject to change as they will largely depend on the number of entries, but will aim for a 4pm finish.
To enter the competition(s), please click here and complete the link. Please remember to press submit once you have completed the online entry form. Any questions, please do email me at
The rules for these competitions can be viewed here. As this competition no longer feeds an ECB pathway, we ask clubs cto ome prepared to umpire their matches.
Our club would like to have girls teams at our club, how do we go about starting one?
If your club is looking to start a girls section please contact our Club Development Officer Matt Counsell or Steve Gass (Growth & Particiaption Officer ( or ) and they will be happy to support you wiith your clubs ambitions.
A fantastic example of how to set up a girls section is Brislington CC who in just over a year have gone from no girls cricket to flourishing, with players aged between 9-15 all enjoying playing the game at the club. Please read on to find out what they did:
Case study - Brislington CC girls section
Coaching coordinator, Frazer Reeves had a vision to make the club more accessible to the community by delivering girls cricket coaching which would attract more families and new members to the club. It was agreed that the initiative would be fully supported by the club and the work began!
School club links
Frazer secured some local support through the neighbouring secondary school Oasis Brislington - who provided sports hall facilities and he launched an afterschool cricket coaching club for girls. In addition to this the club delivered Chance to Shine coaching in the local primary schools. Through this network they were able provided curriculum and extra curricular coaching promoting girls cricket.
Following this the first group of girls (8 in total) turned up for training on the first outdoor session in April 2015 and to encourage ownership of the section for the girls, they ran a competition to name the new girls section and one lucky girl received vouchers for creating the name “Brislington Vipers”. The name stuck and the club are registered in all competitions under “Vipers”. girls cricket had arrived at Brislington CC.
Marketing girls cricket
Very quickly word spread among the schools and community that this was a very exciting programme, fully supported by a dedicated coaching team. Through the website and social media the club were able to generate foot-fall interest at the club with new members turning up every week for training. By the end of the season the club had up to 25 girls between the ages of 9 and 14 regularly training at the club. Throughout the season their website was populated with match reports, photos, and girls' weekly updates meaning players and parents could keep track of their personal performances and funny/special moments from the weekly training or matches.
Coaching,training, playing
The club invested in additional coaching support by training several parents as Coach Support Workers and several of these were assigned to assist with the specific challenges of getting novice girl cricketers playing and loving the game. As the numbers and interest increased the club appointed a dedicated female coach, Becky Stroud who soon established herself as the lead coach for the girls and became the centre of the girls section.
Training ran through the summer months on Friday nights, complete with a BBQ, with the girls treated as equals to the boys proving a huge success. Despite not entering competitions in the inaugural season the club managed to play a number of friendlies and festivals including finishing runners up in the U13 Lady Taverners Competition narrowly losing to Weston-Super-Mare.
The season ended in an 18-a-side Mums v girls softball game that was completed in total darkness but is still spoken about as the best night of the summer at the club.
The future
The 2016 season has started fantastically for the Vipers with winter training well attended and more competitive playing opportunites are avilable this summer by entering local leagues. Recruitment has been planned through hosting schools festivals at the club. The club will be starting a women's team too to offer a progression for girls into the senior game.
