For many years, girls have enjoyed playing cricket at Thongsbridge and have played in mixed teams at all age groups. It became clear that there was a growing interest in women and girls’ cricket and we decided to develop our own section at the club.

The club recognised the need for improved facilities to increase participation and to create the correct environment for women and girls and we were one of the first clubs in the Huddersfield League to provide a female changing room, as part of the refurbishment of our facilities in 2014.

We have been running girls’ teams at Thongsbridge, since 2012, when we began playing friendly fixtures against Holme Valley Girls teams. We also took part in tournaments for the first time and entered the Taverners’ competition in that year too. Since then, we have continued to run girls’ teams although our girls have also played in the mixed teams at the club, including at senior level.

Over the years, a number of our players have been selected to play representative cricket up to county level and Georgia Draper was selected to attend England training while she was at Thongsbridge. Georgia was the first girl to captain a mixed U17 team at the club and she also opened both the batting and the bowling, for that team. Georgia was the first Thongsbridge player to play at senior county level. We currently have three girls involved in representative training and matches and we wish them well for the coming season.

Although the Covid pandemic had a negative impact on the development of cricket at the club over the past two years, we are very keen to move forward and develop the offering for girls and women at Thongsbridge. We hope to create a pathway showing how girls can progress from Little Lions, through to senior level cricket (mixed teams and women only).

In 2018, our first ever women’s softball team took part in a number of festivals throughout the season and featured in the Yorkshire launch event at Copley Cricket Club. In 2019, we were very pleased to be able to select an 8-aside hardball team, for the first time. With a renewed interest in softball cricket last year, training sessions were held regularly on Friday nights. These will continue this year and with the development of a softball league in Yorkshire this year, as well as friendly fixtures, there are new possibilities and opportunities for competition.

Often the challenge for girls’ and women’s cricket has been to find competition locally. However, with more clubs developing their own dedicated sections, we are hopeful that opportunities are increasing and that they will be available more locally too.