Buxton Cricket Club aiming to develop new ladies team in coming years

The club fielded their first ladies adult team this summer at cricket festivals under the Kwik-Cricket format.

It sees the team play in eight over matches with everyone batting in pairs and every player bowling.

And with playing numbers high Rick Lewis, who coaches the team, is keen to capitalise on that interest in the coming years.

“Women’s cricket is on the up and “I have got a desire to form a girls only age group team inside the next five years.

“It is a great way of getting more people involved in the cricket club.

“I put the feelers out in March and, through networking, it snowballed and we had about 34 people interested before lockdown.

“When lockdown was eased and cricket was allowed to be played again I rekindled this.

"We started a couple months ago and had only eight people there for the first week.

“People said they would come the next week but I wasn’t sure if that would happen or not.

"In the end we had 20 plus the following week and then got a solid 20-25 each week in practice after that.”

Lewis has also been left delighted by the progress shown by his new look team, with success on the pitch already being tasted.

“We lost our first two matches, but we had only been practicing a couple of weeks,” he added.

“The following festival we won one and lost one against the same opposition, which was pleasing.”

“The girls have really taken to it, they would practice every night if they could and it's great to see.

“Within seven weeks I can't believe the enthusiasm and desire of these women who are taking the cricket on. The improvement they have made is immense.

“It's great for the club and it's great for the town. It’s given the club a real big lift in terms of direction.”

And he now hopes to capitalise on the great start made by taking the sport into local schools and spreading the word.

He said: “I would like to attract more interest and the expectation is we will be able to go to more festivals and take more people, so we can field different teams at different festivals.

"It will mean we don’t just use the same core of players and everyone startsto get a game.

“I am hoping over the coming year or so the players will go into schools and groups like the Brownies to try to attract younger girls to the club.

“We have got a few young girls, but nothing like what we would like to get. We want a girls only team and that is our aspiration.

“We are building the foundations now. It is all about networking and spreading the word to bring more girls in.”

The club hopes to hold Autumn and Winter nets if COVID-19 restrictions allow them to do so.

For further information on how you can get involved in the team , visit the club’s play cricket website or facebook page.