Women’s and girls cricket is growing in Scotland and enjoyed a succesfull 2017. The standards continue to improve as our Female Participation Team are laying the foundations for a strong future.
In January we were able to celebrate the successes and reflect on the year at Edinburgh South Cricket Club, Inch Park at the Women’s Awards Night which we review later on in this piece.
We are also delighted to have three female board members and continue to work to invest in and improve the structure to support the game at all levels.
In 2018, we hope to have more clubs to embrace the concept of having an active playing women’s section and to invest time and enthusiasm to grow those sections alongside the men’s senior and junior sections already established.
Staffing
We are delighted to welcome Madison Garland (Forfarshire CC) to the Female Participation Team as the new East Female Cricket Development Officer covering Edinburgh, the Lothians and the Borders. Madison has a degree in Sports Development and has an excellent track record setting up female cricket in Dundee & Angus and Fife. She is also CS’s new Disability Cricket Development Officer, tasked with setting up four Disability Cricket HUBS across Scotland.
Rosy Ryan, West Female Cricket Development Officer, continues to inspire others, working closely with clubs and schools from Galloway to Stirling.
The Wee Bash
Last winter’s hugely popular 6-a-side women’s indoor tournaments were expanded to 10 tournaments for the 2017/2018 winter season, with a new name and logo: The Wee Bash. The logo was designed by our very own Wildcat Lois Wilkinson. Tournament venues include Glasgow, Dumfries, Edinburgh and Perth. The social element of the tournaments appeals to many women and girls and it is seen as great way to catch up with cricket friends over the winter. The fun, friendly and safe environment, also provides the perfect entry into cricket for new players, especially women. It was fantastic to see six new teams entering for the first time this winter.
All Stars Cricket
Cricket Scotland’s new entry level programme is a great tool to attract girls in to the game. In the first year of delivering the programme in Scotland in 42 centres, 170 (18.3%) out of 931 participants were girls. We continue to promote girls’ participation in the All Stars programme, to build on the good start made in year 1. Attracting more females to be All Stars Activators is one of the ways to increase the number girls participating in the programme.
Girls’ Regional Development Centres
The RDC’s provide weekly training sessions in 7 centres across Scotland where girls can play cricket in a girls-only environment, with the aim to keep them in the game at the age when some are no longer comfortable playing in a mixed team. Sessions are run over the winter (softball and if the venue allows, hardball too) in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Forth Valley, Dundee& Angus, Dumfries & Galloway, Moray and Perth.
Club cricket
2017 saw the launch of the new Women’s Premier League, sponsored by Cricket Deal Direct. Four teams played home and away fixtures in the 30- over competition: Carlton CC, George Watson’s College GCC, Royal High Corstorphine CC and a West Combined team. Fixtures, results and points table were published and kept up to date on the Cricket Scotland website. Undefeated Carlton CC were deserved winners of the league.
The T20 Development Leagues (East and West) aim to provide players that are new to hardball cricket with playing experience. All matches were played in great spirit and we hope to expand this concept to the North and Central regions in 2018.
The Beyond Boundaries Women’s Scottish Cup finals day was played at Stirling County CC in early September. The final between Carlton CC and George Watson’s College, was played with full strength club sides which made for an excellent display of our Scottish talent. The Bryce sisters put together a crucial batting partnership to secure the win and the Cup for George Watson’s College Girls’ Cricket Club.
A big thank you goes out to the Beyond Boundaries charity for their continued support and also to Aileen Campbell, our Minister of Public Health and Sport – who has attended a number of female cricket events over the past year.
Kwik Cricket
The National Girls Kwik Cricket Festival was this year played at Stirling County CC on Sunday 13 August, to coincide with the Women’s Euro/America’s Regional T20 Qualifier. Players from 8 clubs enjoyed watching the international teams train, playing matches themselves and meeting the players and collecting autographs.
New programmes
The female participation team will be launching two new programmes in 2018 to help clubs recruit new female players.
CricHIIT is a combination of the popular HIIT training (High Intensity Interval Training) combined with basic cricket skills, suitable for secondary school age girls to adults, with upbeat music playing in the background. The programme has been written by Cricket Scotland’s Strength & Conditioning team and West Female Development Officer Rosy Ryan and can be adapted to suit any ability, fitness level and venue. CricHIIT will be launched in March 2018 at the CS Club Conference #muchmorethancricket.
Women’s Softball Cricket was launched by the ECB in 2017 on the back of the Women’s World Cup. Ten cricket clubs in Scotland that are keen to start or grow a female cricket section in their club, will receive a free bag of this fantastic equipment from Cricket Scotland to host a Women’s Softball Festival in the summer of 2018. The equipment has been specifically designed for women and clubs will be able to apply following the #muchmorethancricket Clubs Conference in March 2018.
Cricket Scotland Female Performance Report 2017
Female Performance Pathway
The newly formed female performance pathway team consisting of Gordon Drummond, Steven Knox, Gordon Allan with coaches and volunteers around the country, is making steady progress. We are working towards aligning the female pathway with the male pathway using the same branding (Eastern Knights, Western Warriors and Caledonian Highlanders) which will make the programme more recognisable in the Scottish cricketing community. Gaps in the pathways that existed previously are being filled so we can start competing with other sports for the many talented young female athletes in Scotland. We now have 4 regional u16 girls’ teams and two senior regional teams, feeding into Scotland u17, Scotland u21, Scotland A and the Scotland Women. We have an excellent team of regional coaches working with the squads at this very important stage in their development as players.
Representative Awards 2017
Regional T20’s East beat Rest 3-1
Regional bowler of the Year – Katie McGill
Regional batter of the Year– Kathryn Bryce
Scotland u17s
Results Summary:ECB Div 1B beat Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Cumbria. Lost to Derbyshire and Lincolnshire.
Lost to Ireland 3-1 in Celtic Cup
Player of the Year – Megan McColl
Batter of the Year – Laura Grant
Bowler of the Year- Megan McColl
Fielder of the Year- Ellen Watson
Most Improved- Ailsa Lister
Scotland u21
Player of the Year – Abtaha Maqsood (3 wickets @ 24; ER 4.6 and 22 runs @11)
Scotland “A”
Came 2nd in the ECB County Championship Div 3a
Bowler of the Year – Jess Mills
Batter of the Year- Ollie Rae
Scotland Women
After failing to qualify for the World Cup in February and several retirals of key players there was some rebuilding to be done in 2017.
ECB T20 Championships Div 2 came 4th
Celtic Cup Scotland 0- Ireland 3
Forfarshire CC hosted the Celtic cup this year and looked after both teams brilliantly. The weather was against us but the volunteers from the club worked tirelessly to allow the teams to get 3 matches played. Ireland won all matches but the experience was very useful going forward to the ICC Qualifiers.
Europe/America’s Region T20 World Cup Qualifiers September 2017 Stirling CCC Scotland 1(Q), Netherlands 2(Q) USA 3(DNQ)
Scotland won the qualifiers with Netherlands coming second and therefore both progress to global qualifiers to be held in Netherlands July 2018. Scotland is seeded 3 with Ireland (1) Uganda and Thailand in their group. The other group consists of Netherlands, Bangladesh, UAE and PNG. The top 2 teams qualify for the Women’s World T20 Cup in West Indies in November 2018.
The Scotland captain Abbi Aitken has stepped down from the captaincy role after several years in order to concentrate on her own cricket. Scotland women’s cricket thanks Abbi for her amazing work and leadership over the past few years and we wish her well this coming season.
The Scotland women’s squad are training hard indoors this winter with their coaching team Steven Knox and Peter Ross and new strength and conditioning coach, Charlotte Dalton. They will spend May and June playing in the ECB 50 over and T20 competitions before travelling to Netherlands 3-14 July.
2017 Scotland Women’s team awards
Batter of the Year – Lorna Jack (230 runs @38; SR 92)
Fielder of the Year – Sarah Bryce (7 catches, 7 stumping and 2 run-outs)
Bowler of the Year – Kirstie Gordon (18 wickets @10; ER 3.2)
Players’ Player – Kathryn Bryce (Batting 369 runs @23; SR 65) (Bowling 12 wickets @20; ER 4.1)
