Women's Big Cricket Month: Chadd Pearson's Soft Ball Cricket blog

Women's Big Cricket Month: Chadd Pearson's Soft Ball Cricket blog

Women's and Girls Cricket Development Officer Chadd Pearson's Women’s Soft Ball Cricket Festival blog

Lancashire Cricket Foundation have been running Women’s Soft Ball Festivals with great success since 2017. As a County we are keen for these to keep developing year upon year and we feel that by clubs taking more ownership and leadership of these events then they can be even more successful than they have already been. With Cricket Clubs being a big part of their local community, we feel the possibilities are endless for how big these festivals can be.

Benefits:

• Family Atmosphere
• Volunteers
• Brings communities together
• Income for clubs
• Women taking part in physical activity

Cricket Clubs generally struggle for volunteers but by running a Women’s Soft Ball festival many new faces can be introduced to the club off the back of this. For example, you could have women who have been part of your soft ball festivals who would then like to be involved in the club more whether it be playing, coaching, scoring etc. Clubs have a great opportunity to also make some income for themselves. For example, by running soft ball festivals and having the bar open with a BBQ etc available then that then becomes another income stream for clubs as well as creating a fun day with great atmosphere for the whole family to enjoy.

With the success Lancashire Cricket Foundation have had running these in the past, this year we are targeting to run 20 new Women’s Soft Ball festivals at new clubs across the county. Across the Women’s and Girls development team we are more than happy to assist clubs with setting up their first festival and we hope that the clubs would be able to run it themselves on the day following support from their local Women’s and Girls Development Officer prior to the festival.

In 2019 we ran 23 Soft Ball Festivals at 23 different clubs and off the back of that we now have Leagues running their own Soft Ball Leagues with structured fixtures. For example, the Liverpool and District Cricket Competition have now got over 50 fixtures set for 2021. This proves that with a bit of buy in from clubs and leagues that there is no ceiling on these festivals and the opportunities and possibilities beyond them are endless. We are hoping that all leagues will have their own Women’s offer very soon and if we can create something like the Liverpool Competition’s across all areas then we will be in a good place.

As a county board we are trying to have as many Women and Girls involved in cricket as possible and we feel that Soft Ball festivals are a great place to start as they are a friendly and fun experience where no previous cricket experience or knowledge is necessary. If as a club you are interested in running a Festival, please contact your local development officer.