Women's Big Cricket Month: Meet Chris Chambers
Chris Chambers
Women & Girls Cricket Development Officer
Merseyside, Wigan and West Lancashire (Liverpool & District Competition & Southport League)
I’ve worked at Lancashire Cricket for the last 12 years, previously working as a Cricket development coach in St Helens and Liverpool for 11 years until October 2020. Alongside my work as a CDC I was part of the coaching team for the Lancashire Thunder women’s team who played in the Kia super league for 4 years. I also worked for the Melbourne Renegades in the Women’s Big Bash in 2018.
I’m currently the 1st team captain at Newton le Willows CC where I’ve played since I was 9 years old.
Lancashire Cricket and working for the foundation means a great deal to me, watching children find their love of cricket from school is great to see but to be able to develop this into club, interleague and county cricket is fantastic to see. I’ve also seen a number of players come from the playground and become professional cricketers in the men and women’s game which is one of the main reasons I love doing the job!
Clubs in your area with a women's and girls' section
Hightown St Mary’s, Wavertree, Rainhill, Bootle, Sefton Park, Liverpool, Southport & Birkdale, Leigh, Old Xaverians, Northern
Your clubs newly establishing a women's & girls’ section
Rainford, Newton le Willows, Skelmersdale, Ormskirk, Formby, Maghull, Fleetwood Hesketh
I’ve been building on the fantastic work the Liverpool Competition have already started and working together to create more opportunities for Women & Girls in the area. We’ve increased the competitions to give everyone a chance of playing the cricket they want, there is two softball leagues; one a beginners league and one a more advanced league. There is also a hardball super 8’s league and T20 league for Women. There is both a softball and hardball offer for girls, U10’s are having softball festivals whilst the U15’s are playing hardball cricket. We have run a level 1 and level 2 umpires course where 25 females have passed as qualified umpires. We are looking at running a Women’s foundation 1 coaching course in September/October.
Working across 6 borough’s I’ve had the chance to work with new schools and new clubs. I went to schools where there was a Women & Girls section nearby promoting their club and the All Stars and Dynamos programmes. I was also pleased to see that Fleetwood Hesketh CC, Astley & Tyldesley CC and Newton le Willows CC were running Dynamos Girls only. The primary schools receive either a full day of coaching or a 6 week coaching block, this is generally down to the size of the school, how many children migrate to the local clubs and what the school can facilitate. I’ve had over 30 different primary schools receiving coaching.
I’ve also been running taster sessions at 4 secondary schools which will hopefully result in a an after school club and leadership programme. These schools are again close to Women & Girls sections.
Favourite cricketer
Jos Butler