Record Breaking Attendance Numbers
Lancashire Cricket Foundation launched a Women’s Walking Cricket sessions at the start of July 2023 at the Old Trafford Sports Barn. The session has been funded by Human Race Foundation for 12 months and is supported by Trafford Council and Trafford Leisure.
Women’s Walking Cricket is a fun, social and welcoming format of the game, played at a slightly slower pace and is aimed at women aged 50 plus, it is the perfect way for women to remain involved with the game and meet new people whilst staying active. The sessions are suited for all abilities to improve physical fitness, social interaction, mental health, stay active and have fun.
So far there have been 9 sessions with 20 women taking part and more women joining each week. On Thursday 21st September the Women’s Walking Cricket session had a record number of 18 ladies attend the session! Several participants have commented that they only attend the session because it is for Women Only with one stating ‘the women only sessions make us more confident and there are people from different backgrounds. You can wear whatever you want to wear whether that’s showing a bit of skin, it makes you more comfortable and no one's judging you and you don’t feel uncomfortable because there are no men there.’
The Health and Social benefits of the session are significant and a participant who has Parkinsons Disease said ‘Walking Cricket is helping me especially because I have a tendency to fall so it's increasing my coordination & balance.’
In addition to this Alison said ”I have attended 5/6 womens walking cricket sessions and I have met some really lovely new people. I started walking cricket as I have been a cricket fan since I was about 5 and I have loved it all my life and never had the chance to play then I saw this and its just amazing that over 60 I can suddenly start playing cricket of a sort. It’s a really fun way to exercise, I had a really bad injury couple of years ago which meant I had to give up a lot of the sports I was doing and this way I can take part in a social sport that’s fine for my bad ankle and gets me moving.“
Furthermore, participant Iza said” I have attended six sessions so far and I have made many friends over this time, I joined walking cricket for a few reasons, first reason is to have a better social life and socialising with others, second is for fitness getting back into to shape and third having a good cricket game. It’s really fun, you have a great time doing many things, we do a warm up practicing catching then we do some batting. My batting at the moment is slightly weak but practice makes perfect, I do enjoy cricket and I want to make this a good hobby”
We have been working closely with the Pakistani Resource Centre on this project and several of their members have been attending the session. The ladies attending the session expressed an interest in visiting Emirates Old Trafford to watch a game of cricket and we invited them to attend the recent Lancashire V Notts CC game. Unfortunately, there was no play due to the rain, however, all 15 ladies who attended had a fantastic morning viewing the ground, having a brew and getting to know each other from one of our executive boxes. The group then went on to our weekly walking cricket session at Old Trafford sports Barn and have already asked if they can come back again!
Daniel Landstrom, Community Programme Manager said ‘The Women’s Walking Cricket session has been a huge success so far and we hope it continues to grow as more people take an interest in the project. Walking Cricket is a fantastic social activity and a great way for people of all abilities and backgrounds to play cricket. We hope to build on the success of the session and offer more social and health opportunities for the women to access at Emirates Old Trafford in partnership with the Foundation.’
If you are interested in playing Walking Cricket please contact Kay Floyd kfloyd@lancashirecricket.co.uk