WOMEN & GIRLS CRICKET - MASSIVE ADVANTAGE AT GLAISDALE

Glaisdale Cricket Club has a long history of female cricket, going back at least to the 1950s or 60s when there is evidence of local female only games against Lealholm and Danby. 

 

For the last 10 years, the club has been very lucky to have a regular female presence, particularly through the juniors, with at least 3 or 4 female players playing without any specific effort to attract females. Some of those junior players have gone on to play senior cricket. 

 

Around 5 years ago, the YCB started to promote the possibilities of clubs setting up Women and Girls sections. Glaisdale picked up on this post Covid and in 2021 started our first female only coaching sessions. Although we struggled to find anyone to play against we did manage one W&G game, with a fund raising Glaisdale vs Lealholm game. The interest from our Women and Girls in mixed cricket also created a unique event when in July 21 Glaisdale fielded a mixed evening league team in the Esk Valley Evening League with females outnumbering males. 

 

The first competitive W&G games were held in 2022, although still on a friendly basis, but in 2023 Glaisdale were there for the start of the Scarborough and Ryedale Women's Softball League and have participated in this league since then, now expanding this to participate in both softball and hardball competitions in the NYSD. 

 

This focus on diversifying our membership has had a number of significant positive effects on the club. For a start we have opened up our market to the other 50% that we didn't traditionally cater to! Over 25% of our players are now female, and our mixed under 11 team typically has 4 or 5 females out of the 8 players; we would be unable to field a team at this age group without the girls. 

 

In 2024 we fielded our first ever junior girls team, playing in an indoor competition in Scarborough. We hope to develop that in 2025 with a joint U13 girls team with Castleton CC playing both hardball and softball games. 

 

The increase in female participation is having an impact over the whole age spectrum, with female players from 4 to 70+. The different perspective of female players has shaped the club in general with a very significant presence of females on our committee. 

 

When we rebuilt our pavilion in 2023, the input from our female members made the club rethink what would have been a straight rebuild of the old facility, with a very high participation of our female managers in our annual survey. The new pavilion now has a dedicated female changing room (the first club in our area to do so), and the toilets have been designed to be female and family friendly, with free period product dispensers, hands free waste disposal units and baby change facilities. 

 

Female players are the norm not the exception across all formats of the game in our mixed teams at all age groups, and we are the first team in our local area to have a female vice captain of one of our Saturday teams. 

 

Not only has the new approach made it more attractive for players, it has also significantly supported grant applications and sponsorship for the club as a whole, bringing in funding for the club that has benefitted male and female players alike. 

 

For the Women and Girls of Glaisdale village, having a dedicated cricket team means more than accessing the sport. Whether playing in the team, attending practice sessions for the pure fun and exercise, or simply coming to spectate and cheer players on, the W&G sport has created a new hub of social gathering and reinvigorated engagement in the community. For women and girls who may have felt isolated in such a remote, rural setting; who may have felt they had no voice in the affairs and development of their community or who may never have contemplated their own sporting potential, the existence of W&G’s cricket in Glaisdale has created a critical space for female gathering, for camaraderie and encouragement with new friendships found where few avenues otherwise exist. 

 

The side effects, in short, have been a reinvigorated village community and strengthened identity with cricket as a focus – and with greater female inclusion and diversity making Glaisdale a more attractive, sustainable village now and for the future.