Entries for the Women & Girls 2025 Summer Competitions & Offers are NOW OPEN!!!

Entries for the Women & Girls 2025 Summer Competitions & Offers are NOW OPEN!!!

The 2025 season is drawing closer and the Wiltshire W&Gs Cricket offer is set to grow again!

Over the past weeks and months, Wiltshire Cricket and the ECB have been working tirelessly to put together an exciting year of opportunities, activities, fixtures and events that will provide Women & Girls with an exciting season of cricket!

The following article provides a brief description of the Women & Girls Cricket offers, available in Wiltshire during the 2025 season. Additionally, clubs are now able to enter each competition, activity, festival or event.

Enter here: https://forms.office.com/e/e0HDHkAKpc  

(Deadline – WEDNESDAY 8th JANUARY 2025)

Girls Cricket:

  • National Programmes (Allstars/Dynamos)
    • All Stars Cricket offers an entry opportunity for children between 5-8 years old, and Dynamos Cricket provides a similar product for 8-11 years old, offering both an entry point into cricket, but also a progression from All Stars Cricket.
    • Dynamos Cricket caters for boys and girls, but many clubs across Wiltshire and the rest of the country made the decision to offer a "Girls-Only" Dynamos Programme, which proved to be very popular and for many clubs, created their first-ever Girls Section.
  • U9 Girls/Mixed Festivals
    • Each year, we see more girls discovering cricket at younger ages and many of these girls would like to play more cricket, having perhaps been involved with an All Stars Programme or part of an U9s mixed section. Therefore, in 2025, many clubs with mixed U9s or Girls U9s sections may like to provide more playing opportunities by attending the mixed U9s festivals, and where possible, U9s girls’ festivals.
      Clubs may also choose to host their own U9s festival, as part of the countywide festival schedule.
  • U11 Softball Pairs (8-a-side)
    • The U11 Girl’s league will provide weekly opportunities to girls across Wiltshire, in small, localised groups. The league will be 8-a-side pairs cricket and will run as a softball league for all abilities. A great starting point to get girls into cricket!
  • U11/13 Softball Festivals
    • Soft Ball Festivals are a great introduction to cricket or a fantastic environment to gain match-play experience. The festivals are therefore a brilliant opportunity for young cricketers to come together and play fun, exciting and fast-paced games. The U11/13 Girl’s festivals are therefore focused on fun, learning and confidence-building. Festivals will be played as 6-aside, pairs cricket and will be scheduled throughout the summer. These festivals can be attended as stand-alone events or to complement the U11/13 Girls League.
  • U13 Hardball Pairs (8-a-side)
    • Returning for 2025, the Under 13's Girls' League allows for each team to play a number of fixtures against teams from across Wiltshire. Where possible, fixtures will be determined based on locality to reduce travel distances and encourage participation. The league is a brilliant opportunity for the girls to play with and against their peers in 8-aside pairs cricket formats, played with a hard ball.
  • ECB National U13 T20 Cup (11-a-side)
    • This ECB Competition provides a national competitive offer for U13s Girls teams. The competition starts with localised groups within Wiltshire before progressing onto regional and national finals. In previous years, Wiltshire teams have seen some fantastic success in these competitions and in some years, the finals have been hosted at Lords Cricket Ground. This competition is worth considering if your club has an U13 Girls team.
  • ECB National U15 T20 Cup (11-a-side)
    • Similarly to the above U13 Girls Competition, this ECB Competition provides a national competitive offer for U15s Girls teams. The competition starts with localised groups within Wiltshire before progressing onto regional and national finals. Last year, the finals were hosted at Lords Cricket Ground. This competition would complement the new Wiltshire U15 Girls League. The competition grows each year, and we’d love to see more Wiltshire teams taking part.
  • U16 Hardball 16-Over (9-a-side)
    • Moving into 2025, Wiltshire Cricket have amended what originally was the U15 girls league, to a U16 16-Over league. This slight change to the league will give the girls some different format opportunities within the game. There will be an option for either 9-a-side or 11-a-side fixtures.
    • As the league moves from an U15 league to an U16 league, we hope this promotes more involvement in the league as well as an opportunity to include a wider audience into the team with a wider age bracket.
  • ECB National U19 T20 Cup (11-a-side)
    • The ECB U19 Girls T20 Competition is a national offer, in which teams can compete in local rounds before progressing to regional and national stages. This offer provides a further opportunity for girls in the older age group to play cricket with their peers and provides a Girls U19 T20 opportunity, adjacent to the Wiltshire U19 mixed T20 Competition.

Women’s Cricket

  • Softball Festivals
    • Soft Ball Cricket is about getting out and playing, maximum fun, minimum fuss. No pads, no hard ball, no heavy bat, no head-scratching rules. It’s a game for absolutely everybody, no matter your skill level, fitness, or age. Playing time at Festivals is usually about two to four hours, so it never gets boring! (Each fixture is usually less than 1 hour).Women’s Soft Ball Cricket Festivals are a great opportunity for ladies, of all ages and experiences to participate in regular cricket fixtures that have the primary focus to socialise and have fun – results are not important. These festivals have proved to be hugely successful in helping clubs to establish their own Women’s Cricket section, as well as provide a valuable opportunity to fundraise at your club.
  • Softball Pairs (8-a-side)
    • Softball Pairs cricket is a fun, participation cricket league with a mix of ages and experiences playing across the county. This league is a good extension from softball festivals and provides great opportunities for players to bat and bowl first.
  • Softball 100-Ball Cup (11-a-side)
    • This cup aligns with the exciting HUNDRED competition introduced by the ECB in 2020, these fixtures will be open to softball teams and the competition directly aligns to the ECB regulations (out is out) for the 100-Ball Cup.
  • Hardball Pairs (8-a-side)
    • This will be a ‘development’ league, focused on providing opportunities for clubs transitioning into hard ball cricket, or for those wishing to gain some further confidence with hard ball cricket. This division of hard ball cricket follows the same match format as the Women’s Soft Ball League, meaning it’s a great stepping stone for clubs who would like to transition towards Hard Ball T20 Cricket. Some clubs may also wish to enter this competition to provide further playing opportunities for less experienced cricketers.
  • Hardball T20 (11-a-side)
    • The Wiltshire T20 league came in for the 2024 season, creating a fun step up in between the Hardball Pairs league into the longer format 35-Over League. The T20 league adheres to the ECB traditional T20 rules.
  • Hardball 100-Ball Cup (11-a-side)
    • This cup aligns with the exciting HUNDRED competition introduced by the ECB in 2020, these fixtures will be open to hardball teams and the competition directly aligns to the ECB regulations (out is out) for the 100-Ball Cup.
  • ECB National T20 Knockout Cup (11-a-side)
    • This competition is an ECB-managed, open-age competition, which starts in May with localised rounds. Clubs can invite 4 guest players from other clubs to form a team, ensuring a full team can be raised.
      The competition follows a "knock-out" cup format, starting locally and leading to regional and national rounds.
  • Wiltshire x Somerset 35-Over league
    • The 2025 season brings an exciting opportunity to for Wiltshire and Somerset to merge our 35-Over leagues together. Alongside the Gloucestershire 35-Over league we will align both leagues to match with rules/points/league structure.
    • With these changes taking place for 2025, this will lead into an exciting opportunity of WEPL Premier 2 Division starting in 2026. We will also be introducing promotion and relegations into the WEPL Premier 1 and 2 Divisions in the coming seasons.

Women’s Cricket – Other Opportunities

  • Secondary Girls Programmes
    • Alongside the exciting club offers this season, Wiltshire Cricket are delighted to be working with Chance to Shine and The ECB to deliver a Secondary School Programme to approximately 8 schools within Wiltshire. The programme aims to introduce cricket to over 1000 girls, across Years 7, 8 and 9 and is inclusive of taster sessions, young leaders’ workshops, after-school clubs, community sessions and competition elements. Stay tuned on the Wiltshire Cricket social media pages to see how this programme is progressing.
  • Wiltshire Women’s & Girls Fixture Meeting – Thursday 30th January 2025
    • An evening where all participating Women's & Girls Clubs come together to schedule a season of fixtures. Each club will come prepared with available dates for home/away fixtures before networking with other clubs. Some clubs will leave with a full season of fixtures and festivals scheduled.
    • On our fixtures evening in 2025, we will be running through FAQs about the Rules following feedback from the 2024 season.
  • Women’s Volunteer Network Workshops
    • Wiltshire Cricket look to create a range of workshop opportunities over the 2025 season through our Women’s Volunteer Network.
    • Workshops ran in 2024:
      • Scoring/Umpiring
        • A quick and easy workshop into Scoring and Umpiring for Softball Fixtures, we held two workshops, in Trowbridge and Royal Wootton Bassett
      • Bowling skillsets
        • This workshop gave a deep dive on technique and bowling drills for coaches to use at all age levels.
      • Nutrition & Wellbeing
        • Hosted at the Southern Academy of Sport, we held a course focusing on health, nutrition and wellbeing in and around cricket and physical activity.
      • Coaching W&Gs
        • NEW for 2025, we will look into the fundamentals of coaching Women and Girls in cricket. Keep your eyes peeled for more information.
  • Coach Development Courses
    • Wiltshire Cricket continues to offer a comprehensive Coach Development programme throughout the year, with most courses taking place during the winter months. These courses include;
      • Support Coach
      • Foundation Coach
      • Core Coach
      • Safeguarding Training
      • Club Safeguarding Officer Training
      • First Aid
  • Club-Specific Support Coach Courses
    • The ”Club-specific” courses are delivered by Wiltshire Cricket Coach Developers, who arrange a convenient date to host a course, at your club, for your members. To receive this course offer, at least 4 attendees should be female and a minimum of 7 attendees is required. Further information about these courses will be shared soon, but we would be delighted to visit more clubs in 2025 to introduce coaching to more volunteers!
  • Women’s & Girls Performance Cricket
    • The 2025 season is very exciting for Women's & Girls' Performance Cricket, with plenty of incredible sporting moments to come! These include, but are certainly not limited to:
      • Wiltshire County Age Group Fixtures (U11s, U13s, U15s, U18s)
      • Wiltshire Women's 1st XI Fixtures
      • Girls MCC Hub Clubs – U14/16 Girls - NEW to 2025

*You can follow our W&Gs Performance Teams on TikTok (@wiltscccwomensandgirls) or Instagram (@wiltshireccc)

What’s Next?

Women’s & Girls Cricket is continually growing and developing in Wiltshire and across the country – it’s an exciting time to be involved! Every year, more individuals and teams join the community and we’re looking forward to growing the game further in 2025! An exciting year ahead, with lots of opportunities!

At the start of this article, an entry form is available for ALL clubs to complete, which will then be used to formulate leagues, provide further opportunities and create a whole season of Women’s & Girls’ Cricket in Wiltshire. The deadline for completion is Wednesday 8th January.

Wiltshire Cricket is looking forward to an action-packed summer of cricket and everyone is welcome to join us!

For more information about any of the above offers or if your club would like some support in establishing a Women’s and/or Girls’ section, please contact; [email protected]