Shining the Light.
When it comes to Women & Girls cricket, Cawthorne have only just begun down the path to help develop the Women & Girls game, but, they are taking it by storm. This is down to the club linking up with Kirsty Walton and her Fit4Crick sessions.
"The sessions are 90mins and take place on a Tuesday evening down at the club. The first 45 mins I lead a fun fitness session, focusing on stamina and strength, which varies each week. We use weights/equipment or just our own body weight. The last 45 mins is then focused on cricket drills/practise sessions on bowling, batting and fielding and we finish with a different style of cricket match each week."
The Fit4Crick sessions started just a few weeks ago, but now have a core of 16 ladies of all ages from late 20’s to early 60’s, with more ladies regularly getting in contact on how they can join in.
"Having not done any proper exercise for years, I’ve really enjoyed the Fit4Crick sessions! Kirsty is great at motivating everyone and I’ve enjoyed exercising outside in a group! Even the cricket has been enjoyable learning new skills! Mark is a very enthusiastic Coach." Karen Mott - Fit4Crick participant.
The sessions have been a great success and all the ladies are enthusiastic and enjoying the sessions, some rekindling their previous love for playing cricket, including ladies who played cricket at junior or university level. There’s also some who are loving the team involvement again, as they used to play team sports previously, along with some complete newbies to cricket (including Kirsty herself) who are learning a new sport and skills and enjoying the sessions very much whilst having fun and making new friends.
"I am really enjoying the combination of the fitness strength and conditioning sessions outside in the fresh air. This is then followed by the cricket sessions in between laughing a lot with a great group of ladies with great encouragement from Kirsty and Mark. It’s a very positive and non judgmental atmosphere, great for building self confidence." Rachel Macrow - Fit4Crick participant.
Another one of the ladies said she’s forgot how much she enjoyed team sport since leaving school, many years ago. The club's aim is to form a softball team (or maybe 2!) to play a couple of friendly matches with other local women teams over the course of this season and look to build on this for years to come.
Story by Dean Smith
d.smith@yorkshirecb.com
Please contact Dean with your stories!