Great first experiences and Elite success as cricket participation in Wales increases.
Thousands of people across Wales, young and old, have had a great first experience of cricket this summer.
Women’s cricket - ‘The quiet revolution in Wales’
Whilst the sun has shone, over a 1000 new women and girls, across a large range of clubs, have been enjoying softball festivals. Participants have enjoyed short and social games organised in multi team festivals which have been very colourful and exciting events. The festivals have been organised for open age participants and under 14’s, in the drive to attract more females to play cricket. Wales is top of the table in relation to counties in England in terms of engaging people to play.
On the performance side Wales’ Women have gained promotion to the top division of the ECB T20 competition for the very first time. This young and exciting team supported by Wales’ first overseas player Rachel Priest from New Zealand, also narrowly missed out on promotion in the ECB 50 over competition.
All Stars a huge success in Wales
Not to be outdone by this, 3,500 five, six and seven year olds have also been having their fun in the sun. All Stars Cricket started in 2017 and again this summer Wales has been leading the way (second only to Yorkshire) in attracting a colossal number of very young children to an exciting first experience of the game. Clubs have been inundated with children wearing their pale blue tops, caps and also wielding their own bat and ball, as the aim is to put a bat and ball into the hands of more children.
Two short films capture the excitement and momentum gained this summer in 2018 which Cricket Wales plans to build on this next summer.
If you would like to get involved in the remaining softball festivals click here