> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://cricketyorkshire.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # 2025 at grassroots: From girls’ cricket to grounds - URL: https://cricketyorkshire.com/2025-grassroots-cricket-in-yorkshire/ - Published: 2024-12-28T09:23:33.000Z - Updated: 2026-05-28T14:58:00.000Z - Author: John Fuller - Tags: Opinion, #wp What are going to be the trends in grassroots cricket in 2025? Well, this is when I peer into the future and make some educated / outlandish predictions. *\[Delete as applicable* 😁*\]* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ee/73/ee73d104-a6c6-4e5c-a4b8-854785d36d20/content/images/2026/05/clp_crossflatts_aug2024-6-1.jpg) **Girls’ cricket at clubs** In my analysis of the **[ECB’s new 2025-2028 strategy](https://cricketyorkshire.com/how-does-the-new-ecb-strategy-for-2025-to-2028-affect-recreational-cricket/)**, what stood out in the drive to have 6,000 girls’ teams by 2026 were these three goals: - Transition more girls from schools and junior club programmes to create more sustainable girls’ sections at clubs. - Growing league structures, for women and girls to play. - Invest in the people, including coaches, that enable women’s and girls’ recreational cricket to happen. Here in Yorkshire, that might include an expansion of girls’ leagues with the Yorkshire Cricket Board’s Katie Stewart telling me how **[momentum is building in West Yorkshire](https://cricketyorkshire.com/katie-stewart-women-and-girls-cricket-is-soaring/)** on the podcast. I imagine that’s about there being enough opportunities, at every age group, across Yorkshire (no mean feat) so that girls can try cricket, enjoy playing in a club environment and move from softball to hardball if they want to. The growth of women and girls’ league structures is one that caught my eye. There are both girls’ leagues and women and girls’ leagues. In many cases, girls will play both at their own age group and with other older girls or women at clubs. --- How you grow both simultaneously when they’re interwoven will be interesting to see play out. Given the targets set by the ECB, here in Yorkshire, that has to mean many more players - and expanded league structures - in 2025. --- Geography plays its part too. No-one wants to travel too far - and yet, ambitious women and girls’ teams will (as their standard improves) seek out the highest level. Talking to **[Sessay Emeralds’ Peter Watson](https://cricketyorkshire.com/sessay-emeralds-a-yorkshire-cricket-success-story/)** for the podcast, he felt that the Yorkshire Women & Girls Cricket League (YW&GCL) needed divisions underneath to bridge the gap in standard. The YW&GCL is the premier standard - although with the improvement in regional leagues, the likes of Bradford Park Avenue, St Chad’s Broomfield, Crossflatts and others have strengthened year-on-year. **Softball cricket** Nor should we ignore - or in any way lessen - the success of softball cricket that has taken off like a rocket in Yorkshire, introducing many new teams and players to the game for the first time. The Emeralds have developed to become one of the top women and girls’ clubs in the country but they began with a few girls and ironically, one goal for 2025 is to introduce a softball team for newcomers. A point that illustrates where women and girls’ cricket will start to face the same congestion and competition of ‘open’ cricket leagues (such as Yorkshire Premier League North or Nidderdale Cricket League that are predominantly boys and men but open to all genders). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ee/73/ee73d104-a6c6-4e5c-a4b8-854785d36d20/content/images/2026/05/clp_skipton_jul2024-3-1.jpg) In quite a few parts of Yorkshire, you have lots of clubs close geographically who jostle for the same player pool, grounds and sponsorship. That will only increase for women and girls’ cricket as the number of players, teams and leagues (happily) skyrockets. Please don’t interpret that as someone advocating we put the handbrake on. Absolutely not. Yet - and regular readers will know I discuss this quite a bit - it has to be joined up. In terms of clubs competing for players and members, they’ll need to think carefully about their messaging. That requires input from those women and girls on committees wherever possible. **Inclusivity or afterthought?** I see examples of inclusivity (Crossflatts or Doncaster Town off the top of my head) - and others where women and girls’ cricket is relegated on social media and on websites. It might easier if it’s a women and girls' section with its own committee - or a separate club - but I wonder how it’s been over the past couple of years as clubs have expanded and had to adapt. Talking to clubs and administrators, the good news is that demand is certainly there. Finding girls who want to play cricket doesn’t sound as if it's been difficult (in a broad sense) but there has to be the choice, the infrastructure in place and the people to deliver it. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ee/73/ee73d104-a6c6-4e5c-a4b8-854785d36d20/content/images/2026/05/grace-pearson-ycb-spotify.png) Tied into that is the administration of women and girls’ cricket in future. **[A chat with Grace Pearson](https://cricketyorkshire.com/grace-pearson-yorkshire-cricket-board/)**, Head of Women & Girls at the Yorkshire Cricket Board (above), was an insight into the thinking at governing body level. There’s a **[Females in Cricket event at Headingley](http://www.yorkshirecb.com/news/females-in-cricket-event-35412/?ref=cricketyorkshire.com)** on February 22nd 2025 that invites females interested in being involved in cricket beyond playing or coaching to learn more and get support. Workshops led by Jasmine Nicholls (grounds), **[Sarah Pollard](https://cricketyorkshire.com/sarah-pollard-club-cricket-scoring/)** (Officiating & Scoring) and **[Rachael McKenzie](https://cricketyorkshire.com/rachael-mackenzie/)** (Female Health & Injuries) will offer valuable insights. *(🏏 Links above are interviews we've done with Sarah and Rachael in the past).* Running cricket clubs and leagues takes a substantial volunteer effort that’s key to how cricket in Yorkshire looks when we all review again in December 2025. Grace also made the important point that to grow women and girls’ cricket, it needs to bring everyone along on the journey, including brothers, dads, uncles and those men currently running clubs across the region. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ee/73/ee73d104-a6c6-4e5c-a4b8-854785d36d20/content/images/2026/05/ripon-cricket-club-ground-cy-1.webp) **Grounds for concern?** I got an email from Bradford Council just before Storm Darragh hit to say that all public sports grounds were going to be shut on, er, safety grounds. It reminded me of the role of stakeholders in how we grow the game when it comes to where it’s actually played. The picture in Yorkshire when it comes to the availability, quality and maintenance of cricket grounds, is complex. From council pitches to private grounds, grounds vary a lot. **[My article on King’s Cross Juniors](https://cricketyorkshire.com/king-cross-juniors-cricket-club/)** who have been bounced from ground to ground in Halifax illustrates just one angle to this. There are not enough cricket grounds at the minute in towns and cities across Yorkshire - and obviously, the ambition is for many more teams and clubs. I only sneaked my Maths GCSE by a whisker but even I can see the equation of strategy versus capacity looks unbalanced. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ee/73/ee73d104-a6c6-4e5c-a4b8-854785d36d20/content/images/2026/05/king-cross-juniors-2002-cy-jpeg-1.jpg) Yet, where there’s a will, there’s often a way. The rapid growth of women and girls’ indoor cricket, particularly in South Yorkshire & West Yorkshire, has been achieved - despite my wrong assumption that a considerable roadblock could be sports hall availability and costs. I understand the YCB has cricket grounds - in terms of upgrading existing sites and finding new places to play cricket, very much on its radar for 2025. Grace also told me of the success of an autumn U11 girls tournament at venues that hadn’t hosted cricket before. So, it’s part upgrading existing sites, allied with being creative around what could work beyond a traditional grass pitch. Football or hockey artificials are one obvious solution as is allowing cricket in urban spaces that are used for something completely different. The Mirror Pool in central Bradford is the largest urban water feature in the UK apparently. I've said before it would also make a cracking venue for a softball tournament, watched I have absolutely no doubt by loads of people on a summer’s day. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ee/73/ee73d104-a6c6-4e5c-a4b8-854785d36d20/content/images/2026/05/cricket-ground-10.jpg) **Thinking outside the traditional idea of a cricket ground** If Piece Hall in Halifax (a truly jaw-dropping venue by the way) can host music gigs then it could potentially host cricket. Why not, eh? Obviously, with hardball cricket comes safety considerations and the practicalities of how far a cricket ball can travel but this is where collaboration - already the quiet success story in Yorkshire - remains as important as ever between clubs, schools and landowners. The number of stakeholders who own, administer and maintain cricket grounds makes it tricky to navigate - but not impossible. There are also empty cricket grounds out there and at a time when local councils are financially creaking, we have seen clubs and community groups take over land and grounds for regeneration. So, there you go. Two threads that I expect to be important to Yorkshire cricket in 2025, among so much more of course. As ever, we’ll be sharing news, insights, interviews, photography, podcasts and getting out and about across the region. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ee/73/ee73d104-a6c6-4e5c-a4b8-854785d36d20/content/images/2026/05/clp_duncombe_park_jul2024-3.jpg) **OVER TO YOU**... So, what’s important to you for 2025? What would you like to see happen in recreational cricket (broadly or in Yorkshire?) - What’s missing or what would you like to know more about? Leave a comment below (I read them all) or get in touch on the **[Cricket Yorkshire Facebook page](https://www.facebook.com/cricketyorkshire)**. Here’s to an enjoyable, prosperous year of grassroots cricket! ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ee/73/ee73d104-a6c6-4e5c-a4b8-854785d36d20/content/images/2026/05/clp_harrogate_women_jun2024-26.jpg) #### Want to read more? **[🏏 Women & Girls Cricket Articles](https://cricketyorkshire.com/content/files/2026/05/women-and-girls-cricket-24.html)** **[🏏 Club Cricket Headlines](https://cricketyorkshire.com/content/files/2026/05/club-cricket-28.html)**