Bradford Park Avenue Ladies aim for league hat-trick

Bradford Park Avenue Ladies (BPAL) 1st XI captain Kirsty Gavillet is on her lunch break and sharing the club’s successes and future plans with me.

Their ascent to unbeaten Division 1 champions in the West Yorkshire Women & Girls Cricket League can make you forget that the club only formed in 2019.

Since finishing fourth in 2022 behind winners Pudsey St Lawrence, BPAL have hit top gear with back-to-back titles. The notion that success breeds success has some merit to it but it’s more than that at any club.

It’s not enough to be in the centre of a city as young, vibrant and cricket-mad as Bradford.

Yet, as a club founded on being welcoming for women and girls of all abilities, recruitment hasn’t been too difficult since. Kirsty tells me: “We’ve been getting new players every week, to be honest, both hardball and softball.”

They now have a BPAL 2nd XI who play softball cricket in Bradford Region (Division 1), alongside the likes of Buttershaw St Pauls, Bradford & Bingley and East Bierley.

Gavillet (above), as Club Chair as well as first-team captain, sees Bradford Park Avenue Ladies’ inclusive philosophy as central to everything they do: “It’s not about individuals. It’s more about what’s best for the team. If we can get three or four girls that are gonna come along, work hard and benefit the team, that’s enough for us.”

Gelling together as a squad

She adds this thought that is hard to quantify – or even prove – though results might say otherwise: “I’ve said from the beginning that we’re not necessarily the best team but I’d like to think that we’re the best when it comes to camaraderie. The fact that we never give up which is really important.”

It’s the little things in cricket, isn’t it? Not always about the best bowler or batter but moments of brilliance or toughing it out under pressure. The undefeated run last season came as a surprise to Gavillet and has understandably given the squad a confidence boost.

Yorkshire Women & Girls’ Premier Division ambition

As the quality and strength in depth in regional women and girls’ hardball leagues goes up, so too will the inevitable urge to test themselves at the highest level. That may be coming down the line in 2026 for Bradford Park Avenue Ladies:

“We’ll give it another season in West Yorkshire and see where we are from there. If we’re feeling confident enough, we’ll have a first eleven in the Premier League in the wider Yorkshire area and a second eleven in West Yorkshire which is the ambition going forward.”

Gavillet acknowledges that timing a potential move to the top flight, if approved, needs to be right.

“We didn’t have the foundation that we do now or the commitment from the women for that matter. As the years have gone by, we’re seeing those same women, week in week out, regardless of the travel.”

As Kirsty puts it: “We don’t want to go to Yorkshire (Women & Girls League) and fall flat on our arses. It’s not what we wanna do. It’s more of an incentive too as the younger girls coming through, they want to play the highest standard of cricket for their own development.”

“We fully understand that and don’t want to lose those girls so it does seem like a natural progression. That said, the West Yorkshire League is a fantastic league to play in. We’ve enjoyed it over the past couple of years and it’s a great league to launch from.”

As the club on Canterbury Avenue in BD5 has grown, so too have numbers and teams but there’s still a juggle between competitions and formats.

Bradford Park Avenue Ladies haven’t entered the ECB Women’s Club T20 where Sessay Emeralds have excelled as Yorkshire’s most successful club. For Bradford, it’s tempting to see how they’d fare on a regional and national stage but the fixtures mount up. The success of a tour to Ireland might be repeated instead in 2026, as the squad learnt plenty from the experience and conditions.

We briefly discuss Bea Tootill (above) as an example of a young cricketer kicking on. I happened to be at Crossflatts where Bea made her BPAL debut a few years ago and chatted to her dad that day.

She was comfortably the club’s lead run-scorer with 301 runs at an average of 27 and two half-centuries to her name. Bea opened the batting for Yorkshire U15 Girls at the end of 2024 so the county are aware of what she can do.

“Bea was 11 when she came to us. She’s a 15-year-old girl now and her standard of cricket is vastly improved over the four years she’s been with us.”

As opening batter and bowler for BPAL 1st XI, Toothill is a name to watch and she won’t be the last from this club or indeed the league in West Yorkshire.

BPAL 1st XI shrugged off a nine-wicket defeat to Crossflatts in Group A of the Archer Cup and bounced back in the league over the Bank Holiday.

They were victors by nine wickets at home against North Halifax as Emily Easingwood’s unbeaten 55 saw them home.

Meanwhile, Kirsty’s interview concludes when the Cricket Yorkshire cat bounces into my office and announces grandly – and without room for argument – that it’s time for lunch.

Time will tell if Bradford Park Avenue Ladies can make it three league titles in a row. They won’t have it all their own way, that’s for sure, but it’s a journey that the squad are excited to be on.