YCF Roses Festivals offers girls-only cricket for beginners

Girls cricket is riding a wave of popularity and momentum here in Yorkshire so I took myself off to watch a Roses Festival at Colton Institute Cricket Club to learn more.

This feature, in partnership with the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation (YCF), looks at the ongoing programme of Roses Festivals across the region.

Roses Cricket, Powered by Dynamos, is the new all-girls Under 11 cricket programme, supported by the YCF, and Yorkshire clubs are hosting events across the summer to encourage girls to try the game.

In this leafy corner of East Leeds, there were three pitches in use for the six clubs of Colton, Garforth Parish Church, Horsforth, Meanwood, Methley & Carlton Towers.

The format was Countdown Cricket, namely 30 balls an innings, pairs batting together and the fielding side all bowling five balls before rotating positions around the field.

Fast, loud, action-packed and everyone involved.

Colton’s Festival was the third in West Yorkshire with a blockbuster opener at Pudsey St Lawrence Cricket Club, attended by Yorkshire duo Beth Langston & Sterre Kalis.

From Sutton-on-Hull to Sowerby Bridge and Carlton Towers to Cawthorne, dozens of clubs are seeing the benefit of this national programme with a Yorkshire twist as a route to help lots of girls play fun, entry-level games as a bridge between the mini challenges of Dynamos and more formal leagues.

Talking to Katie Stewart, the YCF’s Women and Girls Development Manager for West Yorkshire, careful thought has gone into how these Roses Festivals are positioned:

“There isn’t a big emphasis on who’s going to win. No trophies or anything like that. It’s just let’s play and enjoy it. Have your first taste of matches and if we can get as many girls as possible having a go through the summer then hopefully they might think about continuing next year and joining a league, if that’s what they want to do.”

To that end, the YCF have it on their radar to look to develop a softball (windball) under-elevens girls league in West Yorkshire that would feature local teams playing each other in 2026.

The West Yorkshire Women & Girls Cricket League already has softball (‘incrediball’) and hardball girls divisions for U13 upwards so there is an awareness of what’s needed to map out a girl’s potential path in cricket as she gets older.

Beyond playing, it’s socialising, forming friendships and having a really positive experience of the game that’s just as important. There’s plenty of evidence of that as I chat to the parents of the Colton girls team on the sidelines.

Colton’s incredible journey

If you’re a cricket club thinking about girls cricket or in your first year then it’s likely exciting but perhaps a little daunting. Andy Scholes, Colton’s Junior Coordinator, helps to oversee a club with a raft of junior sides including girls U13s and U15s but it began slowly.

Andy’s coaching snowballed as a knee injury gradually curtailed his own playing career and he has been instrumental in driving girls cricket. Every club has to start somewhere.

Naturally, you need volunteers who’ll build up girls cricket gradually but Colton started with girls playing in mixed teams. Then numbers of girls grew and with it, the potential to start their own girls teams at School Lane in LS15.

Chatting to Andy, the profile and performances of the England Women’s team, Yorkshire Women and Northern Superchargers in The Hundred, allied with more fixtures, teams and clubs invested in girls cricket is collectively reaping rewards.

Success in girls cricket can take many forms from an enjoyable evening of Roses cricket to going on to represent your region or county.

Saffron and Sophia are two older girls who are helping out with the Roses Festival tonight. Sophia is now with the Yorkshire U13 Girls squad while Saffron tells me that she had no interest in cricket until Andy put on a session.

Would Saffron be playing the game, if it hadn’t been for sessions at Colton? “Probably not. Probably football and tennis. I stopped those for cricket!”

What resonates here is Andy’s heartfelt message of “Build it and they will come!” Not all clubs have the same circumstances but there are definitely more girls out there who would happily play cricket, given the chance.

The YCF Roses Festivals are in full swing across August along with leagues and competitions in Yorkshire. If you’re a club looking to kickstart your own girls cricket then contact the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation (YCF).

It might well be worth chatting to some clubs, like Colton, who have been through the journey already. There is support from the YCF, junior leagues and volunteers who all want to grow the game.

Equally, if you are a parent of a girl, aged 8-11, then they’d be very welcome at any of the YCF events scheduled across the summer, just contact a local club for what’s available locally.

Yorkshire Cricket Foundation Website

If you want to learn more about girls cricket in Yorkshire, visit the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation website for news, events and contacts.

We also have our own Women & Girls Hub here with articles, club visits, interviews, podcasts and photography.

Many thanks to Mark Doherty of Caught Light Photography for providing photos, his website is www.caughtlight.com.

✍️ This is Partner Content for Yorkshire Cricket Foundation – if the mood takes you, click to read Cricket Yorkshire’s policy on partner content.