West Yorkshire women’s softball: Pink balls, power and pooches

The West Yorkshire Women & Girls Cricket League Softball Finals Day promised fast-paced fixtures for ten clubs across three pitches – spoiler alert – it did not disappoint.

Pink balls were launched up, up and away on a breezy Sunday at Bradford & Bingley’s Wagon Lane ground.

Non-stop, blink-and-you-miss-it action, an inflatable pub, cute dogs, one decadent slab of chocolate cake and many conversations all featured too.

It being the Women’s T20 World Cup Final, with hosts England facing Australia at Lord’s, I wondered if that might distract or in any way impact attendance? Not a chance. I didn’t hear anyone mention the World Cup all day actually.

Well, it was on free-to-air TV and spectators could easily keep up with things on phones – the league had even arranged for a big screen too.

Yet, from Holmfirth to Hunslet Nelson and Scholes to Stainland, teams were there to grab a place in the county softball finals.

Will the Women’s T20 World Cup be a catalyst in the same way the 2005 Ashes was? I’m hope it will across the UK but here in Yorkshire, the women and girls’ game is already absolutely flying.

The development planning comes in ensuring as many clubs and state schools as possible offer girls and women the best experience of the game in a format that suits.

Group A – Horsforth, Stainland, Scholes, Bradford & Bingley, Colton Institute.

Group B – Holmfirth, Bradshaw, Otley, Hunslet Nelson, Buttershaw St Paul’s.

In attendance were the best teams who had qualified from Bradford, Leeds, Calderdale and Huddersfield leagues and festivals. That equates to an overall picture with 15 divisions of softball cricket, if you can fathom it, not counting separate girls competitions.

One person who certainly can is the fixtures maestro (official title) Tom Jenkins who parked on a bench to discuss the league and health of this format in West Yorkshire.

Softball cricket is accessible, inclusive and manages to tread the line between competitive and fun. Eight-a-side, pairs cricket involves everyone with bat and ball – so its appeal is there to see.

As softball cricket has developed over a few years, it’s the nature of things that teams become more competitive and the league has to sometimes gently remind clubs of what’s expected behaviour-wise.

We’re not talking about some of the rare but headline-grabbing indiscipline you might hear about in say a Saturday ECB Premier League – yet it’s no longer just about having a go.

Women’s softball teams are training, being coached, developing skills and really, really want to win.

As things get more serious and the standards rise, the league must consider if and how it adapts rules to reflect that evolution. There is still a broad range of abilities in softball cricket – does that matter or is it the format’s superpower?

Should the better hardball players in regional women’s cricket be permitted to play softball – as one mooted example?

Tom tells me that though the trajectory in West Yorkshire is ever upward, demand comes with some notable obstacles:

“There’s still, unfortunately, a fight in women’s cricket for ground availability and pecking order. Mixed open-age cricket, as I like to call it, still comes first. The first eleven then Sunday teams then juniors.”

Speaking of rules, the league introduced LBW for Division 1 teams in 2026. A change brought about as there is definite crossover with players enjoying both formats. Players have LBW in hardball – so why not softball?

All of the micro adjustments may sound trivial but they speak to the shifting sands as the women and girls’ game develops.

In between being buffeted by the winds and photographing while keeping an eye out for flying pink missiles from the three concurrent games, I managed to catch up with lots of players.

Otley Rockets are a friendly, lively group of women, captained by Clare Bassindale who won the Yorkshire Tea Community Cricket Award last year. We swapped stories and jokes back and forth like it was the final of Wimbledon.

Across the day, there were enormous sixes as well as moments of really athletic fielding to pluck a catch out of the air or stop a four. Yet, overwhelmingly, the laughter and teamwork shone through.

I caught a few overs of a Hunslet Nelson game and recalled my visit to their South Leeds ground in June for Catch the Spirit Week.

A conversation with the captain Kelly Grobler and Carla Thewlis revealed this is their third year for the women’s softball team.

They are top of Division 1 (Leeds East) and have seen the fruits of their ECB Dynamos programme with a cohort of a dozen or so girls who are settled at the club.

The duo are the oldest squad members in the softball team and there’s satisfaction in being able to provide guidance for the girls. Carla told me:

“It’s good to see them progress with their cricket. They listen and they’re like sponges! The progress is huge – not only in our team but the standard overall.”

For Carla, there’s a Thewlis contingent at Hunslet Nelson including her son Sam who’s having a strong season in Division 2 of the Bradford Premier League.

Originally from South Africa, Kelly’s journey is similar with a cricketing family and a son Kyle now at Hunslet Nelson. Settled in Yorkshire, the chance to start softball cricket re-ignited a past link with the game, as she used to play for a club back home.

When asked what the burning ambition is in future, both simultaneously answer: “Hardball!” It’s that desire to progress but may take a while with a need for more players to broaden the experience in the group first.

Further round one of my laps with the camera, I pause at the Bradshaw contingent. I know Martin Jenkins whose daughter Maddie is a regular for Bradshaw and currently in the Yorkshire pathway as a talented leggie.

I chat to Lily (Olivia Cotton) who is representing Lincolnshire U14s and looks a very capable cricketer with bat and ball. She began with All Stars before junior games with Low Moor Holy Trinity and Bradshaw since.

It has been a family reunion at every step from matches with her sister Emily to joining her mum and auntie in women’s cricket. While the softball format can be a stepping stone up, it can also act as a sociable contrast to hardball and county commitments.

A natter with Elaina (whose husband Matthew – the team manager – nominated her for press duties!) reveals how a regional tournament like this with short, sharp games against ‘new’ opposition freshens things up.

Again, a strong family thread is there with a husband and daughter both at Bradshaw. In Elaina’s case, a casual promise to play to current softball captain Charlotte Turner if a women’s team ever came to fruition led to everything since.

“Never in a million years did I think I’d ever play cricket… and we’ve just never looked back.”

Bradshaw have three women’s teams with a softball 1st XI, development side and the hardball squad. For a previous cynic, Elaina is now the Bradshaw women’s hardball captain in Division 1 (Calderdale & Kirklees).

As someone who knows both formats, the speed and ease of softball, allied with camaraderie between teams is infectious. Hardball, by contrast, needs a bit of getting used to:

“It’s proper cricket rules. Once you’re out, you’re out. It’s the walk of shame! I’m not a confident batter. I like to bat with Becky as Becky smacks it over the moon.”

As for the finals day at Wagon Lane, Elaina noted: “It just seems a lot more fun. They call it softball… it really hurts when it hits you, I’ve got a few bruises that tell a story.”

Out in the middle, Horsforth topped Group A unbeaten to march convincingly into the semi-finals, along with Bradford & Bingley (above). Half the group games finished with a winning margin of fewer than 20 runs.

In Group B, Holmfirth – the county champions last season – were undefeated, winning all four pool matches, while Bradshaw joined them.

In the semi-finals, Horsforth lost to Bradshaw by an undetermined amount – at last as far as Play-Cricket is concerned.

There was a lag with scorers unable to load the Play-Cricket fixture onto devices – so it had to be good ol’ pen and paper.

Likewise, Holmfirth got the better of Bradford & Bingley but not before a series of rasping and defiant fours and sixes made things tense.

The final – that pitted group opponents together where Holmfirth had only won by six runs against Bradshaw – ended up being one-sided. Holmfirth (below) racked up nearly 300 and their opponents were well short.

No matter – both will head on to the county finals to represent West Yorkshire and speaking with Holmfirth captain Lara Clay, their momentum shifted after the lunch break.

“We were lacking on our bowling, there were run outs that should never have happened so we really struggled – then we had that big break. We brought it back again, you know, and gelled even more.”

The Holmfirth side has evolved with new signings such as Clay and Emily Roberts complementing others from the county title-winning squad, including Lani & Lucy Grice.

Lara reckoned that in the Colne Valley, Holmfirth have been a magnet for ex-county players with an eye on promotion to Premier League 1 (hardball) of the league for 2027.

As I gathered up my belongings, the outfield lay quiet and empty after a carnival of cricket, generously hosted by Bradford & Bingley. What a day.

The Women’s T20 World Cup will doubtless act as a welcome launchpad across England and Wales but, here in Yorkshire, there is plenty to be proud of right now too.

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