Yorkshire Women & Girls Cricket League: Our preview

In this look at the latest from the Yorkshire Women & Girls Cricket League, we’ll have club and player news as well as early fixtures.

The Yorkshire Women & Girls Cricket League has expanded for the 2025 season to eight teams with Yapham and Tickhill the newcomers.

It is a quirky point of note that this is just about the smallest cricket league in Yorkshire, with only the Premier League as a one-division set-up.

In this round-up, we’ll share team news, player moves and a snapshot of the fixtures to come.

Doncaster Town, Rockingham Colliery, Saxton, Sessay, Sheffield Collegiate, Tickhill, Wrenthorpe, Yapham.

The season kicks off on 27 April with the return of The Hundred competition; there’s a round-robin format and multiple games on a day at club grounds.

Whereas last season, there were slightly different teams across the formats, there is a uniformity in 2025 as the eight clubs are the same for both 100-balls and the 40-over Premier League.

So, the opening day sees hosts Saxton play Sessay and Sheffield Collegiate. Meanwhile, Tickhill welcome Yapham and Rockingham Colliery. At Wrenthorpe, there’s just the single match as Doncaster Town are the visitors.

The Hundred runs through to Sunday 17 August before semi-final and finals day.

May start for 40-over Premier League format

Meanwhile, the Premier League starts on Sunday 11 May with a 1pm start across the four fixtures.

Saxton vs Sessay, Doncaster Town vs Sheffield Collegiate, Rockingham Colliery vs Tickhill and Wrenthorpe vs Yapham.

Sunday 10 August is the final round of matches which seems early but The Hundred knockouts will follow.

Yapham

A breakthrough season for Yapham as they embark on their first full season in the Premier League after two years of the North and East Yorkshire Women’s League (NEYWL).

Though their first eleven moves up, Yapham’s numbers have grown enough to enter a second team in the Championship division of the NEYWL too.

Former Yorkshire Women’s player Robyn Dennington is again captain, supported by newly-appointed Vice Captain Alice Johnson.

Robyn said: “A couple of new signings (and players to watch) for our 1st XI squad include Alice Acklam who is part of the Yorkshire Women’s Emerging Player Programme, and Katie Sharf, an exciting younger player that’s looked really strong in training over winter!”

Doncaster Town

Doncaster Town had a stellar 2024 without actually holding aloft any trophies. They finished a point above Sessay Emeralds in the league but lost out on average points. A bone of contention.

It will be interesting to see if they can push Sessay and Wrenthorpe again this season. Laura Scheiwe (1,320 runs) was the lead run-scorer in the league and Doncaster Town so those runs need scoring elsewhere.

Doncaster Town Women’s 1st XI captain Shell Styring told me: “We are welcoming back Izzy Foley after two seasons out, due to studies and then a serious injury sidelined her last season.

India Leach is making the step up to senior cricket and looks a great prospect and of course we welcome Kate Duffield, our overseas, who has been awarded Auckland Women’s Club Cricketer of the Year.”

Sheffield Collegiate

After finishing fourth in the 40-over format in 2024, Sheffield Collegiate are excited to see how they go this time. Their Women’s 1st XI Manager Andrea White said:

“Our Women’s 1st team were proud of how we competed in our first season in the YWGCL Premier League and we’re looking forward to our second year with that experience under our belts.”

She added: “We’ve been working hard; developing our skills and our cohesion as a team throughout the winter and have recruited some new players who have fitted in really well.”

The team have been put through their paces by Sheffield Collegiate’s new Women’s 1st team coach Mat Roberts, while the club has entered their first girls U19 team into the Vitality T20 cup.

Plans are afoot to continue to grow the women and girls’ section with a view to having a women’s second team in future.

New players of all ages and abilities are welcome to attend a free taster session, while training at Abbeydale Sports Club is inked in for 23 April and runs every Wednesday evenings 6-8pm (5.30-7.30pm for the first few weeks).

Sessay

Reining champions Sessay Emeralds have a new South African overseas pro Courtney Gounden who takes over the captaincy from Adrianna Darlow. Darlow is now captain of Derbyshire and will have limited availability.

Gounden plays for Hollywoodbets Dolphins in the CSA Women Pro50 Series and offers Sessay a few options as an opening batter and off spinner, as well as potentially a keeper.

Courtney’s leadership for Sessay will be backed by a hat-trick of vice-captains and experienced Emeralds in Jasmine Passman, Amy Burton and Georgiana Houseman.

Emeralds’ Director Charlotte Pipes shared news of players joining the Emeralds. Yorkshire U18s seam bowler Leona Robinson has transferred from folded team Clifton Cobras. Robinson is at Queen Ethelburga’s and has had school and county age group winter training.

Gemma Mumby-Collins is a spinner and hard-hitting batter earmarked for Emeralds 1st XI duty this summer. She has represented Wales in three World Cups and also adds to the coaching resources at the club, having managed junior boys’ and girls’ teams in England and Australia.

Another addition is newcomer Olivia Hall who is beginning her women’s cricket career at Sessay after boys and men’s cricket in the Nidderdale League. The 13-year-old is a strong all-rounder and Charlotte believes definitely one to watch over the next few seasons.

The Emeralds 3rd XI team has withdrawn from what was the North & East Yorkshire Women’s Cricket League Division 2 that they were in last year. They will now be playing in the Hambleton Women’s Softball League instead with travel distances a key reason for the change.

As previously reported here on Cricket Yorkshire, Sessay has linked up with Raskelf so now there is extra ground capacity for Emeralds games and training.