12 weeks ago, the club decided to try and set up a ladies section, not sure what the demand was flyers were mocked up and a social media post created offering a free 10 week, “Introduction to Cricket” programme. Special mention should go to Caitlin Ball, who was instrumental in starting the ball rolling and getting a number of people signed up. It was at that point the club embarked on a journey.

It's safe to say demand was high, and with at one point 60 girls and ladies registered, the next challenge was finding enough coaches and working out how the sessions would be run with numbers so high. Neil Ball rounded together some of his U15’s players (Joe Pearson, Aditya Vege, Adam Ball, Sam Hayward & Liam Painter), who all helped over the 10-week course. However, we needed more coaches, so Tom Winstanley, Punit Bisht, Abhay Negi and Mark Winstanley were all recruited to help deliver effective sessions, so the girls could start to learn the basics of cricket. On behalf of the players and the club, thank you to all of the coaches and volunteers, who did a great job throughout the programme.

Wanting to support local sport, The Flower Bowl Entertainment Centre sponsored Garstang CC ladies section, which funded new equipment and additional coaching to ensure that the teams were well equipped. The sponsorship has allowed the club to grow the ladies section and ensured that it has thrived, and for that reason the club is extremely grateful to them.

Not sure what to expect when they turned up, the girls all embraced the course and took the advice on offer from the coaches. After a few weeks of batting, bowling, and fielding drills the girls decided they were ready to enter a softball tournament at Bare Cricket Club. With no match practice previously, they were unsure what to expect, but gave it their best shot and put in some strong performances, whilst learning throughout the day. After their 1st festival, the girls carried on practicing and improving, and were determined to go again.

A highlight of the season was seeing Caitlin Ball and Izzy Finley representing the 3rd team away at Fulwood & Broughton, with Izzy taking her first senior wicket, proving that if nothing else the programme had been a huge success.

As part of the Garstang Beer & Gin festival, Garstang CC hosted their 1st ladies softball festival with 7 teams entering and playing in 2 groups with the winner of each advancing to the final. Garstang entered 3 teams for the tournament, which is a remarkable achievement within itself to have so many players representing the club in one day.

With the weather set fine, it was all set for a great day and there was some excellent cricket on display throughout the festival. Group 1 saw, Garstang win their group including Penwortham and Fleetwood to progress to the final where they would face Shireshead who were the winners of Group B which included the other 2 Garstang teams and Carnforth.

By this time a big crowd was watching on, Garstang took on the hugely successful and very strong Shireshead team. Bowling first, Shireshead scored 51 runs, but some excellent bowling and fielding meant that Garstang took 5 wickets to reduce the visitors to a net score of 226. In particular, the fielding should be commended, the quality of the fielding was noted by a number of spectators.

Garstang set about chasing down the total and scored freely with some power hitting and good running, which yielded them 61 runs. With 5 runs lost for every wicket, Garstang knew that they needed to avoid losing wickets and they would be victors. However, it’s not as easy as it sounds against a strong bowling line up. In a remarkable batting display, Garstang didn’t lose a single wicket and ended up with a net score of 261 to top off a brilliant all-round display to become Champions.

Well done to the winning team of Katie Little, Rebecca Worthington, Annabel Sunnucks, Holly Thompson, Ros Gornall, Izzy Finley, Caitlin Ball and Hannah Knowles.

Thanks must go to all teams who entered the festival and well done to all of the players involved in a great day for ladies cricket.

Winning the Garstang CC ladies festival was the end of what has been a remarkable journey, it has been fantastic to watch the development of all of the players who have come a long way in such a short space of time. During the 10 weeks, there have been lots of laughs, effort, development and a couple of mishaps but all of the players and coaches should take a great deal of pride in what they have achieved.

We look forward to welcoming everyone back next season, hopefully alongside some new faces. Well done to everyone involved in what has been a fantastic season.