Last updated at 14:53, Thursday, 17 February 2011

A new venture for Penrith Cricket Club this season is the formation of a women’s section.

The club have been asked by the Cumbria Cricket Board to run one of the new women’s teams in Cumbria. A second team is being set up by Furness CC and hopefully more teams will follow.

The reasoning behind the move is to provide support to the Cumbria women’s teams and the Penrith and Furness teams will feed into the county set up.

With the increased interest in cricket following England’s triumphal retention of the ashes in Australia this winter and the successful exploits of the England women’s team over the last few years, it is hoped that this new venture will also be a success.

Penrith Cricket Club has had an involvement with girls cricket for several years with regular girls coaching sessions and last season provided seven members of the Cumbria Under-17 team who defeated Scotland Under-17s in July and nine members of the touring party that played at the Taunton Cricket festival in August.

Three players, Sammy Jo Johnson, Meghan Montgomery and Lizzie Sykes, represented the county women’s team on a regular basis.

They also represented their county age group teams with Meghan captaining the Under-17s and Lizzie the under 15s. Other players connected to the Penrith club who represented Cumbria at various age groups last season include Beth Osborne, Ella Telford, Aimee Martin, Amy Hullock, Libby Telford, Holly Cowper, Becky Thompson and Emma Dunseath.

The problem for the girls in the past has been arranging fixtures and to get a game they have either had to play for one of the boy’s teams or turn out for one of the club’s senior sides. However this season the Penrith club is going to run a girl’s Under-13 team which will play in the local boys Under-11 league, as girls are allowed to compete against boys two years their junior, and the women’s team will have fixtures against the Furness team as well as teams from the north east.

Winter coaching sessions for the women’s team will be held on Sunday afternoons from 1.30pm to 3.30pm on February 27 and March 13 & 27.

Anyone who is interested in getting involved or finding out more should contact Martin Montgomery on 07880 605297 or email monttirril@hotmail.com

First published at 11:45, Thursday, 17 February 2011
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk