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Her Game Too Cricket are pleased to announce that the University of Lincoln Women’s Cricket Club are the latest to partner and pledge their support for the campaign.
Women’s cricket at the university began in January 2023. After a slow start, the section is now continuing to build momentum and has seen drastic growth.
In the club’s early days, motivation amongst the camp was incredibly low. With few members attending training sessions, the club were unable to field a full team. As a result, the Women’s section had to join in with the Men’s in order to receive some level of training.
When the opportunity arose for the Women’s team to play their first competitive match for the university, a Varsity game versus the University of Hull, Lincoln were unable to accept, owing to only having three players available.
Thanks to the hard work and dedication of those committed to the university’s Women’s cricket team, numbers finally began to grow. Those who had been originally interested but had left because of the lack of opportunities and motivation, found their way back to cricket and the Women’s section soon boasted 9 players, enough to field a Varsity team.
Now able to compete in their first game, the University of Lincoln Women’s Cricket Club got off to a winning start. This incredible achievement marked a huge step for the team as they began to look towards the future and progress as a competitive playing group.
In a heavily male-dominated society, with male players outnumbering the women’s team by 54:11, the players worked to establish “Women’s-Only” training sessions, in the hopes of creating a more comfortable environment for the current squad and potential newcomers.
Towards the end of 2023, to ensure that the voices of the Women’s team were heard and taken seriously within the society, the players pushed for committee roles to be established. Following this, they were awarded with two committee positions: 'Head of Women's and 'Captain'.
When the next academic year commenced, the team began to realise that, although they now had established committee roles, they lacked the power and authority to make any major decisions, including event applications and conducting risk assessments.
Taking it upon themselves, Sachi Dissanayake – UoL's Women’s Captain – wrote a letter to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) looking to acquire some funding that would take the cricket team at the university to the next level and enable them to progress. Not expecting to receive a response, the club were delighted when they saw an email come through from the national body directing them towards Lincolnshire (county) Cricket.
Meeting with the governing body for the region, the University of Lincoln’s Women’s Cricket Club were able to enter an indoor cricket league with clubs in Lincoln and the surrounding areas. This marked a huge moment for the club as provided the team with the opportunity to play competitive games and established links with external parties.
Playing against four other teams in Lincolnshire's Magnavale Indoor Central Division, UoLWCC were crowned champions in the 2023 edition, winning all four of their group games, despite not being able to field a full team.
Following the Easter break, the UoL have made history by becoming the first Women’s Cricket team from University of Lincoln to feature in a BUCS league.
Featuring in their first-ever BUC leagues will see the side face the likes of: Oxford UCCE, Warwick, Nottingham, Loughborough and Cambridge. Whilst this new venture presents a new challenge for the young side, the players are revelling the opportunity to develop their game, experience hardball cricket for the first time and play competitive cricket.
The future for Women’s cricket at the university is incredibly bright and during this time of growth, Her Game Too Cricket are thrilled to be partnering with the UoLWCC and be a part of their journey.
On the partnership, the Women’s Cricket Committee at UoL said: “We are so excited to announce our new partnership with Her Game Too.
This is something we have worked on for a long time to showcase and we cannot wait for what entails for the future!”
Her Game Too Cricket’s University Ambassador, Charlotte Ashton, said: "I am so excited and pleased to have the Uni of Lincoln on board during a time of exciting growth for them.
This partnership is incredibly promising, and I personally can't wait to support Lincoln and watch them go from strength to strength.
The dedication of the team, with Sachi in particular, and their hard work in fighting for the creation of a women's team is so inspiring and makes me feel very proud to have them on board."
Learn more and keep up to date with the University of Lincoln’s Women’s Cricket Team here...
Instagram : @uolwomenscricketclub
You can follow Charlotte’s work with our university partners on Instagram at:
@universities.hergametoocricket