.png)
Her Game Too Cricket are delighted to announce that the campaign has partnered with the University of York Women’s Cricket Club, becoming the fourth university to make the pledge of support.
A sports club at the University of York, the Women’s Cricket Club aims to provide female students with the opportunity to play cricket in a relaxed, yet competitive, environment.
Open to everyone, regardless of ability or prior experience, the club now boasts 49 members – a growth of 15 members from last year – who all attend training sessions as well as engaging in social events.
Players are offered 4 hours of professionally coached training each week as part of the club’s commitment to investing in their squad. Alongside training, peer-on-peer development is highly encouraged and, in an effort to improve members’ game awareness, development and tactics workshops have been implemented. Funding coaching qualifications for 7 (4 Foundation and 3 Core Coach) of their members, UYWCC are preparing players for a life outside of university cricket.
Recognising the effect that limited funds and access to cricket kit/materials has on involvement/participation, the Women’s Cricket Club run second-hand kit sales with the aim of making cricket more attainable.
On the field, the club competed in a range of indoor and outdoor competitions and leagues - with teams taking the field in BUCS (indoor and outdoor) and have 10 fixtured friendlies planned for the outdoor season. In 2021, they were crowned champions of the East Yorkshire Indoor League and, after expanding their presence in the competition by entering a second team, it was a UYWCC-only final in this year’s edition!
Back-to-back title holders of Roses - their University Varsity fixtures against Lancaster University – the Women’s cricket team are eager to make it a third consecutive win for the White Rose. For their on-field efforts, they were awarded ‘Roses Club of the Year’ in 2022 at the Student Union’s Sports Awards ceremony.
Outside of university cricket, the club are working within the local community to build connections for players post-university and spread cricket around the region. For girls in years 4 to 6, they are aiming to run coaching sessions and introduce cricket to new audience.
The University of York Women’s Cricket Club are committed to “making cricket a fun, inclusive, and supportive atmosphere for all of our members” and their pledge of support for Her Game Too Cricket only affirms this.
On partnering with the campaign, Laura Bawden, Captain of the University of York Women’s Cricket Club said: “We’re hugely pleased to partner with Her Game Too.
The UYWCC has always been proof that cricket can (and should) be anyone’s game, no matter your background, skill, or experience.
The variety of experience and cricketing background that we have to cater to at training proves this: we have experienced county players all the way to absolute beginners training under the same roof and developing alongside each other.
Over the past 6 months, we’ve made a concentrated effort to make cricket much more accessible and to promote women and girls’ cricket more actively.
Many of our members have had negative experiences with discrimination and sexism in cricket and we want to do all that we can to help prevent these experiences from reoccurring.
This partnership will help to underline our previous efforts and enable us to do even more to help eradicate sexism within cricket and create a fun, inclusive environment for everyone and anyone.”
Charlotte Ashton, Her Game Too Cricket’s University Ambassador, had the following to say: "I'm absolutely thrilled to be partnering with UOYWCC.
Having played against them in my final year at university (2 years ago now!), it's truly incredible to see how far the club has gone.
From their community engagement to their commitment to involving women in university sport, I really couldn't be more inspired by the work they are doing and their initiative."
Learn more and keep up to date with the University of York’s Women’s Cricket Team here:
Instagram & X (formerly Twitter): @UYWCC
You can follow Charlotte’s work with our university partners on Instagram at:
@universities.hergametoocricket