Sunday September 1st saw something rather special take place at The Badger Sett, with Thrumpton hosting their first ever Women’s Softball Cricket Festival!

Ten different teams from all over the county joined two Thrumpton teams to put on a spectacular display of women’s and girls’ cricket. With 3 pitches and 18 matches played in total, it was a real celebration of the Softball format and women’s cricket in general.

As well as some more established teams, we welcomed players who had very little previous experience of cricket, and even one team who had never played a formal match before. As a club we are honoured to have been a part of their introduction to cricket, and hopefully they went away loving the game as much as we do!

An exciting moment for us was watching our junior girls put out a side all of their own. We are incredibly proud of all our juniors at Thrumpton, and to see our fantastic girls enter a team and compete in three matches, is testament to all the hard work they’ve put in this year. Despite their young ages, they showed maturity in their organisation and planning, and even helped with scoring matches when they weren’t playing... all whilst having lots of fun and playing some great cricket! Well done girls, absolute superstars.

For our senior women's side, it was the perfect conclusion to our inaugural Softball Cricket season. We have come a long way since our first ever training sessions together just a few short months ago, and have developed not just our cricketing skills, but built some fantastic friendships and a real team spirit as well. To have started from scratch back in the spring, and ended with two wins from three games on our final day of the season, gives us a huge sense of achievement. We are really looking forward to doing the club proud again next year.

Spectacular days like this festival can’t happen without the support of many extra hands. At Thrumpton we are blessed to feel like one big family, and people from all different parts of our club – friends, relatives, players, supporters, juniors, committee members – stepped up to help make our first Women’s and Girls Festival a success. We are grateful to every single one of them. Thank you also to Jack Bird for taking some fantastic photos of the day for us.

And finally, a huge thank you to all of the teams who travelled to The Badger Sett to be a part of the day. Without all of our visiting teams the day couldn’t have happened, it was fantastic to see so many people taking part in and enjoying women’s cricket, and we look forward to seeing you around the county next year.

Fancy being involved in 2025? We always welcome new women and girls – whatever your previous level of experience or interest in cricket, get in touch if you want to join in, have some fun, make new friends and be a part of something awesome. Oh, and play some cricket too! Contact our coach Mark Sampson if you’d like to know more, or come along any time to indoor training starting in January, full details will be shared nearer the time.