Collingham and District Cricket Club hold first women’s cricket tournament

The first-ever women's softball festival was a great success for a district cricket club and it will likely be the first of many.

Collingham and District Cricket Club hosted the event with the ground being thoroughly prepared by groundsman John Pipes despite challenging weather conditions.

Five visiting teams took part in the event including two sides from two Farnsfield teams, a team from Newark R&M and one from Welbeck. while the hosts fielded two sides.

Collingham also joined forces with Newark R and M to provide another scratch team, taking the total to eight.

"The Women’s game is rapidly growing across the county and it was fantastic to see eight teams enter the festival," said Collingham & District CC Women’s Captain, Jo Chapman.

"Most of the teams included women and girls that were playing their first competitive game of cricket."

"It was particularly pleasing to see North Scarle enter a team, they are a club who have only started a Women’s section this season," said Chapman.

She added that teams split into two groups and played three games in the group stage.

The scratch team won all of their games in Group One and Newark won all of their games in Group Two, which resulted in the two teams facing each other in the final.

Collingham 1sts and Welbeck came second in the groups so they played against each other for third and fourth place.

After a tight final on a soggy wicket, the scratch team walked away with a 33-run victory.

Welbeck then comfortably won third place against Collingham.

‘It was such a fantastic day of cricket," said Chapman.

"It was especially great to see so many girls embedded within the different teams.

"The future of the game in this county is looking extremely positive."

"The player of the festival was awarded to Olivia Germany who at only 11- years old, had an outstanding all-round performance for the scratch team.

"It is players like Olivia that are coming through the juniors section into the women’s team that are starting to push the boundaries.

"They are bringing the overall performance of the women’s game to a high standard."