LDCA debuts Women’s Competition

FOR the first time ever, the Leongatha District Cricket Association (LDCA) is introducing a women’s cricket competition.

With two age divisions, under 12s and under 14/open the competition will run for six rounds, with games to be played every second Sunday over the summer, obviously pending numbers. 

The matches will be played in 20/20 format and there will be six games total, with three before and three after Christmas, not including finals. 

Speaking with the Sentinel Times last week, Kilcunda-Bass LDCA’s Female Cricket Co-ordinator Cameron Chasemore explained the thinking behind the competition and what it will bring to the area. 

“Essentially it’s been set up to try and encourage social involvement from women around the area as an advertisement for women’s cricket in Bass Coast,” he said. 

“We are hoping that by having mums, wives, girlfriends involved, that younger girls will see how fun and great it is, and at the same time its giving talented teenage girls the opportunity to play against their own gender.” 

The open age competition has already been confirmed with four clubs putting forward teams in Kilcunda-Bass, Inverloch, Koonwarra and Foster, Chasemore encouraged more involvement. 

“The teams are shaping up really well, I think the cut off date for putting teams in will be late October so we can fixture it,” he said. 

“I think it’s just a good way socially to play sport with friends, the risk of injury is lower than say netball or anything else and it’s a short fast game every second Sunday, so the massive amount of commitment isn’t there.” 

“To be fair we all want women’s sport to grow so it’s just an opportunity to be an original founder of it to encourage girls to take up sport in general.” 

Chasemore couldn’t have said it better, the competition has a strong emphasis on participation and fun, players are not required to have any prior cricketing experience and are free to compete however they feel comfortable, owning whites or cricket gear isn’t essential either. 

“I think what this will do is be a great advertisement for women and sport in general to just give anyone who wants to give it a  go, a go,” he said. 

“And the offset to that is all the clubs will benefit from having more women and girls around, for sure, the girls at Bass are purely doing it to show that cricket or sport in general for girls is here and it’s available.” 

The first round of the inaugural LDCA Women’s competition season is set to kick off on November 6, with two games following before the Christmas break begins following the conclusion of Round 3 on December 4.