After the Irish women’s winter World Cup campaign, there is more emphasis on women's cricket and how to grow the sport. Extra teams have been entered into the leagues and larger numbers at Pre-season training, the 2014 season could a turning point for ‘Women’s Cricket’ in Ireland.
Club cricket starts back this month with 3 games taking place -
Tue, 22 Apr18:00D3Dublin University 1 v Pembroke 2College Park
Fri, 25 Apr18:00D3Dublin University 1 v North Kildare 2College Park
Tue, 29 Apr18:00D3Dublin University 1 v Rush 2College Park
At the moment CricketLeinster have three 20 over Women’s Leagues, three knockout Cups (Senior, Junior and Minor) and the Pilkington Plate, 40 Over Competition.
In 2014 the following teams have entered the competitions:
Pilkington Plate 40 Over Comp – Pembroke, Merrion, North Kildare, Leinster, YMCA, Fingal.
Division 1 & Senior Cup – Pembroke, Merrion, Leinster, North Kildare, YMCA, Malahide, Clontarf, The Hills
Division 2 & Junior Cup – Railway Union, Merrion II, Clontarf II, The Hills II, Leinster II, Rush, Malahide II
Division 3 & Minor Cup – Railway Union II, Greystones, Rush II, Phoenix, North Kildare II, Dublin University, Pembroke II, Y.M.C.A II
In total, 23 adult women's teams will be competing for the leagues and cups this season. The Hills has joined Division 1 to make it an eight team league and Y.M.C.A have entered a second team into Division 3. This means a better structure for the leagues of women’s cricket in Leinster.
In addition, Fingal (Rush and The Hills) have become the sixth team to be added to the Pilkington 40 Over Competition. Whilst in Division 3, Greystones have entered a women’s team for the first time.
The following table illustrates the girl’s youth teams entered for 2014 competitions.
Clontarf (Two U11, U13)
Leinster (U11, 13, 15, 17)
Malahide (U11, 13, 15, 17)
Merrion (U11, 13, 15, 17)
North County (U11, 13)
North Kildare (U11)
Pembroke (U11)
Phoenix (U11, 13, 15)
Railway Union (U11, 13, 15, 17)
Rush (U11, 13, 15,17)
The Hills (U11, 13, 15, 17)
YMCA (U11, 13, 15)