IT was a historic night for cricket in Swan Hill on Wednesday, with the first match in the Swan Hill District Cricket Association Murray Downs Female Competition at Ken Harrison Reserve.
The town’s first girls’ competition has started with a bang with enough girls now participating for three T20 teams.
Head coach Alan Hatcher told The Guardian he was pleased with the evening.
“It was brilliant – we had a good crowd with a lot of family members attending – and the girls really enjoyed it, so it’s full steam ahead for the rest of the season now,” he said.
The teams, of six to nine players, are called Pink, Green and Blue, with Pink and Green sides playing on Wednesday night.
Teams will rotate playing with the side with the bye training instead.
Pink team won the opening contest, making 66, with Green team putting on 58 in reply.
Amalie Bell and Bridie Curran each impressed with the bat, making 17.
But Hatcher was just happy with the strong efforts of all participants.
“Those two girls batted well, but everyone bowled and fielded great, so that was the most pleasing aspect.
“It was a close contest, which made it more fun for all involved.”
While the primary aim is for the girls to have fun and learn about the game, Hatcher said it was good for them to play competitive matches regularly.
“Wednesday night is generally our training night anyway, but now we’re fitting two teams into a game, and they get that experience of weekly competitive cricket.
“We want to keep them all interested, so the current format clearly worked on Wednesday, and we’ll stick with it.”
Teams have been evened out with a mixture of older and younger girls in each, which is crucial, according to Hatcher.
“We wanted the younger ones to each get experience playing with the Murray Downs Diamond (MDD) players, so we’ve mixed the teams up quite a lot.
“You can already tell how good that will be for them because the older girls are practically on-field coaches, and I was really proud of the Diamonds girls looking after them on Wednesday night.”
Bluewill play their first game next week against Green.
MDD started their Wimmera Girls Cricket League title defence well with a comfortable win over the Horsham Sixers after a forfeit victory against the Horsham Hurricanes.
Their next contest will be at home on Sunday.
