FOR the third time in three seasons, the Murray Downs Diamonds have claimed victory in the Wimmera Girls Cricket League, following their second consecutive undefeated season.
In their final game of the 2023/24 season, the Diamonds went head-to-head with the second-placed Horsham Hurricanes and ran away with victory.
The Diamonds’ bowlers dismissed Horsham for just 39 runs, before putting together of 1/103 to put the game beyond doubts.
Murray Downs Diamonds coach Alan Hatcher said his side has been through “a really strong couple of years”.
“We’ve gone through the last two years undefeated,” he said.
“We’ve got a very talented bunch of girls and have added to that squad with some of our younger players who have trained really hard to get up to that level.
“There’s a really good bunch of girls who are still coming up through the ranks.
“When those younger ones get a chance to play with the older girls, they really flourish as well.
“They get along really well, and the older girls really do a lot to bring them into that team environment.”
With Horsham’s team missing a couple of players, the Diamonds girls put up their hands to take turns fielding for the opposition.
Hatcher said that camaraderie was a feature across the league, and that the girls were happy to ensure fairness in their games.
“We just try to even things out a little bit and make sure that it’s fair between the two teams,” he said.
“It’s almost like its own little community; all of the sides face the same sort of things, so we just try to help out when we can.
“All the players get on really well, they’ve all got their own group chats outside of cricket.
“A lot of them play interleague cricket together, so they’ve become really good friends with the girls they play against.”
Hatcher said that while he has seen real growth in female cricket in just the last five years, there was still work to be done in the space.
“We started four years ago; I knew that there were a lot of girls around who did play in the boys competition,” he said.
“This competition just gives them a chance to go up against other girls in their own competition, and it’s been an amazing four years.
“Locally the girls game has certainly grown in the last five years, we’ve seen a few more girls come and join us.
“Unfortunately, the competition went back to just three teams this year, from five last year.
“We are hoping that some of those towns will build that up again and we can get back to those numbers.”
Hatcher said that any local girls looking to get involved in cricket should reach out to the team, or the league.
“We’re looking forward to the next season,” he said.
“We’ll probably run a few training drills over the weekend period to keep them interested in the off-season.
“We invite any girls who are interested in playing to get in contact with the league and join in.”
