In a League of their Own
– The Softball Supremes!
New Longton launches its first Women’s Softball Cricket Team and is looking for recruits. Photography: Lee Parkinson
It was the long hot summer of 2018 and a group of friends sharing a few glasses of fizz decided to enter New Longton Cricket Club’s Softball Tournament. The rest as they say is now history…
The ladies had never played cricket, some had never even held a cricket bat and none of them could throw the ball overarm. But encouraged by the established Cricket Team in the village they put on their trainers, tied their hair back and formed a team.
All of them mums, with families, jobs, businesses and the pressures of daily life; they found that cricket training became an escapism where they could have fun, get fit and learn a new skill.
Cat Dunlop, Captain of the team said: “With an amazing coach in the form of Philip Young, who not only has vast knowledge, patience and a sense of humour to put up with the chaos, we managed to get organised to produce a decent festival team which we called the Softball Supremes. This team went onto the finals at The Northern in Crosby where we came fourth in the North West.”
When the summer turned to winter the ladies were adamant that they wanted to continue playing so approached the New Longton Cricket Club to support them. The club was delighted to have them on board and sought funding from Sports England and Lancashire Cricket Foundation, launching the New Longton Ladies Softball Team which is locally known as the Softball Supremes.
The Softball Supremes train every Sunday at the New Longton Cricket Club from 3.30pm and play in the local festival leagues. If you fancy joining in and having some fun they would be delighted for you to go along and join in.
New Longton Cricket Club was established on Chapel Lane in the village in 1921. The club offers training and competitive games for a wide audience.
Children can be introduced to the game with the All Stars Cricket programme. This is an eight-week programme of non-stop fun for boys and girls aged five to eight. The activity and game-based programme is suitable for all skill levels and provides your child with the foundations to begin a lifelong love of physical activity and cricket.
David Johnson, President of New Longton Cricket Club said: “We are delighted to have so many great initiatives at our club, especially one that increases female participation in the sport and opens the game to a wider audience. We are a small club making big strides and are very grateful for the to be supported by Sport England.”
For further details of the growing cricket opportunities in New Longton please look at the Facebook pages: New Longton Cricket Club, New Longton Ladies Softball Cricket Team and New Longton Sports and Social Club.
New Longton
Ladies Softball Cricket Team
Chapel Lane, New Longton
Preston PR4 4AA
01772 617823
