Women & Girls Awards 2025
Cricket Shropshire celebrated another year of growth and success at the Women & Girls Awards Evening.
Women & Girls Officer Naomi Payne said: “It was brilliant to see so many in attendance to help celebrate the success of our Women & Girls programme in 2025 with awards for clubs, and for the first time, individual honours.
“It has been another bumper year for us in Shropshire with more women and girls’ clubs involved in the game, a successful restructure of our offer and more participants involved.
“We’re now looking forward to a packed Winter programme of fun and activity to continue the success of the Summer.
“We also need to give a big thanks to our long-time Women and Girls’ sponsor Strategic Leisure. Their amazing support and continued sponsorship is a big part of the success of our recreational game in Shropshire.”
Cricket Shropshire’s Development Administrator Vanessa Russell said: “It was a brilliant evening celebrating women’s and girls’ cricket with a successful raffle, lots of dancing, and so many deserving winners.
“The Heads and Tails game was the highlight, especially with a young winner! Thank you all for coming and celebrating with us at Cricket Shropshire.”
Girls Awards
U11 Girls Incrediball – Allscott Heath Sugar
Naomi said: “A chance for us to give the youngest generation the opportunity to play some competitive, Incrediball cricket. This group of girls epitomise team culture – not only do they have a brilliant team spirit on the field, they all vibe incredibly well off the field and are Friends both on and off the field. They won seven out of eight games, and had a whole host of players in the top 10 batting and bowling stats.”
U13 Girls Hardball – Allscott Heath Sugar
Naomi said: “As a step into hardball, this league offers all the opportunity to play hardball cricket in a mix of friendly and league pairs style format. With lots of great cricket across all six teams, this team shone. With some of county’s best young cricketers, these girls have a very bright future and a number of them once again featuring the Halls of Fame.”
U16 Girls Hardball – Codsall
Naomi said: “Another excellent league which acts as a stepping stone into more senior, women and men’s cricket. This league and its participants continue to flourish each year. Codsall were thoroughly deserving winners, going through their fixtures unbeaten. Led well, with a good mix of ages, we look forward to seeing where these girls go and what steps they make next.”
Women’s Awards
Naomi said: “We once again restructured the Super 10s softball leagues to meet the desires of the players. More competitive cricket was sounded out and that was the direction in which we went with its restructure.
“The three softball leagues feature different formats, each designed to meet the needs of the teams involved and it’s been a success.
“We’ve welcomed new teams and at this rate, we’ll be adding in yet another league for 2026. Now though, we look forward to a winter of exciting indoor offers.”
County – Oswestry
Naomi said: “Oswestry have been building year on year, with a strong core of women and girls, including several mother/daughter duos and a handful of up and coming juniors. They lost just the one game over the course of their campaign, topping both the batting and bowling honours boards, and breaking the 200-point mark.”
Division 1 – Bomere Heath
Naomi said: “Known widely as one of the best and friendliest clubs to play against, this team really understands the importance of the spirit of our game. Always played in good humour, but with a strong competitive edge, this team will sit perfectly in the County league in 2026. Featuring at the top of both the batting and bowling honours boards, their captain has led from the front – ably assisted by some wonderfully talented women and girls.”
Division 2 – Allscott Heath
Naomi said: “It’s been great to see new teams enter our leagues. It’s a sign that our recreational game here in Shropshire continues to grow – as have the standards. This team (and the club) have grown incredibly well over the last year or more and the ladies have taken it one step further. No doubt these ladies will go on to succeed and continue to develop when they move into Division 1.”
County Hardball – Oswestry
Naomi said: “It’s great to see more of their softball players and young stars competing in the hardball arena. They’ve developed well over the course of the last couple of years and we see a bright future for them.”
Division 1 Hardball – Frankton
Naomi said: “Seeing the well-established softball teams venture into hardball is always very rewarding. Seeing them then go on and win their league in their maiden season is just fantastic. Featuring a whole host of players in the Halls of Fame, it is clear to see the development going on at this club.”
Midweek – Shifnal
Naomi said: “Unfortunately, our winners can’t be with us tonight but with it has been quite a sensational season for this team. Winning every single one of their midweek clashes and taking full points, they are well deserving and will be hanging onto this Midweek trophy.”
Individual Awards
U11 Girls – Sophia Kundu (Allscott Heath)
Naomi said: “Sophia topped both batting and bowling Halls of Fame with a whopping set of bowling stats, including a best of 4-4, and a superb batting strike rate of almost 150 and a top score of 42.”
U13 Girls – Mills Jones
Naomi said: “An absolute star with the bat and one of our best county prospects at her age, she has dominated this league with the bat, with an average of 60, a high score of 50 and a phenomenal strike rate of 198.”
U16 Girls – Ashvini Samanta
Naomi said: “A difficult decision to make with so many worthy winners, but a stand out with the bat which certainly helped win her team a league title. Ashvini opened the batting regularly, with a handful of impressive not out scores and an average of 75.”
County Softball – Kaycee Herbert
Naomi said: “There was little to separate the two top runners for this, with both creating so many fantastic chances and steering their team to wins with the ball. It came down to numbers, but with a marginally better average and strike rate, and with one wicket in it, Kaycee claimed the award.”
Div 1 Softball – Danielle ‘Pun’ Fitzpatrick
Naomi said: “A fantastic leader in every sense of the word. Not only leading her team to a league victory, she also showed us all what an incredibly talented cricketer she is. Topping both the batting and bowling stats, as well as featuring in the fielding stats.”
Div 2 Softball – Grace Sedgley
Naomi said: “Another top performer with the ball, Grace has shown what she’s made of. There aren’t many women or girls in our leagues with an economy rate of under 3 she has done it, with seven wickets and a best of 4-13.”
County Hardball – Sophie Richards
Naomi said: “I was lucky enough to see Sophie perform on a number of occasions and was incredibly impressed by her development and skill. Without a doubt, she has blitzed bowling attacks with her very calculated and at times aggressive batting. She’s even chipped in with the ball too! She made 237 runs across her games and an average of 79.”
Div 1 Hardball – Sally Cattani-Davies
Naomi said: “Sally has shown great deals of composure, tenacity and skill in the middle – carrying her bat through every innings she has played. Not only that, she’s captured a few victims behind the sticks as well. Best known around her club as being their ‘Safe Hands Sally’.”
Midweek – Hannah Young
Naomi said: “The second highest run scorer in this division, Hannah takes the award for her batting, with several not out scores, a grand average of 135 and a strike rate just a tick under 100.”
