Softball cricket or Soft ball cricket is a short form variation of the sport of cricket, played by women and girls in England and Wales. It is different from women's cricket: the latter is sometimes referred to as "women's hardball cricket" where a distinction is necessary. [1]
In 2017 the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) set up 180 soft ball cricket one-day festivals to introduce women to the game. [2] These festivals continued with, for example, 25 festivals held in Derbyshire and 14 in Cornwall in 2023. [3] [4] As of 2023 [update] there are women's softball leagues in several counties, such as Cornwall, [5] Westmorland, [6] and Yorkshire. [7]
The ECB has produced a "Player Guide" describing softball cricket, which begins with the statement "The aim of soft ball cricket is to have fun." [8] As described by the ECB softball cricket is played by teams of six to eight players, divided into pairs. The game "should last no more than an hour". Each pair will bat for two or three six-ball overs, and all players are encouraged to take a turn at bowling. Overarm bowling is encouraged, but underarm bowling is allowed. Fielders are advised to "position themselves at a safe distance from the batter when the ball is bowled".
The scoring system gives each team an initial score of 200. Points are gained for runs and boundaries (six if the ball crosses the boundary without touching the ground first, four if it touches the ground), and for wides and no-balls, and five points are lost when a batter is "out", which may be by being bowled, caught, run out, stumped, or hitting the wicket. There is no "leg before wicket" rule except that a player can be out if they deliberately block the ball with their leg or foot. The winning team is that with the greatest number of points at the end of the game. [8]
The game is played with stumps "roughly 20 metres apart", and uses specialised non-wooden bats and a ball softer and lighter than that used in conventional cricket: the official ECB women's softball cricket ball weighs 3.5 ounces (99 g), while the ball used in standard women's cricket weighs between 4.94 ounces (140 g) and 5.31 ounces (151 g). [8] [9] [10]
Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left when the ball bounces on the pitch. For a right-handed batter, that is away from the leg side, and this is where it gets the name leg break.
Fielding in the sport of cricket is the action of fielders in collecting the ball after it is struck by the striking batter, to limit the number of runs that the striker scores and/or to get a batter out by either catching a hit ball before it bounces, or by running out either batter before they can complete their current run. There are a number of recognised fielding positions and they can be categorised into the offside and leg side of the field. Fielding also involves trying to prevent the ball from making a boundary where four "runs" are awarded for reaching the perimeter and six for crossing it without touching the grass.
The Laws of Cricket is a code which specifies the rules of the game of cricket worldwide. The earliest known code was drafted in 1744 and, since 1788, it has been owned and maintained by its custodian, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in London. There are currently 42 Laws which outline all aspects of how the game is to be played. MCC has re-coded the Laws six times, the seventh and latest code being released in October 2017. The 3rd edition of the 2017 Code came into force on 1 October 2022. The first six codes prior to 2017 were all subject to interim revisions and so exist in more than one version.
In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings:
This is a general glossary of the terminology used in the sport of cricket. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics. Certain aspects of cricket terminology are explained in more detail in cricket statistics and the naming of fielding positions is explained at fielding (cricket).
In cricket, a no-ball is a type of illegal delivery to a batter. It is also a type of extra, being the run awarded to the batting team as a consequence of the illegal delivery. For most cricket games, especially amateur, the definition of all forms of no-ball is from the MCC Laws of Cricket.
In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter —regardless of whether batting is their particular area of expertise. Batters have to adapt to various conditions when playing on different cricket pitches, especially in different countries; therefore, as well as having outstanding physical batting skills, top-level batters will have quick reflexes, excellent decision-making skills, and be good strategists.
Fast bowling is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as fast bowlers, quicks, or pacers. They can also be referred to as a seam bowler, a swing bowler or a fast bowler who can swing it to reflect the predominant characteristic of their deliveries. Strictly speaking, a pure swing bowler does not need to have a high degree of pace, though dedicated medium-pace swing bowlers are rarely seen at Test level in modern times.
In cricket, a dismissal occurs when a batter's innings is brought to an end by the opposing team. Other terms used are the batter being out, the batting side losing a wicket, and the fielding side taking a wicket. The ball becomes dead, and the dismissed batter must leave the field of play for the rest of their team's innings, to be replaced by a team-mate. A team's innings ends if ten of the eleven team members are dismissed. Players bat in pairs so, when only one batter remains who can be not out, it is not possible for the team to bat any longer. This is known as dismissing or bowling out the batting team, who are said to be all out.
Matthew James Hoggard, is a former English cricketer, who played international cricket for England cricket team from 2000 to 2008, playing both Test cricket and One Day Internationals. The 6' 2" Hoggard was a right arm fast-medium bowler and right-handed batsman.
Yorkshire County Cricket Club in 2005 were in the second division of both the County Championship and the totesport League. At 6–1 odds to win the Second Division of the County Championship, they were likely to struggle again – as they had done since they won the First Division championship in 2001.
Stumped is a method of dismissing a batter in cricket, in which the wicket-keeper puts down the striker's wicket while the striker is out of their ground. It is governed by Law 39 of the Laws of Cricket.
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Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a 22-yard (20-metre) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striking the ball bowled at one of the wickets with the bat and then running between the wickets, while the bowling and fielding side tries to prevent this and dismiss each batter. Means of dismissal include being bowled, when the ball hits the stumps and dislodges the bails, and by the fielding side either catching the ball after it is hit by the bat, but before it hits the ground, or hitting a wicket with the ball before a batter can cross the crease in front of the wicket. When ten batters have been dismissed, the innings ends and the teams swap roles. The game is adjudicated by two umpires, aided by a third umpire and match referee in international matches. They communicate with two off-field scorers who record the match's statistical information.
The 2016 County Championship, was the 117th cricket County Championship season. It was announced in March 2016 that the 2017 season would feature only eight teams in Division One, meaning that only one team would be promoted from Division Two in the 2016 season, whilst two teams were relegated from Division One.
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The Hundred is a professional franchise 100-ball cricket tournament involving eight men's and eight women's teams located in major cities across England and Wales. The tournament is run by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and took place for the first time in July and August 2021.
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Phoebe Claire Graham is an English cricketer who currently plays for Lancashire, North West Thunder and Manchester Originals. She plays as a right-arm medium bowler. She has previously played for Nottinghamshire, Devon, Berkshire, Yorkshire, North Representative XI, Northern Diamonds, Western Storm, Northern Superchargers and Northern Districts.
Podex is a variety of cricket played in some public schools in the UK and on youth camps, most famously Crusader Camp and Houseparty at Bethany School, which has recently been classed as a Centre of Excellence of Podex. Unlike cricket it uses two instead of three stumps, and a bat rather like a rounders bat but more the length of cricket bat. A soft rather than a hard ball – a sorbo – is used. Kneale (2016) notes a variety in the rules of the game and suggests its origins lie in games played at camps organised by the Scripture Union prior to the First War.
We are in Westmorland Women's Softball Cricket League