Cowdrey Cricket Club have launched their first girls' team after agreeing a partnership with Somerhill School.

The club hosted their opening training session on Monday at the Tonbridge school and had some special guests in attendance.

Cricket at Cowdrey was hit hard in 2020, but 2021 is looking set to be one of the most successful years for club - especially its growing junior section.

Monday’s event was a huge part of this with the launch of their girls team.

A newly-formed Junior Committee is the driving force behind the new development and is a key area of focus for the club in 2021. This has been brought about after the success of the All-Stars programme over the last two years. The club are expecting their biggest intake yet this summer with 45 five-to-eight year-old boys and girls starting this year’s programme at the weekend.

Cowdrey have a partnership with Somerhill School for the next two years to host and help promote the girls team. The club also have a connection with Kent, who are supporting with the development of girls and women’s cricket. Testament to this was the attendance of Helen Fagg (Kent community cricket manager for women and girls’ cricket) and Jodie Hobson (Kent Women’s Cricketer and under-11 girls county coach) attending the first training session, giving the 28 girls some inspiring words around their lives in cricket and then giving a batting masterclass to girls.

Stewart Clarke, the Cowdrey club secretary, said of the opening training session: “Special thanks must also go to Tasmin Seymour for co-ordinating and covering the administrator tasks and James Turner our junior section media guru who was multi-tasking even on the day whilst waiting the arrival of his fourth child that was delivered safely just before the session began - it was a girl so the future of the team is already looking strong!”

Cowdrey continues to offer cricket for boys and girls aged 5-18 and anyone interested in joining the Junior Section should contact juniors@cowdreycc.co.uk.