Toft Cricket Club festival a boost to setting up women's team

Club captain and committee member Jimmy Lomas says focus will continue to be placed on harnessing what was started in Saturday’s women’s and girls’ taster session.

“The taster session was superbly delivered by Joanne Herbertson from Cheshire Women,” said Jimmy.

All pictures from the festival by Jeff Tenner

“We had 25 ladies take part who all loved the session, so much so that we are now going to continue training every Saturday from noon to 1pm for the next five to six weeks!

“Anyone is welcome and it doesn’t matter if you didn’t come to the taster session!”

Booths Park was a hive of activity across the weekend following the reopening.

Facilities had been closed and deep cleaned in the week leading up to the festival, after a first XI player had tested positive for Covid-19.

“What a weekend it was,” said Lomas.

“First of all, on Friday night the under 15s XI beat the Taverners XI.

“Saturday, as described by Nigel Muirhead as the perfect club day, was Toft at its best!

“First of all we had eight runners complete a 28.3km run back from NHS Nightingale in Manchester back to Toft.

“The boys have currently raised £3,695. The justgiving page is still open for donations – justgiving.com/fundraising/ed-stubbs-nhs-toft

“We then had our final All Stars session of the summer with 30 boys and girls taking part, followed by the women’s and girls’ taster session.

“To round off the day we had a Taverners XI vs Dads and Lads XI, with players ranging from ages 7 up to 60. On a glorious afternoon it was the Dads and Lads XI who came out victorious in a fixture that we will be making an annual thing!

“Then on Sunday we had the third XI take on the fourth XI in a return fixture from earlier in the year. It was the fourth XI who came out on top, chasing down 122 with five overs to spare thanks to 74 not out from Ed Stubbs.”