Following Monday's Ladies’ Day, I wanted to take a little time to reflect on just how far the girls’ and women’s section of our club has come in such a short space of time.

It really began in the winter of 2024, when Conor and I were approached by Essex to support Claire Hendry with some work aimed at igniting female cricket in Southend. Claire led the programme, with us helping first at Hamstel Junior School and then at Southend High School for Girls.

From there, we wanted to make sure those girls had somewhere to continue playing cricket.

So, during the summer of 2025, we started dedicated girls-only training at the club on Friday evenings. Slowly but surely, it began to grow.

That summer also saw us play Westcliff in the first all-girls match in our club’s history — a milestone that felt pretty significant at the time.

We carried that momentum into the winter with our first girls-only indoor nets. Then came this summer, when things grew beyond anything we could realistically have expected.

Scott Elliott returned to the club in a coaching capacity after some time away and has done a fantastic job leading both our girls and ladies alongside Conor and the rest of us.

This summer, we have regularly had around 30 girls, aged from just six to 12, at Friday night training.

Considering where we were less than two years ago, that is quite incredible.

But the numbers only tell a small part of the story.

What has probably given us the most enjoyment is watching what has developed within the group itself. The camaraderie between the girls, the encouragement they give one another and, more than anything, how much fun they have together has been brilliant to watch.

They genuinely look forward to being together on a Friday night, and they’ve developed a real team spirit.

One thing that always makes me smile is the sheer amount of energy they have. It has become completely normal to look across the outfield during a game and find one of them doing a handstand or some other form of gymnastics while they’re supposed to be fielding!

I’m not entirely sure it appears in any of the coaching manuals, but it probably sums them up quite well.

Amongst all that fun, though, there is some undoubted cricketing talent developing too.

Their technical skills have come on enormously, but so have their cricket smarts. They’re starting to understand games and situations: where to field, when to take a run, how to work together and how to compete.

They’re no longer simply learning how to bat, bowl and catch — they’re learning how to play cricket.

Then Came the Sirens

At the beginning of this summer, we also started our ladies’ section completely from scratch.

That has grown incredibly quickly too.

We now have 18 ladies involved, and I don’t think any of us expected them to become a functioning cricket team quite as quickly as they have.

Their dedication has been fantastic, as has the camaraderie and enjoyment within the group. But one thing I personally absolutely love about them is just how competitive they are.

They want to win.

It doesn’t particularly matter who they’re playing, how experienced the opposition are, or whether realistically they should have much chance of beating them yet.

They turn up believing they can win.

And somehow, more often than not, they’ve gone and done exactly that.

They’ve played friendlies against Old Southendians, Eastwood and Rankins this summer, and the speed at which they’ve learned the game, started thinking as a team and developed an understanding of how to actually win cricket matches has been incredible.

In a matter of months, they’ve gone from a group of ladies giving cricket a go to a proper cricket team.

And the best thing is that, through all that competitiveness, they clearly love being together.

There’s encouragement, laughter and a genuine togetherness about them. That’s exactly the sort of culture we hoped would develop, but you can’t manufacture something like that.

The ladies themselves have created it.

The Waves and the Sirens

As both sections grew, we felt it was important that they developed their own identities within the club.

The ladies settled on the Sirens, which fitted perfectly with the nautical theme we wanted given our proximity to the water.

When we then needed something for our younger girls, Luna came up with the Waves.

It just worked.

We had two distinct identities that belonged to the girls and ladies themselves, while remaining very much part of our wider club.

Which brings us to Monday.

The final day of Cricket Week gave us the opportunity to properly introduce the Waves and Sirens at our first ever Ladies’ Day.

And what a day it turned out to be.

Southchurch Park was absolutely rammed.

We must have had somewhere between 200 and 300 people there at different points during the day, with women’s and girls’ cricket taking place across both pitches.

We welcomed Eastwood, Rankins, Old Southendians and Wickford to join our Waves and Sirens in a six-a-side tournament, and the whole place had a fantastic atmosphere.

Our Sirens were brilliant.

They won all of their games before being narrowly beaten in their final match by Wickford — arguably the strongest and most established ladies’ side locally — meaning the Sirens finished second overall.

For a team that didn’t even exist at the beginning of this summer, I think that says an awful lot about them.

And then there were our Waves…

Why Not Let the Girls Play?

The funny thing is, the Waves weren’t actually supposed to enter the tournament as a team at all.

Our original plan was simply to use a few of our older girls to supplement the Sirens if needed, giving them some exposure to the day and the opportunity to experience playing alongside the ladies.

As it turned out, availability from the Sirens was fantastic and they didn’t need any help.

So we thought…

Why not just let the girls enter as themselves and see what happens?

We put it to them and there wasn’t a second’s hesitation.

They all wanted to play.

And play they did.

A team whose oldest player was just 12 years old went out and competed against adult women’s teams all afternoon.

They weren’t intimidated in the slightest.

They backed each other. They encouraged each other. They thought about their cricket. And they just got stuck in.

Somewhere along the way, they even managed to create another little Waves tradition completely by themselves.

Whenever something went well, the whole team would suddenly break into their own Waves dance, completely in unison.

Where it came from, I have absolutely no idea.

But by the end of the day it was very much their thing — and another one of those little moments that just makes you smile.

And then, somehow…

They beat Eastwood.

The result itself was fantastic, but for us, the really special part was the way they went about it.

All of that camaraderie, confidence, enjoyment and cricketing intelligence we’ve watched developing on Friday nights was suddenly there for everyone to see.

They were given an opportunity that we hadn’t even originally planned for them to have, grabbed it with both hands and absolutely justified the decision to let them play.

We couldn’t have been prouder of them.

Cricket Without Barriers

Something else that is really important to us is that throughout this whole journey, all of the girls’ and women’s cricket we have provided has been completely free of charge.

That has been a conscious decision by the club from the beginning.

We wanted to remove as many barriers as possible and simply give girls and women the opportunity to come along, try cricket, enjoy themselves and hopefully become part of our club.

There are loads of people who have helped us reach this point, but particular thanks have to go to Claire Hendry, Conor Enderby and Scott Elliott, as well as every parent, coach, volunteer and supporter who has backed what we are trying to do.

But more than anything, the biggest thanks have to go to the girls and ladies themselves.

Ultimately, they’re the ones who keep turning up.

They’re the ones who have embraced what we’re trying to create, supported each other, learned together, competed together and made the whole thing so enjoyable to be involved with.

Without their enthusiasm, dedication and commitment, there simply wouldn’t be a Waves or Sirens to write about.

Less Than Two Years Later…

For me personally, standing there on Monday and looking around Southchurch Park was just total and utter pride.

And I know Conor, Scott and everyone else involved felt exactly the same.

I said to a few people on the day that if you’d told me on one of those cold, wet, dark evenings back in November 2024 that less than two years later we would have:

Around 30 girls regularly training
18 ladies involved
Two established female sections with their own identities
Girls as young as six learning the game
A team whose oldest player was 12 competing against adults
Hundreds of people at Southchurch Park for our first Ladies’ Day

…I probably would have laughed at how mad that sounded.

But here we are.

In fact, if anything, it’s already starting to outgrow us — which is an incredible problem to have and one we’re absolutely relishing trying to solve.

Next winter could potentially see us needing to dedicate an entire evening to female cricket, alongside the other evenings or days required for our U11s, U13s, U15s and adults.

That probably tells you more than anything just how much this has grown.

Then, next summer, we intend to take another major step by introducing both our girls and ladies into league and other competitive cricket for the first time, while continuing to grow both sections and welcome new people into the club.

And ultimately, that’s what all of this is about.

Simply a Cricket Club

For most of our long history, like so many cricket clubs, cricket at SOSEMTCC has predominantly meant men’s and boys’ cricket.

We want to change that.

We want to keep building something that provides cricket for the girls and ladies we have today, those who join us next year and, hopefully, those who walk through our doors for many years to come.

We want to reach the point where we’re not recognised as a men’s cricket club that also has girls’ and women’s teams.

We’re simply a cricket club.

Whether you’re a boy or girl, man or woman, if you want to play cricket, we want there to be a place for you here.

And after looking around Southchurch Park on Monday, it feels like we’re well on our way.

From those cold, dark November evenings to a packed Southchurch Park for our first Ladies’ Day in less than two years.

It’s been some journey already.

And the most exciting thing?

The Waves and Sirens are only just getting started.