Lauren Tuffrey has hailed the impact of an innovative funding programme as she continues her bid to grow opportunities for women and girls to play cricket in Derbyshire.
Formerly captain of Derbyshire Women, Tuffrey is now the Derbyshire Cricket Foundation's Women & Girls Development Officer and plays a key role in enabling the county to strengthen its network of volunteers, support clubs and build on its existing girls' cricket offering.
One of the biggest successes this year has come at Belper Amateurs Cricket Club, where an initiative to train parents over the previous summer paid off, with the support of the Metro Bank Girls in Cricket Fund.
Tuffrey said: “It has given us the ability to reach more people and have a wider impact than we were already having. We've been able to go into clubs and help upskill volunteers so they can take on more roles and help run women's and girls' teams.
"We had a really good one at Belper Amateurs. We went along on a Saturday morning and linked it up with their All Stars and Dynamos sessions. We had around 16 parents involved. We showed them how to do some warm-ups and how easy it could be, then taught them about umpiring and scoring.
"From that, Belper Amateurs found three parents who put their hands up and said they'd be happy to take on roles within the girls' section.”
The club has since progressed from one girls' Dynamos team to two, alongside an under-12 girls' team run by a parent who attended the session.
That growth has also helped ease the workload of long-serving volunteer Amanda Cope, allowing her to concentrate on coaching the club's Dynamos participants, who are aged between eight and 11.
Tuffrey added: “We call her one of our favourite people in cricket because she's so passionate about what she does.
"With us being able to find more people to support her, it's allowed her to concentrate on what she's really passionate about at the club. She doesn't have to worry about trying to do everything on her own.”
The Metro Bank Girls in Cricket Fund, co-created and co-funded with the ECB, aims to grow the number of girls' teams by breaking down barriers and helping clubs create more inclusive, welcoming environments where girls can play and stay in the game.
Launched in 2024 to grow and support the number of coaches and volunteers in girls’ cricket, the Fund has delivered almost 5,000 hours of coach mentoring, alongside training 461 coaches through the Metro Bank Girls in Cricket Fund ECB Core Coach programme, which is a coaching qualification specifically for existing and potential coaches of girls’ cricket.
The fund also supports Derbyshire's annual Women and Girls' Conference, which brings together around 80 people involved in the game to share best practice and explore funding, facilities and development opportunities.
Meanwhile, a Metro Bank Girls in Cricket Fund-funded ECB Core Coach course, led by Derbyshire's Head of Women's Cricket, Jon Dyson, is helping develop the next generation of coaches through six Wednesday evening sessions.
Tuffrey added: “We've managed to fill it, which is amazing, but we've managed to do that because we've got those contacts and we know the people at clubs who are stepping up.
"We can upskill those people, and hopefully they'll go away feeling more confident and deliver more opportunities for girls at their own clubs. The majority of people on the course are female as well, which is going to be amazing for the female coaching workforce in Derbyshire.
"It also means more female role models at those clubs. The girls are going to look at them and think, 'I want to be like her when I'm older.'”
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