Lady Dragons ready to breathe fire in 2022/23

IT MAY have taken 50 years to get there but Bell Park will finally field its first women’s cricket side.

Bell Park Dragons Cricket Club is celebrating the confirmation of its inaugural female First XI for season 2022/23 after the idea was first floated around the club a couple of years ago.

Team manager of the “Lady Dragons” Carol Lymer is thrilled to see the club take the next steps towards a complete and more inclusive one.

“We have 12-14 women interested and ready to play already, so interest has been really good in recent months particularly,” Lymer said.

“There are also a few other ladies who are Bell Park through and through playing A Grade cricket at other clubs, but since finding out we’ve started up a ladies’ team, they’ve jumped ship and are coming back over to their home club, which is terrific for us.

“I actually thought it was going to provide a lot of headaches getting the team up and going, but it’s been pretty straight-forward.”

Lymer said inclusivity was the main theme in getting the female program up and running, as the possibility of second side in future years became more realistic.

“The world we live in, it’s about time everyone is accepted equally, and by providing a women’s team you’re bringing in the whole community,” she said.

“It creates a family atmosphere at the club and that’s sort of the aim, just to make the whole weekend for the family cricket-related, whether that be for mums, dads, husbands, wife, sisters or brothers, it makes them all part of the club.”

Men’s First XI player Kell Craven will coach the women’s side during their inaugural campaign, but Lymer said the next step is acquiring a female head coach.

“We have a couple of the men’s First XI player helping out with some of the coaching roles for year one, but ideally we want to try to hand that over to a female,” Lymer said.

“There’s only a handful of clubs in the Barwon Women’s Cricket Competition (BWCC) that are coached by a female, but it’s important we have our side ran by a female as well.”

There are presently only three female coaches across the entire BWCC.

Bell Park Cricket Club’s official 50-year celebration is scheduled to take place on November 26.