The Orange Junior Cricket Association are looking to foster the women’s cricket champions of the future with the launch of a new Under 13s Girls Cricket Competition.

The nine-a-side competition will be made up of five teams — Orange City, Cavaliers, Cyms, Centrals, and Kinross — and will be played under the Junior Cricket 2 format.

“We are really trying hard to get an under 13s girls comp happening,” said Orange Junior Cricket Association President Jo Hunter.

“What we have found is that we have quite a few girls playing the Woolworths Blast Cricket, but then it is hard for them to transition straight into playing with the older boys… so we are really trying to get that critical mass, where girls are playing against other girls and I guess it will be a little more supportive for them to be able to develop their skills at their own pace.”

The competition will kick off in Term Four and run for just ten weeks.

“It is just a bit of a teaser, so it is not a massive investment in time,” said Jo. “It’s going to be Tuesday afternoons, winner decided by Christmas and then in the New Year anyone that wants to train on we will be running some extra coaching programs.”

A girl’s cricket competition already exists in Bathurst and Dubbo is also working to establish their own Under 13s girls competition this season.

“For the first time this year there is actually a NSW Under 13s country carnival, so there is a real pathway now for girls in this age group,” said Jo.

“What we want to do with this competition is get at least 36 girls playing and then we can pick an Orange Under 13s rep team and they will play Bathurst and Dubbo and then a Western Under 13s team will be picked to play in the Country Championships. So there is a really great avenue for these girls. We have had lots of success with female cricketers from this region and we want to make sure that continues.”

Any girls interested in signing up for the competition can simply go to playcricket.com.au, put in the postcode and select one of the five local clubs.