Girls Grades

The CJCA and Christchurch Metro Cricket Association (CMCA) along with club representatives, have developed a new pathway for all female only grades, through to Premier Cricket.

Girls can of course play in mixed, or girls only teams. This new pathway recognises the broad range of age and ability for each grade. Age and Stage considers the experience and range of abilities typical of a club’s girls only team. There are subtle differences between the grades to offer a suitable format for all abilities.

Confident younger skilled players may play ahead of their age whereas less experienced older players may also benefit from play in grade younger than their current school year.

Dispensations to play down must be registered with the CJCA prior to playing but players (and their guardians) playing up must accept the responsibility for any risk factors that arise from this.

Pathway through Junior, Youth and Women’s cricket

	Team Numbers	Ball	Equipment	Pitch Length	Grace Period	Game Length	Age Group
Division FIVE (new)	8	Club Weight Incrediball	Plastic or wooden bats / Gloves optional	14m Outfield Wickets	Pairs format	16 overs Pairs bat 4 overs	Years 3/4/5
Division FOUR (Super 8s)	8	Match Weight Incrediball	Wooden bats Minimum: Front pad, gloves and Helmet	16m Generally Artificials	Pairs format	20 Overs Pairs bat 5 overs	Years 5/6/7
Division THREE Incrediball or Hardball (Intermediate)	9	Match Weight Incrediball or 142g Hardball	Wooden bats Minimum: Pads, gloves and Helmet	18m Generally Artificials	6 Ball Grace Period	20 Overs	Years 7/8/9
Division TWO (new)	9	142g Hardball	Wooden bats Minimum: Pads, gloves and Helmet	18m Generally Artificials	3 Ball Grace Period	25 Overs	Years 8/9/10
Division ONE	9	142g Hardball		20m Full Length		30 Overs	Open age (Year 9+)
Social 8s	8	142g Hardball		20m Full Length		20 Overs	Open age (Year 9+)
Premiers	11			20m Full Length		Multiple formats	Open age (Year 9+)

Girls Extra playing opportunities

Pre- Season Training

The CJCA runs a Pre-season Skills Program to assist Girls to get into Cricket mode before the start of the season. There will be two formats of pre-season training, sessions will be over three days with a 1.5 hour program each day, three consecutive Sundays, or our popular 3-day holiday program.

The coaching team will work with individuals based on ability to ensure that either of the below programmes are delivered to suit the needs of the participant, so all degrees of current ability/experience are encouraged to participate.

In addition to Hardball work for older Girls there will be Incrediball work for lesser experienced girls within the sessions. The Pre-season Skills Program is also ideal for girls starting in our Girls only grades to get used to wearing gear.

Girls Pre-season training

Festivals

The CJCA runs a Spring Festival in November/December and a Summer Festival in February/March each season, as well as the CJCA Girls Invitational played over the January school break.

CJCA Girls festivals 2024-25

We strongly encourage all girls to play in these extra opportunities even if this is your first year of cricket. It is great fun; the girls get to meet and play with other girls from different teams and the games are generally close because we select even teams to participate.

If you have friends that play another sport on a Saturday and would like to play in the festival then encourage them to nominate themselves, it is also a great opportunity for girls that play in our school competitions to play extra cricket. Although the main emphasis is on raising the level of cricket and additional playing opportunities, further inter-districts playing opportunities are also organised from these festivals.

CJCA’s primary objective for these festivals is to provide all players with opportunities to further develop their skills in cricket. It is hoped that skills developed at these festivals will provide players with added confidence to regularly compete at a high standard in their respective age groups and so increase their levels of enjoyment and commitment.

Further playing opportunities

We strongly suggest that you play in these festivals in order to prepare to play in additional Festivals; such as CJCA Primary Girls Invitational Festival played in January each year.

Questions? Please free to contact our Girls Convenor on [email protected]

or for Junior Cricket (Year 8 or under) [email protected]

or for Youth or Adult Cricket (Year 9 or older) [email protected]