Action-packed week on the junior women's front

It has been an action-packed week on the women's cricket front with some fascinating results from Round Two of the State Insurance Cup, some shining performances from some up and coming players at various age group tournaments and a real success story from the small town of Eketahuna.

This week I have had the opportunity to attend a number of age group girls' tournaments in my role as Women's Development Officer for New Zealand Cricket.

The two age group tournaments I visited were held in Cambridge (Under- 14/Primary) and Auckland (U-17/Secondary school) and it was really exciting to see such positive, attacking cricket being played by our country's most promising youngsters.

The tournaments created quite a following amongst locals and I am sure those who turned out to watch the matches would have been impressed to see the young players sweeping, lofting for six, pushing into gaps for singles and pulling off outstanding catches in the field.

What also impressed was the standard of wicket-keeping at the tournaments with many of the keepers standing up to the medium pacers.

Whilst away I also paid a visit to the small township of Eketahuna to take part in a celebrity cricket match organised by the community to celebrate the success of the girls' cricket team in the National Primary Girls Competition "The MILO Shield".

Eketahuna school with a role of just 154 students entered a girls' team in this exciting competition and made it through a series of home and away clashes to win the final against Invercargill school Rosedale Intermediate.

The celebrity match/carnival day that I attended was simply brilliant and was a wonderful example of what can be achieved by a small community with huge spirit.

Those of you following the State Insurance Cup will be wondering what lies ahead this weekend in Round Three of the competition with State Central Districts, State Wellington, Canterbury and the State Otago Sparks in action.

Northern Districts after scoring a huge upset win over Auckland last week will take a beak during this round before meeting Canterbury and Otago in Round 4. Auckland also playing next in Round 4 will host State Wellington and State Central Districts as the competition sorts out the finalists for this years competition.

On a completely different front the Clear White Ferns will be getting together on February 15th for the prestigious Halberg Awards. The side are finalists in the Team of The Year Award and we are all looking forward to catching up again to relive some of the moments of our World Cup campaign.