KIERAN Peters, the Pathway coach and women and girls Lead at Somerset CCC. has just ended his second full season in the post

Reflecting on the summer of 2024 Kieran said: “It has been another very enjoyable season with lots of really good cricket being played throughout and hopefully lots of learnings and development.

“Across all the age groups there have been lots of positives that we can take away and I’m really excited now to be transitioning back into the winter programme.

“We have seen a significant increase in the numbers across the last year and there will be a further increase again into this year, which has meant that we have been able to facilitate more cricket across the whole pathway.

“The increased numbers has enabled us to introduce our Wyvern Squads at Under 13s and Under 16s which has meant that it has created more depth within the pathway and more opportunity for players.”

Kieran went on: “As we transition into this next year, we are going to be introducing an Under 12 squad as well, which means we will have age group teams at Under 11, 12, 13, 15 and 18s.

“This next year we will have more players in our Under 11s and Under 12s than we had in the whole pathway when I first started, so there has been quite a big change around how things operate, since I first started just over two years ago.

“The Under 18s girls have done really well in 2024 and it’s felt like a two-year project for this age group because in 2023 it was a very young squad and it’s great to see those players continue to develop over the two years.

“Last year was a really tough year but, in the winter, they have continued to work really hard and there has been lots of good learnings as a group and what that meant is that they have come back and competed well on the field.

“They got through to the semi-final in the national 50 over knock out and then finished third in the national T20 competition, so in terms of outcome they have had a really good year and been an awesome group to be a part of.

“This year we will lose some players who are now too old, but we have also got lots who are going to continue be part of the squad and some good U15s moving up as well.”

“These are exciting times for girls cricket and as we transition into this winter this is the start of Somerset being a Tier One side. We are all looking forward