Polly Starkie interviews Lou Walker

Lou Walker, who oversees women’s cricket at Crowthorne & Crown Wood CC, talks to Polly Starkie about her involvement in the sport, the club’s women’s teams and their bespoke Lacuna kits.

Crowthorne & Crown Wood CC are setting the standards for women and girl’s club cricket across Berkshire, breaking down participation barriers and developing a thriving women’s cricket set up. Polly Starkie spoke to Lou Walker who oversees women’s cricket at the club about her involvement in the sport, Crowthorne & Crown Wood’s teams and their bespoke Lacuna kits.

Lou started playing cricket after being on the sidelines watching her husband play for a number of years. In her words ‘I saw him play and thought, how hard can it be?’ Fast forward three years and Lou has overseen and proactively driven participation among women and girls at the club.

Tell me about women’s cricket at Crowthorne & Crown Wood CC

I’m really proud that Crowthorne & Crown Wood CC is an inclusive club. We’ve obviously got the women’s section, we’ve got a really massive youth section and we’ve got quite a few men’s teams. The good thing about it is that any woman or girl can play on the men’s teams, the doors are open.

The beauty of it is that we now have families playing on a Saturday and Sunday so you get mum, dad, daughter, son all on the team sheet. We wanted to keep our girls in the sport because they were going to get aged out of youth cricket, so I said that they can come and join the women’s section. I did a count up last night, I think I’ve got 45 in my section now. I had a really good recruitment campaign over the winter and we’ve picked up some really good players, so I’m chuffed!

Recruiting players can be a challenge for clubs, how have you managed to grow such a huge women’s section?

Social media and communication are really important because it’s a massive platform for everyone. Fair play to the ECB for putting on tournaments like the Hundred and our England women’s team as well, it’s all a showcase of why it’s great for women to play sport.
We have a really good Friday night vibe where we have barbecues and the bar’s open and everyone’s training, so sometimes you see a mum sat there and I say ‘I’m going to get you in the end, you’re going to end up playing cricket’. It’s a bit of a standard joke but they’re going to want to join us and that’s what generally happened.

We’ve got a nice club, the whole ethos of the club is great so I think if you’ve got those things in place, it’s a good grounding to keep people interested. The progress of the squad has been amazing because of their match day experiences. I think there’s only a certain amount you can do when you’re just training, training’s great training to hone in those skills, however, match day experience is the key.

What made you decide to work with Lacuna and create bespoke kits?

Cricket trousers that you get from a retailer don’t necessarily fit a woman. We come in all different shapes and sizes – I’ve got legs for days, I’m really tall, but I’m really slim. That is the issue that we had with our supplier. We tried and tested what we had but Lacuna’s trousers fit, they work, they feel comfortable, they’re durable and they look smart and I think that’s really important.

If something doesn’t fit, it distracts you from your game. Even if I’m in nets and I’ve got the wrong leggings on for instance, I’m not bowling well because your brain is automatically thinking “my leggings don’t fit well or I’m going to have to pull them up”. You are distracted from the sport so having kit that that fits you is very, very important.

It was really important to me that the women and the girls are comfortable in the kit that they’re wearing. Don’t get me started on the hoodie! I’m so in love with the hoodie that I could wear the hoodie all the time. They’re so comfortable, they’re durable, they look lovely, they’ve been made bespoke to us as well. Lacuna have cleverly made our hoodies look a lot different to anybody else’s. From another supplier, you’re not going to get that level of service because I worked with Leigh and we created what we thought would work together. It wasn’t “you will have this”, it was “what would you like?” That makes such a difference when it comes to your kit!

The women absolutely love it, they love their kit. My relationship with Lacuna is just pure love and the fact that my squad are happy just makes me love them even more because despite the amount of effort it takes to run a squad, if they’re happy, I’m happy and Lacuna definitely do that: comfort, style, flair, it’s all there in abundance.

What is it like to work with Lacuna?

Leigh’s attention to detail is absolutely ridiculous! She came here to my house, bearing in mind I’m in Berkshire and she lives in London. We sat and discussed what would work, what would be suitable, what our needs were. I tried the actual garments, feeling the quality of it, that experience with Lacuna I would say is royalty! It’s gold star, in fact, let’s go beyond, what’s the next precious metal because it is so brilliant, so unique.

My praise is around the whole journey that I’ve had with Lacuna, even now because we’re progressing every year with Lacuna. Now it’s like…… Leigh, Katy, we need this, can we have that? They always come up with ideas, we got shorts for our recent tour, they came down to our nets to fit the girls out and it’s just so brilliant, I can’t sing their praises enough.

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