TITTLE-TATTLE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 11 September 1937, Page 5

TITTLE-TATTLE

li.v ' TATTI.KK."

WOMEN’S CRICKET NOT NEW 111 increasing numbers, women are. Iu■ j day |>l;i.vinjj cricket. ss hi im ieasing mini- [ lx*l'n tllill illc playing ill IUT gallics which j ill one 1 1 ini' were regarded as ihr prcrngoj Li \ill im'ii. And nnt. »• \ rii an ecu brim is i.list'd in astonishment. \\r sir supliis- ! m nlnl. lisnlriii'd link, surpiised nnl si j ;in\ 11 1 iii” ulinli model n w itiiiiiit duns, ui I attempts lu du. 'll'! uunld nut mu gramlI inuiliiT.s Inivc opened tlicii ryes wide, !shrugged tlirir shoulders, snd ullured ' such r.\pressiuns ss "]'suyh ;" j| the! .Vi nng women of tlu-ir dsy had diseardi"l li.'i t lung tlocks in I'unoui ul 1 1 1 ii very i abbreviated shorts slid llin oil i It less onepiece -nils of inudcm hstliing belles!) I'roiii one extreme lo llic oilier. Vel the' world jogs on, snd inquisitive ins ii ; scarcely looks round ss s licvy of sea- j side snii-bstlicrs laughingly pass him on : llit) ‘'[110111" ! I he ides ol many people that women s cricket is ail "invention of yesterday, liven colliding "yesterday" by'a decade o" two derscius ul years, is unfounded. I here were women cricketers 1U) years ago. Writing in "M.l .1 . —-a good, must illvpi'eslilig, and s very cheap book published by the "Times ’ to mark the history ul the Maryiebune l ticket Club, which is cricket's governing body—-Miss Marjorie I’ollard, who has played cricket for England against Australia, re- i marks:— i

"There is plenty of evidence that, i ''■omen Inm; played cricket for many, years, lint, the game had never been organised, and, judging by some re- ] polls, the mulches were spectacles and j Iresh subjects on which to wager even j | as much as dot) guineas. The tirst real 1 evidence that t can linil—and that is j only a picture—is dated 177 b, in which i year .Mm Collet published Ins famous i Miss Wicket and Miss Trigger.” it showc two ladies overwhelmingly dressed for their sports of cricket and shooting. Miss Trigger, with her foot firmly planted on a paper bearing the word Tiliimiiiuucy,' while surrounded by gun dogs, holds alolT a brace of what appear to be pheasants. She Hasps lirmly a gun. Miss Wicket leans a little coyly, but not self-conscious-ly, upon a cricket-bat, shaped like the ; Irish burly club of to-day, She, too, j "ears a large tiptilted, bewitching hat. Behind her are the two twig wickets with the cross-piece of the period. That was in 1776.” * * * * But has not Miss Bollard heard or read [ of a women's cricket match played in ! August, 17/s —a year earlier than the! rear she mentions in her t|Uotcd para-I gtaph? It was a match between six women married and six women unmarried, lit 1792 eleven young women of Bother- | by, in Leicestershire, were opposed by j eleven from the neighbouring village of ! Iloby. The Rotherby team won after j some of ils members lia ddisplayed "as- j touisluug feats of activity.” Following, there was, at Batson s Green, a match be- j tween married and unmarried elevens, for .

tin: stake of .CIO and a hot supper. There is, too, a record of a women's mutch in London, not in summer, but on oid October! Miss Bollard quotes this paragraph, which appeared in the ".News” :

“CRICKET -MATCH EXTRAORDINARY On Wednesday last a singular cricket match commenced at Ball’s Pond, Newington. The players on each side were twenty-two women; eleven Hampshire against eleven Surrey. The match was made between two noblemen of the respective counties for five hundred guineas a side. The performers in this singular contest were of all ages and sizes, from M years upwards to -10, and the different paitics were distinguished by Coloured ribbons—Royal purple for Hampshire; orange and blue fur Surrey. The weather, being favourable on Wednesday, some very excellent play and much skill was displayed; but the palm of that day was borne by a Hampshire lass, who made a 41 innings before site was thrown out; The general opinion is that Hampshire will gain the victory.’’ * ft ft ft When Queen Victoria occupied the throne young women lived somewhat subdued, restrained lives, and female | ''sports” were comparatively few. There I were, doubtless, villages in which women, | like young men, disported themselves |on the village green, to play what was i termed "Bat and Ball,” hut of organised ! cricket lor women there was none until towards the end of the nineteenth century. In 11187 there was started, at Ni, Appleton, in Yorkshire, a club—named i the »\\ bite Heather Club—which was des- | lined lo be the first to organise \w ! cricket. In August, IdBB, the lirst match was played at Nun Apleton by tennis captained respectively by Lady Milner and [Miss Hgerton. Nun Apleton won by four i wickets, probably because Lady Nevill | bowled what were, characterised as “uu- | deniable chisselers” ! ft ft ft ft It is interesting, by the way, to note ! that, as Miss Didsdalc, the lady who was I | until recently known as Mrs Manley Baldwin (wife of the ex-l’reiuicr), and is i now Countess Baldwin, joined the White I j Heather Club in 1891. ft ft ft ft In the "ninetie.-i” of last century, there I ! was what Miss Bollard terms a "i • tinct feeling” lor cricket among the conn. | i try s women. By reason of this, in 1892. j there was formed the English Cricket arid A\letie Association, Ltd., to prove that j cricket as a game for women was a possibility. Lilly white's "Cricketers’ Annual” for 1892 announced that, “with the object of proving the suitability of the national game as a pastime lor the fair sex in preference to lawn tennis and i other less scientific games, ’ the assucia- | lion had “organised Two Complete Xl’sl of Female ('layers under the title “The ; Original English Lady Cricketers.’ " The ’ women were ‘'elegantly and appropriate- j 1./ attired, and a Notu Bene toid us: "Every eliorl is made lo keep this organ- I isatiori in every respect select and refill- j eii. A malroii accompanies each eleven to all engagements.’’ I think that wc are t justified in assuming that 10-day's wo I men s cricket teams are not accompanied ! by a matron or oilier chaperone! Cricket is the most delightful of na tional games—to play as to watch. It has! been well said: “Doubtless Heaven might lia\e made a better berry than the strawberry, but certainly Heaven never did.” In the same way it may lie written: 'Doubtless uiaii might have invented a heller game Mian cricket, but certainly (nan inner did.” I’layers and spectators aiike will agree with me. *‘o V * llow did cricket originate? No one;

knows. There is an impression that cricket is hut a development of the old sport known as stool hail, and it has been conjectured that the game was known to Homer, who says that Nauricaa played at ball with her maidens—a belief which has been versified thus ; l 'Na usieaa With oilier virgins did at stool-ball play, Their shoulder-reaching head-lives laying by, Nausicaa, with her wrists of ivory, The liking stroke struck!”