GIRLS AT THE WICKETS

Southland Times, Issue 20897, 5 October 1929, Page 8

GIRLS AT THE WICKETS

OLD DAYS COMING BACK. HISTORIC DAY FOR BOWLING. A feature of modern sport in England is the number of cricket clubs for girls which have come into existence. They have their leagues and tournaments and friendly matches as men have, and the players are thought revolutionary. Competitions of this sort are new, but cricket for women is not. Women have played the game from time to time for over a century. In the old days matches for prizes betw’een women were not uncommon though the records suggest that the play must have been as farcical as that in the “Muggleton v. Dingley Dell" match which Dickens amusingly describes in the Pickwick Papers. Years ago, before the war, there must have been a considerable body of feminine talent in cricket, for two teams of Englishwomen toured the country playing cricket matches in public. The parents of the girls who are now playing the game will perhaps remember them. On the field they wore costumes of thin cream serge bordered with blue; sailor blouses and skirts of the length now common for walking; stout tennis shoes; and, of course, pads for the “batsmen" and wicket keepers. These women played really capital cricket. They batted correctly and bowled over-arm, and the fielders astonished men critics by throwing with accuracy and strength. It was expected that the game would become generally popular among women as the result of these exhibitions, but the teams passed out of existence and nothing happened. Woman’s part in cricket, however, is more important than the rise and dissolution of two touring elevens. One girl completely altered the game. She was the sister of a number of cricketing brothers, who all played cricket at home. They used to get her out to field for them and they made her bowl. It is a way brothers have, It was the time when skirts were long and stiffened by wide hoops of whalebone; the time, also, of bowling underhand. The girl found it extremely difficult to deliver the ball, as her hand was impeded by the hoops of her bulging skirt. So, instead of bowling underhand, she raised her hand to the level of her shoulder and bowled roundarm. At first her brothers laughed, then they grumbled, for the young minx was hitting their wickets. Thereupon they tried the round-arm delivery and found that they could bowl opponents out the same way.

The brothers introduced the new method into matches, and caused consternation among opposing batsmen. From that family game round-arm bowling spread from club to club, and club players took thrf* Style with them when they reached county rank. From round-arm bowling over-arm bowling was gradually evolved and the style has reached every ground in the world where cricket is played; all dating back to the trick perfected by an-original girl pitching, up balls to her brothers in an English garden.