WOMAN CRICKETER.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 September 1931, Page 13

WOMAN CRICKETER.

BOWLED W. G. GRACE. The woman who once bowled the famous Dr. W. G. Grace three times in 12 balls is now living at Witney, Oxfordshire (states the Daily Mail). She is Mrs. Herbert Smith, formerly Miss Jessie Lawton, sister of Mr. Bertie Lawton, the.former Derbyshire captain. She was only 18 when she performed the feat, at Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, 28 years ago. “Yes, I remembei the day well,’’ Mrs. Smith said recently. “WG. bet that I would not bowl him out' once in 12 balls, and he got more and more annoyed as I proceeded to bowl him out three times. I was captain of the Derwent Valley Ladies Cricket Club, one of the first women s cricket clubs in the country, and 1 was credited with a natural break, for which I had to thank my brother, who coached me. Right up to the beginning of the war 1 played cricket, and I frequently coach my two sone, one aged ’5, who is captain of his ‘prep.’ school eleven, and my 13-year-old boy, who is also a promising player. I should have like* my daughter to take the came interest,, but lier° game is tennis.” Mrs. Smith’s mother, Mrs. E. M. Lawton, who lives at Highgate, N., said; “The fact that my daughter was just a school-girl made ‘W.G.’ additionally angiy.