CRICKET FOR WOMEN

Taranaki Daily News, 6 December 1935, Page 10

CRICKET FOR WOMEN

IDEAL SPORT IN SUMMER CLUB AT NEW PLYMOUTH So far as it goes women’s. cricket at New Plymouth is conducted on good basis. But it does not go far enough. Few have the habit of playing after work. They prefer to sit at home and wait until 'it is time to attend the pictures or visit friends. With the taste of real summer weather this week the question of women’s sport becomes more important. Tennis to some girls is too strenuous a pastime after a hard day’s work: a few closely fought sets of singles sends them to bed exhausted, That is well enough at the week-end when a pleasant exhaustion is not unwelcome, but it is a different thing during the week. Swimming always has hosts of devotees who make it either a vigorous or an extremely leisurely recreation. Yet some girls like more than one sport in summer. They enjoy the easy friendliness that makes basketball or hockey or golf doubly attractive and they miss that atmosphere in their summer activities.-

For these girls cricket is the thing. It has the advantages of being inexpensive and not too strenuous; and it gies plenty of opportunities for sociability. Well managed it never becomes dull. Women players should not be set for hours dozing in deep field with a ball never coming their way. They have not the scientific outlook that men have on the game and for that reason i they should bej given more variety in | fielding, batting! and bowling. That they are not slow to succumb to the lure of cricket is shown by the increasing number taking up the game. The visit of the English women’s team early in the year proved how proficient they may become. At present there is one club only at New Plymouth catering for women cricketers. The Y.W.C.A. club will’open, on Tuesday and will continue throughout the summer with play on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is conducted on excellent. lines, valuable coaching being given by Mr. P. Shepherd. The players are allowed generally about ten-minute spells with the bat and spend the rest of the time at practices either fielding or being coached in bowling. The onlytrouble is that the club is not so well equipped as it might be. "Members are this season canvassing men’s clubs for donations from old stock. Last year the club played on the Central school ground and on Western Park. Whether these areas will be used this season has not been decided. One drawback to the progress of the Y.W.C.A. club has been the difficulty of getting outside matches. Miss 0. J. Taylor at the girls’ high school has trained competent teams which would be fine opponents, but the school holidays render early fixtures impossible. Probably efforts will be made this year to overcome the obstacle. The Y.W.C.A. club is also contemplating approaching primary school teachers to arrange matches with boys’ teams; a junior boys’ high school team may be challenged.

In other centres in New Zealand it is usual for the female, staff of certain business firms to organise games be-

tween themselves and against any existing clubs. It is a pity that this practice is not extended to New Plymouth. The material and the enthusiasm is there but it lacks leadership. One doubt is peculiar to women cricketers. What to wear? The best scheme is to follow the men and don shirts and white flannel slacks. Shorts are cool and -allow even more freedom of movement than long trousers, but remember that when you strap on those pads you are just as likely to take a generous amount of tender flesh through the buckle. There are experiences less painful. The English women cricketers played in white frocks with stockings. It. is a matter of opinion but many thought they looked unkempt and ruffled on the field. The reassuring adequacy of long trousers appeals to an increasing number of girls.

The British professional ffol&ra’ Xjnfltr Cup team did not impress in America. It was soundly defeated in the cup fixture and in the subsequent open tournaments was never in the picture. The Americans are still wondering how Alfred Perry came to head off Lawso® Little in the British Open. On the play of the pair in the States Little was-« day’s march ahead of him.