Ceylon Women v England Women, 1st November 1948

The following was written for the Taking the Field blog. Taking the Field is a project seeking to tell the stories of grassroots cricket in both the UK and Sri Lanka through the words of the clubs themselves. See more here: http://www.takingthefield.com


Today the Sri Lankan women's team receives excellent support from the government, but back in 1948 women's cricket in the country was practically non-existent. Despite this, the British Women's Cricket Association (WCA), while on their way, by boat, to play in official Test matches in Australia and New Zealand in 1948/9, made the decision to break their journey in Colombo, and play a women's team at the Colombo Cricket Club Ground.

During my research into the history of the women's game in the UK, I uncovered a tour diary from the tour of Australia and New Zealand (the only other countries where the women's teams had Test status, at the time). This was written by the England manager, Netta Rheinberg, and contains her private reflections on all aspects of the tour.

Rheinberg reveals that while en route to Colombo, she received a telegram stating that the Ceylon cricketing authorities had decided to put forward a men's team to play the WCA. She hastily responded that “our WCA rules forbid our playing officially against men” - something which had been the case ever since the WCA's formation in 1926. It appears, then, that in the intervening weeks a female team had to be thrown together from scratch. According to Rheinberg, the Ceylon team was made of up five European and six Sinhalese women, some of whom were schoolgirls, most of whom had picked up a cricket bat for the first time only six weeks previously. The captain was a European women – Mrs Turner – who Rheinberg knew as “the sister of Molly Leachman, who plays for Kent”.

Prior to the match, “various members of the Ceylon cricketing fraternity” took the English team sightseeing. Rheinberg's intial impressions of the island were of

lovely women in bright saris – men wearing sarongs, rickshaw boys...bullock carts...roadside bazaars selling huge bunches of bananas...mixed with marvellous American cars...Europeans in white suits, buses straight from London, and English road signs.

This was the Ceylon of 1948, newly-independent but full of colonial leftovers.

The match was not a long one. England made 168-7 dec. in 38.3 overs, with Molly Hide, England's captain and probably the best batsman of her generation, making a century. Ceylon's innings followed; they were all out for 51 in just 92 minutes. Their top scorer was “E Fernando”, one of the Sinhalese players, who made 22 runs, outperforming not just the rest of her team but the majority of the England players as well. Unfortunately little is currently known about her.

The match clearly attracted a great deal of local interest. The crowd was 8,000 strong and according to Rheinberg, “one of the most appreciative ones I've ever come across. Absolutely everything one did was watched and applauded or the reverse!” At the end of the match her anxiety about Ceylon's newly-independent status can be perceived, however. “At the end of the game”, she wrote, “the crowd rushed on to the pitch and mobbed us! I was quite anxious as I watched a sea of brown faces approaching and wondered whether to give the order to 'beat' it.”

After the match, the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in Ceylon presented the England players with “a silver chip bearing an elephant and the crest of the Ceylon Cricket Board”. This was followed by a party at the Ceylon Cricket Club, before the English team left to continue their sea voyage to Australia.

Members of the British armed forces – who would remain in Ceylon until 1956 – were also watching the match, and shook hands with the English players after the game, saying the English women “had started to put English cricket back on the map”. Perhaps, though, its most important legacy was to begin to put Colombo – and Sri Lankan – women's cricket on the map. One hopes that this hastily-composed team of women continued to play the game long after England's women left the island.


(The scorecard of the above-mentioned match can be found here: http://cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Scorecards/136/136849.html )

Woman's Hour

Yesterday morning I appeared on Radio 4's Woman's Hour in a feature about the history of women's cricket. This was sparked off by me getting in touch with the programme regarding the latest Archers storyline, which suggests:

a) There are still people out there (Alistair Lloyd in this case) who find the idea of women playing cricket surprising.

b) Women/girls may be able to practice with men, but they should never be able to play in matches with men (this appears to be the viewpoint of the new Ambridge cricket coach).

The messages I wanted to get across in the interview were that given the long history of women playing cricket in this country (dating back to at least 1745), the first viewpoint is utterly outdated, and that given the massive raising of standards since the Women's Cricket Association was formed in 1926, the idea that no woman would ever be able to reach the standard required for a men's side is utterly ridiculous.

See if I succeeded here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/whnews (podcast for 13th April)


I was incredibly nervous as this was my first experience of trying to communicate my research to the media, and it was also live - no second chances!

However, in retrospect and now that it's all over, I can safely say that it was an amazing experience. I had a long conversation with one of the show's researchers the day before going on air, and then yesterday morning found myself in a tiny studio in London surrounded by a ton of technical equipment and scared to touch anything!

As I was initially alone in the studio, I used the opportunity to take some sneaky photos of my surroundings (see above). Later I was joined by the lady who was on air right after I was, talking about red nail varnish (it's certainly an eclectic show!) We were both listening to the whole show through headphones and about 15 minutes in there was a soundcheck from Salford, so I simultaneously had Woman's Hour playing and the sound engineer speaking into my headphones...a little bit disorienting!

Then Jenni Murray started interviewing me and I was suddenly, despite not being able to see her, quite starstruck! Given that I listen to Woman's Hour most days it was a very strange and surreal experience.

Afterwards, when I came out of the studio, I had that shaky feeling you get after an incredibly nerve-racking experience, where it's difficult to walk effectively.


Communicating with the media about academic research makes giving a paper at an academic conference feel like child's play. But I think it's an incredibly important part of what we as academics should be doing. I'm so grateful that, even though I didn't perform perfectly, and even though I've been outed on national radio as someone who listens to The Archers, so many more people will now be aware of the long history of women's cricket in this country, and some of the issues surrounding this. I don't want my eventual PhD thesis to sit on the shelf, gathering dust in a musty library somewhere. I plan to seize the opportunities, like yesterday's, which will enable me to avoid this. Other academics should be doing the same.


(Many are. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01bf42n as an excellent example.)

All Rounders

Suzie Bates, an all-rounder, was last month appointed New Zealand women's captain. She also represented New Zealand at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, at basketball, which struck me as interesting. As she said in an interview with the New Zealand Herald recently:

I've been balancing the two [sports] for the last eight years and I've been very fortunate to be able to have done both. Obviously captaining New Zealand in cricket is something that is not easy to turn down and it does mean that basketball's in the backseat but I still love both games and, at the moment, the cricket's at the forefront and I'm still committed to that. But it doesn't mean basketball won't still get a chance later down the track.

(See http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10773188)


As women's cricket becomes increasingly professionalised, and therefore more time-consuming, it becomes harder for women like Bates to develop their talent in multiple sports. This is a choice which men have been having to make themselves for many years - it's reasonably well-known, for example, that Phil Neville played cricket with Andrew Flintoff in his younger days, before making the choice to turn professional at football.

I've found it interesting to note that girls and women who have been talented at cricket have often also been interested in other sports. The Women's Cricket Association itself was founded in 1926 by a group of female hockey players who apparently wanted a team game to play in the summer (as an alternative to tennis). And Women's Cricket magazine is littered with references to alternative leisure interests, with players often listing sports such as table tennis, lacrosse, golf, tennis and of course hockey, under their "Interests". In 1935, for example, Colwall CC reported that: “We have six hockey goalkeepers in our club, can anyone else beat that?"

It's probably not only recently that players like Bates have had to make the difficult choice between sports. Pollard herself never played cricket for England, though she was a spectacular hockey player and represented her country at that level. Perhaps too much time devoted to one sport was a problem even back then.

It does seem that this cross-over of interest created a female sporting community in which players were interested in and celebrated not merely their own achievements, but those of their fellow sportswomen. A 1948 editorial of Women's Cricket suggested that

cricket players will want to congratulate the England Womens' Hockey XI on their great achievement of 1947-8 [in which the team had beaten Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the USA, Denmark and Holland].

As women's cricket, and other women's sports, become more professionalised, inevitably much of this sense of a unified cross-sporting community is lost. Just one of the trade-offs for the access to resources and finance that professionalisation provides.

Lord's

Great result in the Test match today. I am exceptionally impressed with England as a team, and an excellent result for test cricket generally, too.

I was at Lords on Day 1, Thursday, with my Dad, sporting my England women's shirt and an umbrella, and eating my sausage and egg roll with relish. I love Lord's, just being there, even if it chucks it down with rain, as it did from about 4pm. It's the atmosphere; probably something to do with the historian lurking within me feeding off the many years of history contained at this very special ground.

Perhaps because I am now starting to analyse things more often with my 'feminist sports historian' hat, however, something did strike me rather forcefully. This was that, at a rough ratio, men outnumbered women by something like 10 to 1 in the crowd. In my section of the crowd, I appeared to be the only female present aged under thirty-five.

I wonder if this is a typical ratio at cricket matches in England. Or is it something to do with Lord's, a ground which did not allow women to play there until 1976; home of the MCC, a club that only voted to admit female members in 1998? (A ground I also love, and can't understand why anyone else would NOT love, but hey, it's worth asking the question...)

I'd be very interested in statistical data on this, if it's available; I'm sure it would bring out some of the points in my wider research about cricketing spaces being defined as masculine spaces. It strikes me that this is probably the case for many other sports as well - in particular I can't see it NOT being true for football, I'll be honest.

It does seem that if we're trying to make some kind of progress for sportswomen, for female cricketers, for women in society generally, this is a really central issue. Sports grounds shouldn't remain as some kind of pocket of masculinity, but we should be seeking to actively redefine them as gender-neutral spaces and encouraging women to attend cricket (etc) matches. ESPECIALLY when what's being played is the kind of cricket we saw today, yesterday and the day before which couldn't possibly fail to hold anyone's attention, male, female or any other category you care to mention.

Women's Quadrangular Series

A (belated) congratulations to England for their excellent performance in the NatWest Women's Quadrangular Series, triumphing in the final by 34 runs.

Unsurprisingly it was England and Australia, the top-ranked international teams, who made it to the final.

Despite the fact that their match just a few days before at the home of cricket had been won by Australia, the final on July 7th enabled England's team to show off the all-round talent of their current squad. Highlights were Lydia Greenway's 58, Arran Brindle's 27 from 18 balls and Katherine Brunt's career-best 5 for 18.

To read more, see http://www.espncricinfo.com/women/content/story/522258.html

Overall a positive summer for England women, though a couple of negatives to note:
1) The lack of press coverage, despite England's success. Sky also seems to have only broadcast the T20 series.
2) Where the final was played, ie Wormsley, in Staffordshire. If you're asking 'where?' you won't be alone.

This is an intriguing news story that I saw on BBC news a few days ago:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13746703

The majority of the Sri Lanka women's cricket squad have signed up for jobs in the armed services.
The move comes after attempts by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to find a sponsor for the women's team have failed so far to create much interest.

The attempts made by the English women's governing body until 1998, the Women's Cricket Association, to attract commercial sponsorship, could probably fill a book in themselves, but I have yet to research this aspect of the sport's history in detail. This can wait for another blog post, perhaps. Suffice it to say that women's sport has always been and is still chronically underfunded and undersponsored (although the situation has improved in Britain in recent years).

The other aspect of this news story that I find interesting is the way a career in the army is portrayed as highly compatible with playing cricket: the players, according to the BBC correspondent, "can hone their sporting skills while in uniform."

I spent part of last year researching the history of women's sport in the British army for my Master's dissertation. Specifically I looked at the Second World War, and the impact this had on opportunities for women to participate in sport (and cricket specifically).

The question posed was what effect total war might have had on the 'masculine' domain of sport. Relating to the above news story, I particularly considered the entrance of 445,000 women into the auxiliary armed forces between 1939 and 1945. In this period, the authorities recognised the value of sport for morale purposes and established a welfare organisation, with welfare officers securing equipment and grounds to enable women to play sports and games, as well as organising compulsory Physical Training (PT) for recruits. The attitude that a career in the army is compatible with the playing of sport evidenly has a long history.

One striking trend was the frequency with which mixed sport - previously frowned upon in British society - took place where men and women were stationed together. For example, Women's Cricket reported after the war that some of the WCA's talented players were selected to play in the predominantly male Officers v Sergeants cricket matches.

Conservative attitudes towards female athleticism remained in place. The Treasury would not budget for additional PT kit for women, refusing to believe that they would be participating in strenuous enough activities to require this. Additionally, PT was specially adapted to women and mainly involved 'light' gymnastic movements. It was specified that women should not be able to compete in violent sports such as tug-of-war.

Nonetheless, a time of total war coupled with the entrance of women into the armed forces did expand the sporting opportunities available to a number of females, and for a time at least broke down some gender boundaries.

To bring this back to the news story I started this blog entry by quoting from, it does seem as though we might greet the news of female cricketers joining the Sri Lankan Army as a positive development, breaking down the traditional association between masculinity, sport and war. On the other hand it seems clear to me that both these arenas are still perceived as 'masculine' and that female involvement, even in a time of total war as described above, is unable to permanently break down these associations to any great extent.

Sorry to have neglected to post for awhile - one of the downsides to being a part-time PhD student is having to work 3 jobs from time to time to foot the bills. I'm hoping to post a bit more frequently from now on!


It was good to see on cricinfo recently a bit of a preview of the Women's Quadrangular Tournament being held in England this summer between England, Australia, New Zealand and India (the 4 best women's sides in the world) - http://www.espncricinfo.com/women/content/story/515794.html

Nice to see the women's game getting a bit of coverage, but, as ever, we'll have to see what happens once the tournament actually begins. After the results in Australia, I think we can look forward to an interesting summer of women's cricket.

Anyway, what really inspired this blog post was the announcement that Arran Brindle is back in the England side, having announced in 2006 that

I have decided to take an extended break from competing at the highest level for personal reasons, and to spend more time with my family while also looking to develop my career outside of cricket.

According to her ECB player profile, this really meant time off to start a family of her own. For Brindle, it appeared to be a choice (albeit temporary) between children and cricket. The research I have done to date reveals striking continuities between the difficulties faced by Brindle and her female ancestors. It has certainly never been easy for women to juggle cricket and marriage.

Eric Morecambe quipped in the foreword to Rachael Heyhoe-Flint's 1978 autobiography that

she is in such demand that she rarely eats at home. In fact, her lonely husband has eaten so many frozen dinners that he's been treated for a chilblained stomach and has had a gas heater fitted in his igloo.

RHF goes on to claim that she discounted marriage for years,

chiefly on the grounds that it would have been unfair to my husband. I did not consider giving up cricket and hockey at an early age and settling down to mothering and housewifery. I knew it would take a man of extraordinary tolerance, understanding and – preferably – a sporting background of his own, to put up with my constant departures to various corners of the globe.

Presumably she would have endorsed the following advice, targeted at the young female cricketer, published in the August 1966 edition of Women's Cricket journal:

To all those girls who, through fear of having to give up cricket have turned down no end of marriage proposals, here are a few words of advice from someone who risked it:
Arrange your wedding for just after the cricket season has finished. Wait on him hand and foot all through the early winter months, gradually easing up on the servant act after Christmas and constantly stressing how satisfying cooking and housework can be. If he is a keen footballer, encourage it; if not, make him take it up.
By the time March arrives he should be helping out a bit in the home and able to cook a simple meal...
April arrives with cricket practice one night a week and a match at the weekend. He should by now be sufficiently tired of you to enjoy one night a week out with the boys, and as for that match at the weekend his conscience is only too glad to be free of that guilty feeling it had all through the football season.

Naturally it has been even trickier for players to balance motherhood with cricket. A letter to the editors of Women's Cricket in May 1963 pleaded them for help:

how does one manage to resume playing and look after one's charge?...how will opponents and team-mates relish a pram appearing in their midst or what will occur when infant howls as mother bats? Is this a time for co-operation by all or is it, as so many of my friends tell me, time for my personal permanent departure...

I think many club cricketers today would recognise this dilemma.

In the less distant past the desire to devote time to motherhood has contributed to the premature end of some cricketing careers. Karen Smithies, England captain during the 1993 World Cup victory, retired in 2000, but 3 years previously had admitted she was considering retirement because:

I'm married, maybe I want a family soon, and [my husband's] not a cricket man...I think he's getting to the end of his tether.

All this is understandable when you consider the sacrifices that have always been and are still required to be a successful international cricketer: often away for months at a time and undergoing long hours of training, without even the financial reward that can prove such an incentive to male professionals.

One thing I have, however, found intriguing is that even pre-second wave feminism, many of these women were forceful enough to make their own choices about how to spend their leisure time. Given what social historians claim about married life in the 1950s, it is really rather extraordinary to read the following poem in a women's journal:

'The Married Woman's Apology to her husband'

Tell me not John, I am so strange
That from the scullery
Of our good home and quiet life
To bowl and bat I fly.
True, a new venture now I chase,
The Aussies must be beat;
And with a firmer grip I brace
My bat, my nerves, my feet.
Yet this desertion from my hearth
Which you, I know, deplore -
I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not cricket more.

(Women's Cricket, May 1951)

It certainly seems that for married female cricketers, two loves have always had to fight for precedence. I have been encouraged in my research, however, by the countless examples of husbands encouraging wives (and daughters) to take up the game, coaching them, and never seeming to mind their occasional relegation to second-place priority.