Cricket Witness No 4 - Women at the WIcket

103 Separate but Equal: Feminism Divides the Game Rhondda’s feminist weekly, Time and Tide . 31 For Pollard, women’s cricket was simply ‘different’ to men’s and had ‘other’ standards that, while not directly comparable, were just as attractive and exciting. They played ‘real cricket’ with their own unique ‘physiques, temperaments and wishes’, even if most female players could not ‘hit the ball out of the ground.’ When explaining Australia’s poor batting performance during the first test match at Brisbane in 1934, Pollard put it down to ‘nerves – so feminine a trait.’ It was clear cricketers were not trying to parrot men. What women lacked in strength they combatted with ‘grace’, ‘skill’, ‘alertness’, and ‘refined’ batting: distinctive feminine attributes that were complemented by the sport. 32 As many saw feminism as a threat to femininity, emphasising traits traditionally associated with women was a method of persuading a sceptical public of the sport’s suitability. This attitude was crystallised in the 1934/5 tour of Australia and New Zealand. The trip was marketed as a healing mission following the contentious ‘Bodyline’ Ashes series of 1932/3, which had strained Anglo-Australian relations through the ungentlemanly and overly-aggressive conduct of the English tourists. Betty Archdale later claimed it had ‘relieved people to find that we could play cricket without trying to kill the other side.’ 33 Counter to many a critic’s scorn, women’s cricket was presented as a more sportsmanlike variation of the sport which placed ‘spirit’ and ‘friendliness’ over the win-at-all-costs attitude that had tarnished the men’s game. Leading members of the WCA captured at ‘Cricket Week’, Colwall, in August 1930. Those who expressed feminist beliefs include England captain Betty Archdale (top-right), media spokesperson Marjorie Pollard (bottom-right) and chairman Frances Heron-Maxwell (bottom row, third from the right). (WCA archive, Somerset Cricket Museum)