Cricket Witness No 4 - Women at the WIcket

120 spirited and healthy outlook.’ A Board of Education report in 1927 noted how games endowed children with ‘serious moral purpose’. Other government reports maintained the need to direct the energies of girls, as ‘spontaneous and unorganised play may develop the bully and coward’. 32 As government opinion mellowed and state support grew for physical recreation between the wars, cricket tussled for recognition as an educational instrument capable of instilling desirable virtues in girls. The Education Act of 1918, which significantly improved provision of elementary schooling, gave local education authorities powers to purchase and maintain sports fields or centres, and extended medical inspections in an effort to better the physical condition of all children. The professionalisation of physical education continued with a sustained rise in the hiring of specialist teachers throughout the 1930s, and national and local governments advocated sport as a means of both cultivating health and building ‘character’. 33 Politicians andeducatorswidely believed teamgames refined skills essential to responsible citizenship, including teamwork, leadership, independence and critical thinking. Mainstream medical opinion also slowly mellowed, and although reservations remained about competitive female play, there was a growing acknowledgment that the ‘public-spirit’ and team work it cultivated were ideal methods of producing useful citizens. Elite schools like St. Leonard’s claimed their continued focus on sports taught ‘all those qualities once supposed to be untypical of girls’, while Roedean professed its intentions to ‘reject the traditional image of female helplessness’ and ‘play a fuller role in aspects of life that hitherto have been monopolised by men.’ 34 Sport, and cricket in particular, was a key tool educators used to implant the physical, moral and mental attributes deemed vital for women as newly-enfranchised citizens. St Leonard’s and Roedean adopted curricula that aimed to help girls succeed outside the home, but more modest schools also embraced this ethos. The definitive intention of educating girls in this period, especially for the working-classes in elementary schools, was to produce wives and mothers capable in domestic skills. In this respect, little had changed from the previous century. However, most secondary schools placed greater value on academic and physical education. For example, Board of Education inspections repeatedly criticised state secondaries such as Gravesend County School for Girls and Tonbridge County School for Girls – both of which had significant numbers of working-class girls on scholarships – for their ‘virtually entirely voluntary’, ‘inadequate’ and ‘most regrettable’ provision of domestic subjects, but noted their ‘excellent’, ‘well organised’ and ‘exceedingly good’ physical education. 35 These schools prioritised sport over girls’ traditional domestic education, and enshrined team games into their philosophies in other ways too. House and school colours were awarded for excellence in cricket, individual trophies were presented for best overall performance, cups were played for against local rivals, and prizes given for the best school- wide essays on themes including, ‘what is meant by true sporting spirit?’ 36 More than a Game: Citizenship and Cricket