Cricket Witness No 4 - Women at the WIcket

132 ‘The idea a girl cannot play cricket has proved to be rubbish’ Advertisements for the Central Council of Recreative Physical Training (above) appeared in every issue of Women’s Cricket in 1937. The Council was part of wider efforts by the National Fitness Campaign to improve the nation’s health, which was not confined solely to children. The bookmark (right) also listed books and literature on the subject which could be found at local libraries. By the late 1930s the need for women to partake in regular, strenuous exercise was more widely accepted. (WCA archive, Somerset Cricket Museum; Wellcome Library) By 1937 the national coalition government, then led by Neville Chamberlain, understood the immediate need to improve the nation’s fitness, and women’s sports eagerly capitalised on this golden moment to push their agenda. By now, it is likely over 10,000 women and girls were regularly playing cricket, while hockey, netball, tennis and golf had seen a steady rise in their participation numbers over the past two decades. Marjorie Pollard estimated over 500,000 women and girls were now