Cricket Witness No 4 - Women at the WIcket

20 Chapter One Out of the Darkness: The Game Emerges On Saturday 13 October 1945, 49 members of the Women’s Cricket Association (WCA) met for their first annual general meeting in seven years. Silence fell as members stood to remember their fellow friends and players, Cicely Mawers and Elizabeth Langthorne, both of whom had died in their homes due to enemy air raids. Just as women had done in the First World War, many in the Association downed their bats and balls for shovels, bandages, wrenches and other vital wartime equipment, as they carried out their duty to the nation. It was undoubtedly a sombre occasion, but also one of hope. Six years of war had struck a cruel blow to the Association, but the sound of leather on willow had returned, and the opportunity to play was joyfully seized. 1 As they stood with their heads bowed in silence, inevitably their thoughts would have also swayed towards the achievements of the previous two decades: a golden and defining era for women’s cricket. It had all seemed so different in 1939. Employment was up, working hours were down, and the dance halls, cinemas, beaches and department stores were full. The country seemed to have shaken off the tempest of the Great Depression and was ready to enjoy itself again. 2 Women cricketers could look hopefully towards their future, confident that the sport would enjoy years of prosperity. When Hitler invaded Poland on 1 September, the County Championship season was almost over. In a delicately balanced match at Hove, Sussex hosted Yorkshire as they capitulated to just 33 in their second innings, with the prolific Hedley Verity taking seven wickets for just nine runs. Elsewhere, Leicestershire ended their season with a draw against local rivals Derbyshire. Two days later, when Britain declared war on Germany, the men’s season was abandoned and all remaining games cancelled. Meanwhile, 16 women prepared to set sail for a 12-week tour of Australia, their second in just five years. Buoyed by a highly successful Australian tour of England in 1937, which had attracted crowds in their thousands to first-class county grounds, the return visit was once again an opportunity to showcase their ability to a now rapacious audience. Just one month earlier pupils from Harrogate College had started touring Canada to advertise the game through exhibition matches. 3 By 1939, women’s cricket was probably in a better position than at any other time in the 20th century, except the mid-1950s. A previously sceptical, sometimes antagonistic media were turning face. Coverage of the sport was now taken seriously in major national newspapers and cricket magazines. The old stalwarts at county clubs had been wooed by