Cricket Witness No 4 - Women at the WIcket

24 Out of the Darkness: The Game Emerges however. Despite multiple attempts from students, Oxford refused to allow women’s cricket in their colleges before 1918, on the grounds it was unfeminine, and it was not until 1934 that Oxford University Women’s Cricket Club was established. Bedford College, London, the first higher education college for women in Britain founded in 1849, did not establish a cricket team until 1920, while the University of Manchester Women’s Union formed its first team in 1914. 12 Cricket was also introduced in the newly-established girls’ public schools which were founded in earnest during the 1860s and 1870s. Prior to 1900, elite girls’ day and boarding schools including Roedean (Wimbledon House School), Wycombe Abbey, Cheltenham Ladies’ College, Chantry School (Somerset), St Mary’s School (Wantage), Sacred Heart (Roehampton), and St Leonards-St Andrews all played regular cricket internally, between year groups and houses, and also against local teams whenever possible. 13 Their stories have been documented, especially for their pioneering work in the promotion of girls’ physical education, but a case study of smaller fee-paying schools in the South East reveals cricket was played more extensively than first thought. St Paul’s Girls’ School, Hammersmith played from its founding in 1904, Tonbridge County School for Girls began regular girls’ cricket in 1906 and Gravesend County School for Girls in 1915. The Friends’ School, a Royal Holloway College Cricket team, c. 1900. Upper-middle class female propriety meant playing outfits firmly restricted strenuous play. (RHC PH 212/1, Royal Holloway archive, University of London)