Cricket Witness No 4 - Women at the WIcket

34 ‘The cohorts of cricket are being swollen’ for future matches, and by 1939 women had also played at Trent Bridge, Headingley, The Oval, Old Trafford, Northampton and Hove. 2 Except for the Original English Lady Cricketers (1890-2), nearly all organised women’s cricket in the late-19th and early-20th centuries was hidden from open viewing. Many schools and colleges deliberately concealed their play from the public to protect themselves from hostility directed at women playing supposedly masculine sports. Most colleges, schools and universities owned their playing ground and could therefore prevent spectatorship. Those not sheltered from curious passers-by sometimes obscured themselves before cricket was permitted. In Cambridge, Girton College grew large trees to shield their sporting activities from unwanted attention. This was prudent as teachers at Roedean experienced vocal local opposition when playing on a public field near the school. 3 Interwar women’s cricket, therefore, was marked by a distinct separation with this guarded past, as organising bodies brought the game to a paying public audience. But the WCA was not the only women’s cricket organisation to showcase public matches in these years. The English Women’s Cricket Federation was founded in April 1934 as a parent organisation to the Yorkshire Women’s Cricket Federation and the Lancashire Women’s Cricket Federation. The Yorkshire body was the brainchild of three female councillors from Bradford who, after running a tournament in 1931, urged the president of the Bradford Men’s Evening Cricket League, Frank Timperley, to create a similar organisation. The Bradford Women’s Evening League was formed that year, followed shortly by a county-wide organisation. By 1933, a Lancashire Federation was founded and adopted the same model of short, competitive evening matches following a successful one-off ‘Roses’ game between the two counties that attracted over 8,000 spectators. However, unlike the Association, the English Federation restricted itself to these counties and never sought a policy of national expansion. At its peak it was still dwarfed by the Association, and likely never exceeded a third of their size. By the early-1930s the Federation claimed to have 1,000 female cricketers, and probably reached a height of around 3,000 a few years later, but disbanded after 1940 due to the impact of war, never to be resumed. 4 The Federation thrived on evening competitions, designed to draw in crowds after work to see their girls play local rivals. Competitions under the auspices of the English Federation included the Bradford Evening Cricket League (1931), Keighley Ladies Cricket Competition (1931), Yorkshire Inter-City and Towns League (1932), and Leeds and District Women’s Cricket League (1934). As self-styled rival to the WCA, the Federation outlined a vision almost-wholly at odds with the former’s southern- dominated, middle-class amateurism. The Federation played competitive cricket where points, trophies and prizes were awarded for winners, and spectators paid to watch matches. It was also largely organised and administered by men, whereas the Association banned men from holding any formal power. Most innings were between 22 and 30 overs long and