Cricket Witness No 4 - Women at the WIcket

44 ‘The cohorts of cricket are being swollen’ though: no County Championship league was played for like in men’s domestic cricket from 1890, and clubs were forbidden from participating in ‘cricket challenge cups or prize competitions’, except for schools and colleges with existing tournaments. 25 The WCA was also the first to codify laws and regulations on the game and it quickly sought to establish consistency and unity in its play. While 1927 was reserved for experimentation and adaptation of the men’s game, by 1928 it was decided to reduce the playing ball’s size from the men’s five and three-quarter ounces to five ounces (four and three-quarters for girls) with suppliers immediately found to provide this. By 1931 the period of experimentation was complete and no further adaptations were made; the WCA was happy to adopt the laws of the game as issued by the MCC. The Association’s governance over women’s cricket extended internationally in 1938 when it introduced the first codified residency qualifications for international matches and required international women’s cricket bodies to submit a copy of their rules for approval. These changes were supported by the only other women’s cricket organising bodies at the time, Australia and New Zealand, but opposed by the English Federation. 26 The Federation supported the use of men’s bat and ball sizes, presumably to widen the social base of its cricket, and saw itself as the national voice of women’s cricket. Where the Federation required men to umpire all its games, the Association attempted to distance itself from a reliance on male support as much as possible. Although the WCA’s first match to be played at a on a first-class ground, a two-day game at Worcester in 1932 between an England XI and Scottish XI, was officiated by men, it soon appointed an umpires’ and scorers’ register and trained women in these roles. By 1936 an ever-expanding number of women were umpiring district and representative matches, including at The Oval and Hove. 27 The organising bodies’ endeavour to standardise and regulate women’s cricket during the sport’s embryonic years was crucial to generating direction, structure and uniformity, but inevitably led to opposing visions for the sport’s future. The rapid growth of women’s cricket was also assisted by the effective use of publicity. In the summer of 1930 the WCA founded its own monthly magazine, Women’s Cricket , which was published between May and September until September 1939, resuming in May 1945. This venture cemented the Accociation’s foray into print media following three special editions of Hockey, Field and Lacrosse magazine in the summer of 1929, which were dedicated to women’s cricket. Priced at six pence each and sold via postal subscription, by the end of 1930 Women’s Cricket had sold over 500 copies and subscribers continued to rise year-on-year, although likely never exceeded 1,000 before the outbreak of the Second World War. Edited by Marjorie Pollard, a former England hockey player, founding member of the WCA and lifelong advocator of women’s sport, she was appointed press correspondent in 1929 and also edited Women’s Hockey in the winter months. Pollard regularly contributed to national newspapers including The Times, The Mirror, Evening News, The Observer and The