Cricket Witness No 4 - Women at the WIcket

64 ‘Too much emphasis on personal comfort’ The WCA sought to remedy the social injustice Hall outlined, and merge the idealism of cricket with a belief it was natural for women to play the game. Many women insisted sport could better enable them to fulfil their motherly duties through the physical benefits and moral virtues it instilled in them and their families. This was successfully demonstrated by the conservative and hugely popular Women’s League of Health and Beauty, but was also echoed by cricketers. One player claimed scrubbing floors and clothes all day had taught her to use her shoulders when batting rather than her body, a mistake she claimed was common among girls unfamiliar with these household tasks. 19 If the very existence of organised women’s cricket challenged the central tenets of English life for many, players and administrators were unwilling to further aggravate their critics. Rather than seemingly undermine the nation’s moral codes with promiscuous, provocative behaviour, Women’s Cricket stressed deference and prudence at all times. It was correct attire, not fashion, that counted. Reticence over individualism. History over beauty. Respect over disdain. As such, advocates of the game wanted to remove it from changeable youthful whims and establish its permanence and timelessness in English cultural life. ‘Dignity, circumspection, caution and submission to public opinion’ Players in the interwar years walked a precarious tightrope of popular opinion. On the one hand, women were ‘unsexed’ and uncivilised if they played sports vigorously, and on the other, critics stressed the right to play depended on good standards, and they faced ridicule if these were not met. With headlines including ‘Lily Larwoods’, ‘Eves at the Wicket’ and ‘Powder Puffs on the Pitch’ mocking the sport, the WCA set about constructing an image of women’s cricket that was compatible with both their critics and supporters. 20 Feminine ideals are a product of both sex and class, and the WCA’s response tells us as much about the Association’s wealthy leadership as it does about their members’ gender. The WCA’s approach was in essence an attempt to placate the bourgeois administration of the game by creating an equally bourgeois image of female respectability. Most spectators would have never seen a woman playing, other than perhaps in jovial makeshift games as children, and therefore cricket became a public stage to showcase their skill and prove women’s bodies were capable of far more than was popularly believed. The assertion cricket could masculinise, ‘unsex’ or sterilise players was an effort to re-impose control on physically liberated women, and therefore threatened the existence of the game. If women played too aggressively or competitively they risked proving their detractors correct, but if they played too daintily, the game would be mocked. Furthermore, they were ultimately dependent on men for the resources needed to play the game. These could come in many forms, from leasing cricket grounds to providing equipment, coaching and column inches. To secure male support, and consequently the future of the sport, it was necessary to play energetically, but not aggressively; with elegance, but not timidity;