Cricket Witness No 4 - Women at the WIcket

76 Workplace and Working-Class Women’s Cricket for the Federation were working or upper-working class, the fractious relationship between the two organising bodies masked the diversity of players in each. 5 But the image of a sport solely enjoyed by wealthy, privileged and educated women, as it had been in the late-19th century, was not helped by the WCA’s international tours. Of the 15 members picked for the 1934/5 Australia and New Zealand tour, all were from firmly middle-class backgrounds. Five were university or college students, five physical training mistresses, three were working in ‘white blouse’ jobs such as the Civil Service, and two did not need to work. Most players financed the considerable £94, 10 shillings travel costs, spending money and the loss of four months’ salary through the financial aid of affluent parents. However, the fact most of the women worked or trained full-time indicates how the game had spread beyond the daughters of landed gentry. Due to this financial burden team selection was not meritocratic or, as Nancy Joy later conceded, representative of the Association’s members: a misleading public image of the organisation was presented and later sustained. 6 In fact, among the many journalists and friends that waved the players off from Tilbury in October 1934 was the Rowntree’s Girls’ Club cricket team, the company having paid their travel from York for the occasion. 7 The WCA may have been founded by a prosperous set of educated women from South-East England, but the Association did not remain like this throughout the interwar period. While there is no doubt the organisation was administered by upper- and middle-class women, its governance reflected the early membership. In 1927, the Association was undeniably dominated by affluent or wealthy women, and the bulk of the founding bodies were universities, physical training colleges and fee-paying schools. Yet even at this early stage workplaces joined, including teams from a hotel in Manchester and a chain of tea-shops in London. 8 As the WCA grew it witnessed a considerable shift in its rank-and-file membership. By the late 1930s it had adopted a deliberate policy of diversification to promote and support the creation of autonomous working-class teams. As the number of private clubs increased so too did workplace teams. Some of these were typically middle-class employers such as banks, building societies and company head offices, but by 1938 large businesses such as Cadbury’s, Rowntree’s, Boots, Unilever, Leyland Motors and Imperial Tobacco made up the majority of workplace sides. As these clubs were heavily subsidised, well-advertised and popular, most cricketers were working-class factory girls. While less than one in five affiliated bodies was a workplace by 1938, the number of WCA members playing in company sides was likely closer to a quarter. Factories often joined as a league and not as individual clubs, and once the WCA partially relaxed its rules on competitions in 1938, they had affiliated leagues in Preston, Liverpool, and Manchester. A single body could represent as many as 12 teams. 9 Many workplaces also had more than one team, as well as multiple departmental sides.