James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1890

P A R T I. C H A P T E R I. O U RP H O T O G R A P H . H Emanyrecords of cricket matches during the past season in which ladies took part will probably have prepared our readers for the announcement that a ladies ' teamhas been trained during the winter, and will play a series of exhibition matches in m a n yof our large towns during the coming season . There can be no doubt that in time past there has been far too little scope for ladies to indulge in healthful and invigorating exercise , mainly for the reason that " Mrs. Grundy" pronounced everything of the kind hoydenish and unladylike . W e are now, however, witness- ing a reaction from these old prejudices , and as ladies nowappear regularly in the hunting -field , skate and rowin public , and take part in lawn tennis tournaments , there would appear to be no legitimate reason whythey should be debarred from playing cricket matches. A san exercise , cricket is probably not so severe as lawn tennis , and it is certainly not so dangerous as hunting or skating ; and if, therefore , the outcome of the present movement is to induce ladies more generally to play cricket , we shall consider that a good result has b e e nattained. Of course wedo not for a momentexpect to see a ladies ' team con- tend on anything like equal terms with m e n, and for the present w e believe it has been arranged that the ladies who have been in training , of w h o mthere are two elevens , will play only exhibition matches among themselves , or with local ladies ' teams. W ehave inserted a photograph of one of the elevens , which will probably be interesting to our readers generally , and an agreeable change from the series of county elevens and single cricketers with which we have hitherto presented them. 2