Lives in Cricket No 49 - Enid Bakewell

107 during the consultation. From 2008 the London Borough of Sutton had wanted to regenerate the Elizabeth House sheltered housing scheme, and this was done by 2011, when Enid’s rent would go up to £418 a month. The residents had made some suggestions for changes as the rooms were small, but they did not happen. ‘The papers I have written on, she said , are papers dealing with the demolition of my old block of flats – 20 minutes from Epsom Derby Race Course. It is in the process of being rebuilt – but by a private landlord – bigger accommodation but double the rent, so I shall probably stay here near the family.’ She went on to point out that present day England cricketers are given contracts with pay. They go into schools to help promote cricket and help children with problems to think more positively about themselves. They are lent Kia cars as they have to travel to training and games. In this way they can concentrate on their fitness and meet regularly together … there is an office at Lord’s with a paid representative and two ladies who organise the women’s games for the MCC. She recalled the strangeness of playing at Lord’s for the first time in 1976 and ‘not knowing if we would be allowed in the changing rooms’ but then ‘the Australians assumed they could do as the men’. And she recalled another story shedding light on the status of women’s cricket at the recreational level. One Sunday we were the first to arrive and Recognition Enid, right, and bowls trophy, 2007.