Lives in Cricket No 49 - Enid Bakewell

30 Chapter Five After Dartford Leaving Dartford, following a bout of illness, at Christmas 1962, Enid was looking for employment. The Women’s Cricket Annual at the end of 1961 had mentioned the forthcoming Australian tour (the first for 12 years). In June 1963 the Australians would play against the Midlands and Nottinghamshire. Enid’s first job, in January 1963, was at Sherwood Hall Business School for girls (near Mansfield), where the Head of Department, Valerie Denham, had been in Rachael’s year at Dartford. In June 1962 there was an article in Women’s Cricket on the subject of ‘Looking for a Test team’ by Hazel Sanders, which starts by pointing out the problem that below the international level, the standard of county and area competition was variable and in some cases too low to form a proper view of what performances really meant (a problem which still exists in women’s cricket and hopefully is addressed by the Women’s Super League). She then goes on to criticise the unreality of trial matches, where the insignificance of the result leaves everyone not sure what they are doing, playing for the side or for themselves. The solution she suggests is to have several such matches between two selected teams, but the difficulty of organising such matches seems to have prevented the idea from being adopted. What it did mean for Enid and others was that they had to sparkle in one or two particular matches a year, and they might still not get picked. Enid always felt that you needed to be seen around the southern counties to have a serious chance of selection; historically the WCA had been weak in the northern counties and all the major officials came from the south east. The same edition included a letter from Rachael Heyhoe to say she was leaving the school in Wolverhampton where she was teaching and looking for other employment, having decided teaching was not for her. Rachael’s move into journalism was to be very important for the future of women’s cricket. In 1962 Enid appeared for the Middlesex Chairman’s XI against Middlesex, and was run out for 30 in a score of 142 for seven declared. Middlesex knocked them off for two wickets, Enid bowling six overs for 28. Then she played in a couple of games for WCA sides that must have been seen as trial matches. For WCA against Kent Women she was unusually expensive, bowling nine overs for one for 55 after making 19. She did better for WCA against the Rest, making 14 and 50 (but being run out twice!) but took no wickets. As to her form in other matches in 1962 we know little. Enid did not go to Cricket Week that year, which may have been a tactical error, since keeping yourself in front of the selectors mattered.