Lives in Cricket No 49 - Enid Bakewell

32 regretted afterwards, for I did so after a hockey practice in the gym, and then felt stiff all down my left side during the next day. When the snow began to show signs of clearing [this was 1963 and one of the worst winters of the century] and the sun came out at home, part of a Sunday afternoon was spent ‘practising’ slip catches with a rolled-up window leather to get warm after having cleaned the car! On the same afternoon, I was persuaded to inspect our local cricket pitch, with a view to starting practice with a bat and ball. This project was abandoned in the face of ice, etc. In the hope that we shall eventually have the heat-wave summer we have been promised I have begun to order the necessary uniform – just in case I should be lucky enough to be selected’ In the end Rachael was selected, Enid was not. She did play twice against the Australians. On June 1 the Australians played the Midlands in a two-day game and hammered 304 for three declared. Enid bowled 35 overs for 78 and no wicket. The Midlands were out for 176 of which Enid made 31 (run out) batting at number six. The innings took her 115 minutes and inspired two of her pupils to make her a fabric tortoise to celebrate her slow scoring. In fact four batsmen were run out, which suggests that the Australians may have been a bit sharp in the field. Midlands followed on and made 102 for four before time ran out. Enid did not bat in this innings. A few days later the Australians played East Midlands, making 193 for three declared; Enid bowled only two overs for 15 and appears to have been the seventh bowler used. East Midlands were then shot out for 60. Enid, opening, was out for four in the first over. In this year there are a couple of club scores in one of which she starred. In one of them Leicester made 100 for nine declared, with Enid taking 5 for 19, and in Nottingham’s five wicket win she was 43 not out. But clearly club performances did not count for much with the selectors, and her lack of success in the trial games meant she was not picked for the Test matches. The first two Tests were drawn, though in the second England’s last wicket pair held out with the scores still meaning an innings defeat if they had not, but England won the third with Mary Duggan (101 not out, 32, four for 42, three for 40) heavily influential. But Mary Duggan was 37 and it was to be her last season as a player. Enid did not appear in the 1963 cricket week and basically seemed to have fallen off the radar not having done much when she played against the tourists. In any case, there would be no more international chances at least until New Zealand came in 1966. In 1964 Enid again played in a trial match for the Rest against the WCA with no success at all. In the first innings she got four overs (for 20) at the only point in the innings when batsmen were well set, then she was out for After Dartford