Lives in Cricket No 49 - Enid Bakewell

40 Chapter Six Australia and New Zealand 1968-69 Fair Play says that ‘about £8,000 towards the total bill of £11,000’ was raised by sponsorship and a £2000 government grant. Certainly they were kitted out with four separate outfits each by Marks & Spencer, though Rachael Heyhoe-Flint suggested that Enid had a particular gift for wearing the wrong outfit for any occasion, and would turn up at formal occasions in her official tracksuit. The team flew out in early December. All previous teams had gone by sea, but this, like the men’s tours at the time, included plenty of time to acclimatise and going up country to spread the word. The tour would get more newspaper space than any before, because there was no competition from men’s cricket following the cancellation of the South African tour over that country’s refusal to accept Basil D’Oliveira. This created some space for cricket coverage, and Rachael Heyhoe was given some room in the Daily Telegraph. However the Telegraph articles are headed ‘from a special correspondent’ (possibly because Rachel was contracted elsewhere) and are short and bland pieces, giving no inside view. Rachael Heyhoe Flint 13 said in her book that the original plan was to play two games in South Africa on the way, but that would have lost the government grant. Fair Play mutters about ‘the interference of politics in sport’. Given the situation in South Africa with the MCC tour just having been cancelled over the D’Oliveira issue it is hard to see that somebody else was importing politics into the situation. Finally the time arrived. Had all that saving up been worthwhile? Enid was 27, and she had no international experience and no experience of international travel. Unlike nearly all her team mates, she was married and a mother. On December 7 the Times ran an article bemoaning the loss to county hockey for the season of Enid, Rachael Heyhoe and Lynne Thomas, but they would all do greater things this winter. Enid says: I had to raise £603 to pay the air fare to Australia; 27 hours flying time so you’d have a sleep and they’d come round with a meal and wake you up: stops at Amsterdam, Athens, Bahrain, Calcutta, Bangkok, Singapore and then Perth at three in the morning Because this was the first women’s tour to Australia and New Zealand for 20 years it attracted slightly more than the usual attention, the Times 13 Heyhoe