Lives in Cricket No 49 - Enid Bakewell

56 Chapter Eight 1973 World Cup The 1973 World Cup may have been the most important single event in the history of women’s cricket. Played in England with the final at Edgbaston, it was wholly new – it would be another two years before men’s cricket reached this point, and from now on it gave the women’s game a new focus beyond bilateral meetings at longish intervals. Fair Play describes it as the outcome of a casual after-dinner chat between Rachael Heyhoe Flint (who had married in November 1971) and Jack Hayward, who agreed to sponsor the whole event. There is also mention of a bottle of brandy having been consumed. Hayward was one of those super-patriots whose patriotism did not extend to living in the UK or paying British taxes, but the £40,000 he put up here changed the face of women’s cricket. Rachael says in Heyhoe , her autobiography, that it was entirely Hayward’s idea, but she must have encouraged him. Eventually there would be seven teams: England, Australia and New Zealand would be there as a matter of course, but there would also be teams from Jamaica and Trinidad, with Young England and an International XI added. From Wicket Women we learn that the Australian women too had to stump up £600 or so to cover the cost of the flight. In January 1973 the WCA Bulletin announced that Princess Anne had agreed to present the trophy, but the Bulletin had been majoring on the Cup since early the previous year. As far as Enid was concerned, the event of the year 1971 was that Robert had been born in September, so there had been not much opportunity for cricket that season. Early in the season she had been selected as captain for the North Midlands versus East Anglia, and in 1972 she was back and playing in various trial matches with the World Cup on the horizon. These started in July so she had presumably shown some form at club and county level. She did not though play in Cricket Week this year. Mostly she did, and says: We camped if we went to the WCA Cricket Week in August. It was held near Malvern in Worcestershire in Colwall village in the lea of the Malvern Hills. They say that if you can see the hills it is about to rain and if you cannot see them it is already raining! On July 29 she turned out for England Women against Young England Women at Eastbourne, scoring 21 of what seems to have been an opening stand of 43 in 12 minutes with Lynne Thomas, then taking five for 30 as the Young England side were all out for 97. The next day on the same ground she played for England Women again against Toronto Cricket Club