Lives in Cricket No 49 - Enid Bakewell

63 1973 to 1976 season for Bob White, the Nottinghamshire off spinner. Bob says: Enid was a very good and capable allround cricketer able to hold her own in any grade of cricket. I played with her on two occasions during my benefit year 1974. The most notable was a game at Trent Bridge when she played in my eleven against a very strong and experienced all male opposition. She performed with great distinction scoring 50 and then taking five wickets with her spinners. This from a mother of several children. Indeed she overshadowed many on the day Mike Smedley was also quoted as saying that she could have played county second eleven cricket. The final Bulletin for the year announced that North Midlands would in future be known as East Midlands. In March 1975 the Bulletin was announcing that it was going to be necessary to raise £10,000 for the visit of the Australians, and that there was no sponsorship deal in place. It also carried an area report from North Midlands which says that in 1974 they had beaten West Midlands (for the first time), lost to Yorkshire and drawn with Lancashire and Cheshire. Cricket Archive has two matches for 1975, again both trials. On June 22 and 23 Enid played for the Rest against England in Birmingham. The Rest made 193 for four declared (Enid 12) and 159 for seven declared (Enid two), England 183 for five declared (Enid 9-0-20-0) and 172 for four (Enid 7-0-41-0) Then from July 19 to 21 Enid played for England against the Rest at Hastings. The Rest made 211 for eight declared (Enid 21-5-37-3) and 150 for seven declared (Enid 23-8-37-3), England made 122 (Enid 17) and 139 for seven (Enid 24). So she was the pick of the England bowlers and not a complete failure with the bat. In June the Bulletin announced that Rachael Heyhoe Flint had persuaded the Telegraph to include scores of Area matches. Enid was named as captain of a Ladies’ Invitation XI to play Northamptonshire at the start of August as part of David Steele’s benefit. It was played without the beneficiary as he was playing for England, but Northants scored 222 for six and the Women’s team 194: the report says that Enid Bakewell and June Green batted steadily and impressively gathered runs all round the wicket, much to the delight of the spectators . But they didn’t actually give the scores. East Midlands reported that in 1975 they had beaten British Colleges and Yorkshire II, drawn with East Anglia and lost to the West and the West Midlands. The August Bulletin gives results for a number of results for the Women’s International XI, organised by Rachael Heyhoe Flint and playing against men’s teams. Enid took four for 56 against Bass Worthington From 1976 Enid was the junior organiser for the East Midlands, a role she was to carry out with some success. In 1976 the Australians visited and the Bulletin announced that the series