Lives in Cricket No 49 - Enid Bakewell

75 it was a joke’. And there were short pen portraits of the players. Enid’s says: ‘Aged 40, good on puns, collects stamps and fiendish spin bowler, plays for East Midlands, PE teacher, lives in Mansfield, married with three children. ’ “No one in the party,” it said, “claims to be a feminist.” Possibly because they had been warned what the press would make of it if they had. Rachael Heyhoe Flint and Janet Southgate were the other married women, though Megan Lear was divorced. The tone is given by the description of Janette Brittin as ‘the prettiest player’ (not referring to her batting style) and there is a slightly desperate air of heterosexuality about the piece. According to this article they had to find £250 each towards the venture, so there was now some sponsorship about, Rachael Heyhoe Flint having raised about £5,500 and the blazers from M&S. Most importantly, the Sports Council met 75 per cent of the travel costs. The press found it hard to get around the idea that sportswomen could be mothers, too. Focussing on Enid, it reads, repeating an old story (but with a different baby and a different venue): ‘When her oldest child was a baby, she took her to a match at Hastings, leaving her with a spectator to give her a bottle. The friend forgot and gave the bottle late, and very cold, which naturally upset the baby. It quotes Enid as saying I had to leave the field, while someone took my place, and brought the baby’s wind up, then came back on the field.’ And in terms of publicity it was two steps forward, one step back: the Cricketer and EW Swanton appeared to have forgotten about the days when they were going to give good coverage to the women’s game. England’s warm-up started in Auckland, playing a 40 over match against Otago on a ground where the playing areas overlapped and you had to be careful not to be hit by a ball from an adjoining game. England scored 182 for four from 40 overs, Enid making 44, and Otago were all out for 101, without Enid being needed to bowl. The competition proper would be played over 60 overs a side. Then it was into the competition with a tied game against New Zealand at Auckland: New Zealand made 147 for nine (Enid 12 overs, one for 24), England 147 for eight with Enid, opening, out for nought. From this point she was mainly used as a bowler and batted at seven. It’s a comment on the cautiousness of the women’s game at the time that England needed two from the last over to win, and managed only one without this being seen as choking. They played India. Women’s cricket in India was at an early stage in development, the India Women’s Cricket Association having been formed only in 1973, and with the game, even more than men’s cricket at the time, not reaching out beyond the major cities. India were all out for 112 (Enid 11 overs, one for 29), and England made 114 for six, with Enid stumped for three coming in at number seven. Then they played the International 1982 World Cup