 from them at first hand.
But England’s women also had to battle against prejudice and neglect. Until very recently, they never got paid and met all their expenses, including overseas tours, without sponsorship or support. They were expected to be grateful to men, especially husbands and employers, for the chance to play at all. They endured mockery, even from experienced cricket journalists who should have known better.
Women disappeared from the records and images of English cricket for four centuries until in 1744 CE a local newspaper published an account of an all-women’s match between two rural villages. Other such games attracted crowds and sponsorship – and gave rich men another outlet for betting. But then Victorian men decided that women should not play sport but watch themselves play it. Medical “experts”, including Britain’s best-known doctor, W G Grace, told them, on no evidence, that cricket was dangerous for their delicate constitutions especially their ability to bear children. In this W G ignored the early cricket training he and his brothers received from their mother, Martha, and indeed the cricket played by his two daughters at school.
Eventually private girls’ schools gave some experience of cricket to pupils from wealthy families. Some enjoyed it so much that they formed their own clubs to continue playing matches in adult life, mostly on private grounds in country houses. One of the leading female players of late Victorian times was Lucy Ridsdale. Her future husband fell in love with her when she scored a fifty in one such match. He was Stanley Baldwin, who would become a Conservative Prime Minister three times in the 1920s and 1930s – and President of the MCC. A generation later, Betty Archdale, who would become the first England women’s captain, grew up with a very different political outlook. Her mother was a militant campaigner for votes for women: young Betty helped her to throw stones through the windows of government buildings and leading gentlemen’s clubs.
Public education expanded g