Womens Cricket Week Tradition Continues The Spin Newsletter

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Many places have claimed to be the home of women’s cricket over the years. Taunton did so in 2006 when the England and Wales Cricket Board named it as the new “permanent” base of the England Women’s team – a deal that proved anything but permanent. Lord’s recently attempted to claim the moniker, after hosting one women’s Test in 142 years.

But the real home of women’s cricket is a small village in Herefordshire, on the western side of the Malvern Hills: Colwall.

In August 1926, a group of women’s hockey players travelled to Colwall for a cricketing holiday. They stayed at the Park Hotel, which was owned by one of their number – Mollie Scott-Bowden – and enjoyed three days of enthusiastic cricket. Before packing up to go home, they came together for a final time.

“We sat in the Park Hotel at Colwall,” one of these women, Marjorie Pollard, later wrote, “and discussed how cricket could become real for us – no longer to be an illusive thing, that one played half afraid of ridicule. We pondered, mused, talked.”

A month after returning home, they gathered in London and officially agreed to set up the Women’s Cricket Association. The WCA eventually ran English women’s cricket until 1998, organising the first public women’s match (in 1929), the first female internationals (1934-35), and the first Cricket World Cup (1973). Meanwhile, the tradition of Cricket Week has continued to this day: every summer a group of women return to Colwall, set up camp around the edge of Colwall Cricket Club’s second pitch, and spend five days playing cricket in the place where it all began.

I’ve known all this for years – and wrote about it in my history of women’s cricket, The Women in Whites – but have somehow never quite got around to visiting Colwall. Last weekend proved the perfect opportunity: Colwall Cricket Club celebrated the centenary of women’s cricket by throwing a 1920s-themed party, complete with swing music, vintage cars and a women’s softball competition with some of the players bravely sweating it out in straw hats, long white dresses and white stockings. The club also have a new heritage display in the clubhouse that celebrates their special place as the birthplace of women’s organised cricket – and, along with the England legend and Cricket Week veteran Enid Bakewell, I was invited along to cut the ribbon.

I stay at the Park Hotel, and as I walk down the hill to the cricket club, it’s exciting to think I am literally following in the footsteps of the WCA founders. I can almost sense the ghost of Pollard trailing behind me, ticking me off for some minor indiscretion such as wearing shorts (she was known to be a stickler for correct dress, ie skirts), or enjoying a cocktail before it hits 5pm (the Park Hotel has a delicious “Colwall 1926” special involving gin, prosecco, Yuzu soda and mint). When I arrive I spot Enid dancing the Charleston, at the ripe old age of 85.

Five years ago Colwall started a women’s team; women and girls now make up 37% of the club’s membership. But, like many clubs around the country, their clubhouse has until now been full of photographs of men in whites. Now, those men will be joined by the first WCA chair, Mrs Frances Heron-Maxwell, pictured in 1927 wearing a bow tie; as well as England’s first wicketkeeper, Betty Snowball, in her heyday in 1933. Snowball loved Cricket Week so much that she moved to Colwall, and died here in 1988.

Gemma Nurser, Colwall CC’s communications lead, says: “The clubhouse is quite male-dominated, so we’ve been really desperate to show that female presence, and also recognise the history that is associated with Colwall: 1926 is where it all began with the Women’s Cricket Association being formed. We just wanted something in the clubhouse to recognise that.”

Holding the ribbon for Enid to cut, I’m confident that Cricket Week is worth celebrating. For one thing, people come from far and wide to be here – and they keep coming back. This year’s players included Ingrid van der Elst from the Netherlands, who played in the 1982 World Cup, and two players, Coral Handley and Veronica Savage, who have been attending Cricket Week for 50 years. For another, it has been going so long that no one quite remembers when some of its traditions began. One of those, Fancy Dress Friday, is an iconic end-of-week attempt to play cricket in full costume. Last year “Party like it’s ’99” involved four players dressed as the Spice Girls complete with a cardboard union jack bus, attempting to run in and bowl. On a previous occasion the Eiffel Tower opened the batting; an inflatable Mr Blobby once umpired.

Perhaps the key thing, though, is that Cricket Week remains a haven for those who feel too old, not good enough for, or nervous about entering other women’s cricket spaces. “When you go to Cricket Week you’re in a safe, supportive and inclusive bubble, insulated from the outside world,” one attender says. Another says: “Once you’ve been to Cricket Week you’re part of an incredible family, and always will be, long after you stop playing.”

Gemma says that Colwall CC love hosting the week, and that this is another reason for wanting their history represented in their clubhouse. “We are always grateful to welcome them every year and we love it. It just brings such an amazing atmosphere to the club for the week. As a burgeoning ladies section, we’re trying to really embrace Women’s Cricket Week and all collaborate together.”

This collaboration is particularly important given the uncertain future of Cricket Week. Players of all abilities have always been welcome; teams are carefully put together at the start of the week with the aim of ensuring an even spread of talent. But gone are the days when it attracted the very best in the country. Carole Cumino, who has been attending since the mid-1980s, remembers a high point of 16 teams, all captained by England players. This year there are four.

“It’s fair to say that the quality of the cricket over the years has decreased, but when you’ve got professional county teams doing their own thing elsewhere, they’re not the people who are going to come to Cricket Week,” Carole says. It still attracts former England players – Sarah Clarke, who played six one-day internationals for England in 2001-02 and represented Surrey for 16 years, has been the main organiser for two decades; Claire Taylor opened the batting for the Cricket Week team in a match against MCC this year.

Some might, though, question whether there remains a place for Cricket Week in an era when England players are ever more removed from the grassroots of the game, and when the women’s domestic set-up has embraced full professionalisation.

“Where do people who just love their cricket go? Where do they keep going once they get into their slightly more advanced years?” Carole says. “I think that there is a niche for Cricket Week, but it feels to me it’s emerging more as a festival of cricket and an opportunity for friends to meet up, for new people to come along and build those friendships and relationships going forward.

“We’re at a sort of watershed now. But it feels like talking to people, there is enough will to want to keep it going, because they really value it.”

As I leave the beauty of the rolling Malvern Hills behind and return to London, I can’t help feeling grateful to the WCA founders for everything they started a century ago; and hopeful that this magical festival of women’s cricket will continue, even as the women’s cricket landscape shifts around it.

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Lewis’s learnings

If you haven’t already heard the London Spirit Women head coach Jon Lewis’s recent interview with the Wisden Women’s Cricket Weekly podcast, it’s worth a listen – although you might find yourself doing a few double takes. Among other things, Lewis claims to have a “resilience gene” and says that the reason his stint as head coach of England Women ended badly was because he “was trying to stretch [the women’s game] too fast”.

For me, it was particularly interesting to hear that his thinking about coaching in the women’s game has evolved somewhat over the past four years. Lewis famously started his coaching career working for the England Lions and as the England men’s fast bowling coach, before being catapulted in as head coach of England Women in November 2022 – his first job in women’s cricket.

Back then, when I asked Lewis about the differences between coaching in women’s and men’s cricket, he shrugged off the suggestion that there were any. “You coach individuals, you don’t coach gender. You coach people – you get to know people and try to understand people,” he said.

Four years down the line Lewis has changed his tune. “I think you need a slightly stronger level of empathy in terms of the women’s game … and I think you have to be a more skilful communicator,” he told Katya Witney in the Wisden podcast. Not many people have worked in both environments at the elite level, but this seems spot-on to me. If you’re a man trying your hand in the women’s game, take note.

Quote of the week

You can’t have an affair with a junior member of staff, especially when there’s a clear power imbalance, and then remain in a position of leadership. Captains are expected to set the standard, and that kind of conduct falls well short of it” – in an interview with Code Sports, Ash Gardner’s ex-wife Monica Wright calls on the Australian all-rounder to be stripped of the vice-captaincy after her affair with her teammate Georgia Voll was revealed last month. In a statement, Cricket Australia said it considers this to be “a personal and private matter” and that it has “appropriate conflict-of-interest management arrangements in place to support leadership responsibilities and maintain the integrity of team processes”.

Memory lane

10 August 2017 Only a fortnight after England lift the World Cup trophy at Lord’s, the second edition of the Kia Super League begins at Southampton. The reigning champions Southern Vipers, captained by Charlotte Edwards, annihilate a Heather Knight-led Western Storm by nine wickets. Suzie Bates hits 47 not out and is player of the match.

Still want more?

Joe Root is back for a second time as England captain. The Guardian’s cricket correspondent, Ali Martin, discusses the risk England are taking with his recall in the role.

Dazn has bought the UK rights for Australia’s Test series against Bangladesh this month in a landmark deal for the global streaming platform, as Matt Hughes outlined in his exclusive story.

And England have begun their post-Ben Stokes era with call-ups for Dan Lawrence, Jordan Cox and Ollie Pope for the series against Pakistan. Ali Martin’s analysis can be found here.