WOMEN'S CRICKET AT TRENT BRIDGE: A BRIEF HISTORY

Steve LeMottee

With the return of Trent Rockets Women in The Hundred, the arrival of The Blaze regional team at Trent Bridge and the hosting of the only Test Match in the 2023 Women’s Ashes series – and England Women’s first five-day Test on home soil – there will be more women’s professional cricket played in Nottingham this year than ever before.

In fact, despite its long and rich history, Trent Bridge has witnessed relatively few women’s matches over the past hundred years or more.  The earliest fixtures that the Heritage Team have been able to identify definitely fall into the ‘novelty’ category, when – in September 1907 and July 1908 – a Nottinghamshire Ladies XI played fundraising matches against veterans of the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny. 

Then in August 1918 a team from the National Ordnance Factory played a short women’s match against the Raleigh Cycle Company as part of the Notts Patriotic Fair that was held at Trent Bridge.

The first women’s match played in earnest was likely to be on 21 June 1939 when the Midlands & North (including two Notts players: Edna Valentine and Betty Belton) met the East & South in a one-day, single innings fixture. 

Trent Bridge in 1930; nine years prior to the first multi-day women's match at Trent Bridge

Played against the backdrop of gathering storm clouds in Europe – and two days after Yorkshire and England batter Herbert Sutcliffe had encouraged the men of Nottingham to join the services – the match proved somewhat one-sided, with the East & South winning by eight wickets despite a top score of 87 for the ‘home’ team by the redoubtable Marjorie Pollard.

Local press coverage of women’s sport was somewhat patronising in this era; while reporting that “for the first time in the history of Trent Bridge cricket ground, umpires were members of both sexes …. Mr Bond and Mrs Tabor”, the Nottingham Journal also informed its readers that “the attendance was smaller than had been expected but those present were amply rewarded and must have gone away convinced that the women could give the men a fighting game of cricket.” 

Meanwhile the Evening Post reported that “Spectators were few, but they were not slow to appreciate the skill of graceful players wearing cream blouses and skirts and long white stockings.”

The next major women’s match at Trent Bridge did not take place until June 1951, when the Midlands drew a two-day fixture against Australia.  Having bowled the Midlands out for only 82, the visitors declared at 335 for 6 before Eileen White – one of four Notts representatives and a leading light in the women’s game for many years – top-scored with 79 in the second innings.

Trent Bridge would have hosted its first women’s Test match in July 1954, but the match against New Zealand was moved to Worcester, allowing England men to play a Test match in Nottingham against Pakistan. 

As the Evening Post reported in February 1954, “particularly amongst the local followers of women’s cricket there is great disappointment that the WCA [Women’s Cricket Association] has had to give way to the MCC after negotiating for the use of Trent Bridge as long ago as October 1952.”

It was not until August 1976 that Trent Bridge hosted another major women’s match, when England played Australia in a 40-over One Day International.  The visitors’ innings closed on 119 for 9, with Newstead-born Enid Bakewell taking one wicket for 14 in her three overs.  Our local hero then opened the batting and scored 32 before the second wicket partnership saw the hosts to victory with almost four overs to spare.

Enid Bakewell recieves her MBE

The first women’s Test to be played at Trent Bridge saw England take on the West Indies in a three-day match on 23 to 25 June 1979.  Enid Bakewell took one wicket in each of the tourists’ innings while scoring 54 and 16* in a drawn match – the second in a three-match series which England won 2-0.

Twenty years later – on 11 July 1999 – England beat India in a 50-over ODI.  Captained by Karen Smithies, Leicestershire-born but a Nottinghamshire player at various times in her career, the England team included local representatives Jane Cassar and Sue Redfern.  Smithies played a real captain’s innings of 110* as the hosts gained a three-wicket victory off the final ball of the match.

The following year another 50-over ODI match was played at Trent Bridge, when England beat South Africa by nine wickets. Nottinghamshire bowler Nicki Shaw took one wicket and wicketkeeper Cassar claimed a catch and a stumping.

The only women’s international match at Trent Bridge that did not feature England took place on 18 June 2009, when New Zealand met India in the semi-final of the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 competition.  Chris Broad was the Match Referee as New Zealand won by 52 runs, restricting India to 93 for 9 in their full complement of overs.

India Women at Trent Bridge in 2009

The most recent women’s match between international opponents took place on 12 June 2018, when the England Academy played the Australian Aboriginal Women in a 20-over fixture – part of a double-header in a tour that marked the 150th anniversary of the first Aborigines men’s visit to England in 1868.  Nottinghamshire’s Georgie Boyce scored 5* as England’s innings closed on 228, before restricting the tourists to 112 for nine.

Since 2019 Trent Bridge has hosted matches involving Loughborough Lightning – in the Kia Super League and in the Charlotte Edwards Cup – while in The Hundred competition the Trent Rockets have attracted the largest numbers of spectators to watch women’s cricket in Nottingham.

2023 has seen The Blaze make Trent Bridge their base, before England and Australia do battle in what is set to be the best attended women’s test on English soil.