Frank Keating

Women in white

Just about the most warming, sun-beaming day of this monsoon summer was spent in a cuddly western nook of the Malvern Hills at blissful Colwall

Just about the most warming, sun-beaming day of this monsoon summer was spent in a cuddly western nook of the Malvern Hills at blissful Colwall, watching a languid few hours’ play of a Minor Counties match between Herefordshire and Devon. President of the Devon club is venerable dumpling David Shepherd, not long retired as all cricket’s finest umpire. Roly-poly Shep still terribly misses life in the middle. No wonder — up to last year when, at 65, he had to hand in his white coat, he’d been up early and expectant and ‘gone to the cricket’ for almost half a century, first as a stalwart county pro, then as everybody’s favourite fair and fearless international adjudicator. We sat on a bench in the sun, two old codgers chewing the cud — me entranced as ever at his sense and wisdom; well, at cricket, Shep has seen (and done) it all in 22-yard close-up. My only contribution to his enlightenment was to tell him the lovely field in which we sat was itself an historic one for the game. Colwall is the birthplace of women’s cricket.

Women’s cricket the world over has never been healthier, nor better structured. It is now played in 69 countries. Currently, the England team — which holds the Ashes, by the way, which is more than can be said for others — are in the middle of a six-match series of one-dayers against the New Zealand tourists (in Blackpool this weekend — Sunday and Monday, with the final at Shenley Park on Thursday, 30 August). England’s players would have learnt at their mother’s knee that Colwall cradled the modern game in 1926 when, for a summer’s holiday week, a group of hockey-playing friends booked the nearby Park Hotel and the village pitch for some cricket among themselves.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in