Cricketing characters #2: Rachael Heyhoe-Flint

"Girls don't play cricket."

That's the response Rachael Heyhoe was given in 1940 when the police stopped a game of street cricket she was playing with her brothers and his friends. They had set up 2 bins in the middle of the road in Rachael's home town of Wolverhampton, but upon hearing police sirens the game came to an abrupt end. The police officers took the names of all the boys, but once Rachael had emerged from her hiding spot and offered her name to the officer, the idea of a young girl playing cricket in 1940 was so incredulous to him that he didn't bother taking it. Rachael, by virtue of her gender alone,  had got away with it.

So started the story of a remarkable life which has seen Rachael Heyhoe-Flint become a trailblazer who revolutionised women's cricket, which created reverberations throughout women's sport in Britain.

Rachel was born in 1939 in Wolverhampton. Her parents were both Physical Education teachers. She adopted the Flint addition to her surname when marrying Derrick Flint, himself a former First Class cricketer who played 18 matches for Warwickshire in 1948-49.


Rachael was first capped for England in 1960 and became captain in 1966. Her playing career was amongst the most illustrious in the women's game and over her 22 years at international level, played 22 Tests and 23 One-Day Internationals. She averaged 45.54 over 38 Test innings (including 3 centuries) and 58.45 in ODI's. Her ODI average remains the highest ever for a batsman with more than 20 innings. An occasional bowler, she also took 4 international wickets. She was replaced as Captain in 1978 but returned to play her final matches in the 1982 World Cup.

Perhaps it is not an over-statement to suggest that without Rachael Heyhoe-Flint, women's cricket would not have risen to the heights it is at in 2015. Her passion and drive paved the way for the recognition of women in the highest circles of world cricket.

Like all women cricketers in her era, she had to find other work alongside her playing career. She found that freelance journalism was the most flexible work, but she also managed to fit in PE teaching and a marketing job. During her time as captain Rachael would often take the scorebooks back to her hotel at the end of a day's play and write articles for the Telegraph, Express, Reuters and the Press Association, in an effort to broadcast the women's game to wider audience. In a 2013 interview with the Independent she stated that seeing the matches covered in the national press gave the rest of the team a boost, even if the words were from their own captain.

Despite her efforts to garner new interest, women's cricket in the 1970's was generally declining in participation and awareness. The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) generally held rather snobbish views and being the driving force behind the development of cricket around the world, women's cricket development away from England also suffered. In 1969 Rachael approached a local Wolverhampton man - Sir Jack Hayward (who had previously acted as a benefactor for the Wolverhampton Wanderers football club). On her requests he had agreed to fund 2 tours for the England women's team to the West Indies. Following these successful tours Rachael and Haywood approached the Women's Cricket Association in 1971 to pitch the idea of the inaugural women's cricket World Cup. Haywood reportedly contributed £40,000 to the tournament. Rachael then worked tirelessly to make her vision a reality, and after securing another £100,000 from Prudential, the first cricket World Cup was contested in England in 1973.

It was contested by 7 teams, these being the main test playing nations at the time - England, Australia and New Zealand; Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago (invited following the earlier successful Heywood funded tours); a Young England team and an Invitational XI (effectively a Rest of the World team). A South African XI was initially offered a place, but the invitation was withdrawn following protests by the West Indian teams due to the apartheid laws in place at the time. Although Rachael was lucky enough to gain paid leave from her work as a PE teacher in Wolverhampton, many of the other players were not so fortunate. Indeed many lost their jobs for the chance to participate, such was the lack of recognition for the women's game. The tournament was won by England with a 92 run victory over Australia at Edgbaston which meant they topped the table following a round-robin format. Rachel herself scored 64 in this match as well as bowling the final over in the match. She recalled of this final over: "I paced out my run, turned to bowl and found that every one of my England team had placed themselves at least 70 yards out on the boundary edge - even wicketkeeper Shirley Hodges".

It is worth bearing in mind that this was played with virtually no monetary support from the sport's governing body or the most influential cricketing body in the world - the MCC. Most noteworthy maybe, is the fact that this was also played 2 years before the inaugural Men's tournament. Rachael's commitment and passion for her sport during this period was recognised when she was awarded an MBE for services to Women's cricket in 1972.

Following on from the success of the World Cup, the MCC somewhat reluctantly recognised the contribution of the women's team to the game, as calls for a first women's match at the home of the MCC - Lord's - grew louder. These calls were lead by Rachael herself who reportedly threatened to haul the MCC in front of the Equal Opportunities Commission if the request wasn't given consideration. In 1972, the MCC president Aiden Crawley finally conceded that the women "had done enough to deserve a game at cricket's headquarters".

Unfortunately this did not materialise until 1976 when England faced the touring Australians at Lord's for the first time, as part of the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations. This test series coincided with perhaps Rachael's most prolific batting form and provided her most memorable performance in an England shirt. Coming in at number 4 with England 66-2, she batted for 521 minutes, scoring 179 which was enough to lead England to a famous draw. It was her highest test score, a world record at the time and to put it into context of the match, the next highest score in the innings was just 39. The series finished with Rachael scoring another century at Edgbaston and averaging 87.50 over 3 tests.

The long-awaited match at Lord's finally came about when the England met Australia in the third ODI of the series. The MCC were gracious enough to allow the England women access to the changing rooms in the Lord's pavilion, as well as to the famous Long Room. Both were traditionally male only.  The match was a success with England winning the ODI by 9 wickets, Rachael herself being one of the not out batsmen and leading the team off the field. Despite the result, there was still reportedly some consternation amongst the more conservative-minded MCC members, with some even taking to the press to voice their disapproval. A member at the time named Brian Wijerane was quoted as saying: "I was quite shocked when I saw the women playing. Cricket is a game where concentration is very important and women are the greatest distraction a man can have around". The MCC had made some concessions by allowing the women players in the pavilion, but still maintained its strict male only policy by not allowing any non-playing female through its doors. Despite the obvious gains Rachael had instigated in progressing the women's game over the previous few years, clearly the MCC nut was going to be a particularly tough one to crack.

Indeed it was not until 1999 when the MCC eventually opened its doors fully to women members, thus ending 212 years of male exclusivity. Rachael herself, in her own words, had "the temerity to apply to be a member" in 1991. Despite this unsuccessful bid, she is regarded as one of the main catalysts to change, culminating in Rachael being one of the first 10 women to be admitted as members. Tony Lewis, the MCC president at the time, stated that "the unanimous thinking of the committee was simply this - we could not claim to be a great cricket club unless we had women's teams and women members". Persuading the 18,000 strong members though remained a challenge and an original vote in February 1999 failed to gain the required two thirds majority, but following pressure from lobby groups and the government, a second vote later in the year overturned the decision with a 70% majority.

Rachael has still been met with occasional resistance in the Long Room at Lord's however. In an interview with the Independent in 2013 she was quoted as saying: "Two summers ago, I walked through the Long Room at a Test match. This dear old codger looked up and he said: "Have you lost your way, my dear?" I thought, oh God, it's only nine years and he doesn't realise. I put my hand in my handbag and brought out my membership card and on it it says 'committee'. His friends were blushing on his behalf, but perhaps he didn't realise."

Even after all of this her other pioneering exploits in sport are quite remarkable. She became the first female sports commentator when she commentated on her beloved Wolverhampton Wanderers football club for ITV's World of Sport in the 1970's. She later became a director of the Wolves board in 1997. She became President of the Lady Taverners in 2001, and was one of the first 2 women appointed to the board of the England Cricket Board (ECB) in 2010. She was the first woman to be inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame, also in 2010. Her 1972 MBE became an OBE in 2008. In 2010 she was ennobled by David Cameron to sit in the House of Lords as a conservative party peer and the following year was created a life peer as she took on the title of Baroness Heyhoe Flint of Wolverhampton.

Oh, and she also played as a goalkeeper for the England Hockey team in 1964.

In 2014, rumours abounded that Rachael would momentously become the first female President of the MCC, perhaps finally breaking down the brick wall of conservatism the lingers in the famous Lord's pavilion. Alas this did not materialise - the job falling to David Morgan in succession of Mike Gatting following an election process described by Rachael as "as secret a nomination as for the next pope". How close she was to taking up one of the most influential positions in cricket is unclear. Rachael described in an interview with The Guardian newspaper in 2014: "If people think it is right that I should be appointed to one of the best positions in cricket, if I live long enough, that will be fantastic, but you don't go around lobbying for it." This lead on to one of my favourite quotes from her:

"If it happens to me one day – fantastic – if it doesn't I'll just carry on knitting and cooking."