History – in the Making, in the Mix
This week, for the first time, Nottinghamshire and The Blaze joined forces for an open training session on the Trent Bridge turf in front of an audience of members.
The assembled audience were treated to a high-intensity collaborative fielding session, featuring the likes of England's Olly Stone and The Blaze's Marie Kelly, before retiring to the Derek Randall Suite for tea and pastries with players and coaching staff.
Seeing the two squads not just sharing the space but competing in mixed teams spoke volumes for the progress made in Women’s Cricket in recent years. It was clear that the men were not making any concessions to the women – everyone was expected to compete on even terms.
Historic though this was – and so appropriate in the week of International Women’s Day – it was a long way from being the first time that men and women had competed together on the pitch at Trent Bridge.
As far back as 1907, there was a match played in aid of local charities…but it certainly wasn’t a conventional cricket match.
It was billed as Notts Crimea and Indian Mutiny Veterans v Nottinghamshire Ladies!
All rather odd as both the Crimean War and the Indian campaign were long over by 1907, so the Veterans must have been of a fairly venerable age.
The Ladies team – who wore long white skirts, white shirts and green ties – did include one man, Cllr Swain, one of the organisers of the game. The umpires were the Sherriff of Nottingham, Cllr Ball and the Notts First XI skipper Arthur Owen Jones, who was to lead the county side to the Championship that season.
The Veterans won the toss and invited the Ladies to bat and they made 106, in about an hour and a half. When the men batted, they were much slower between the wickets and despite one veteran, Trooper Holland who was said to be a survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade, wielding an oversize bat, they were bowled out.
The game must have been a success as it was repeated the following year and a ticket for the 1908 match is among the more remarkable item of memorabilia held at Trent Bridge.
Such mixed and rather quaint matches were not uncommon a century or more ago; often there were rules changes to help the women compete. Men were required to bowl underarm, or with their ‘wrong’ hand; men batted with broomsticks or the ‘ladies’ were allowed to catch the ball in their skirts.
Such frivolities would not be needed today. Players like Kathryn Bryce of The Blaze, talk enthusiastically about their days playing with and against teams of men and boys. When Kathryn spoke to the Nottingham Cricket Lovers Society (NCLS) recently she was sure that competing directly with men and boys as she learned her cricket was part of her acquiring the skills and determination to make it to the top of the Women’s game.
And you can be sure that the Blaze members out on the turf this week would echo those sentiments. The Blaze are now part of the Trent Bridge family and however bizarre their antecedents, they are an effective modern – and successful – cricket squad.
The Blaze will play a number of matches at Trent Bridge this summer: see here
March 2025