Show Notes
Episode 2: The wheels of change. The fluctuating fortunes of women's cricket as a new generation of players emerge from the challenges of World War I and the Depression.
In this episode of The Maiden Summer we see how the momentum of the early years of women's cricket is lost as the power of international events relegates women's sport to a secondary concern. But as Australia recovers from the War years, a new era arrives, not just on the cricket field, but in newspapers, where the first of a generation of women sports journalists take on the role of reporting and promoting women's cricket.
ABOUT THE MAIDEN SUMMER:Australian women's cricket has been a feature of our summers for almost 150 years. And today's World Champion Australian team stands proudly on the shoulders of the bold and daring women who have gone before them. Featuring the voices of some of the women who were there and archival audio from the formative periods in Australian and International women's' cricket history, this podcast tells the story of women's fight to play Australia's national sporting pastime.
Written and Narrated by Nick Richardson, visit
nickrichardsonwriter.com.auProduction by Chris Plumridge at Jet Streamer, visit
jetstreamer.com.auFeaturing the voices of Sue Westwood, Mitch Cleary and Rosalie Flynn
RESOURCES:Audio:
Footage supplied by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia’s Film Australia Collection.
Oral History Collection, the National Library of Australia
Oral history Holdings, the National Museum of Australia
Thanks to Cinesound Movietone Productions
Books:
Jacquie Triffitt, On The Front Foot – The Rise of Tasmanian Women’s Cricket (Forty South Publishing, Hobart, 2021).
Rafaelle Nicholson, Ladies and Lords: a History of Women’s Cricket in Britain (Peter Lang, Oxford, 2019)
Richard Cashman and Amanda Weaver, Wicket Women – Cricket & Women in Australia (UNSW Press, Kensington, 1991)
What is The Maiden Summer?
Australia's champion women's cricket team stands on the shoulders of some of the most talented, bold, and daring women of preceding generations.
And pivotal to that modern success is the first Australia and England women's test series held here in the aftermath of the brutal 'Bodyline' Ashes series in 1932/33. It was a moment in time when the crowds turned up in their thousands to watch the women's Tests, the newspapers devoted column inches to the contests, and our women's cricketers looked set for a cherished place in the national sporting land.
This podcast series is about history, sport, Australia, and England, newspapers and journalists, triumph and loss, tradition and innovation. It's about the greatest rivalry in cricket, but more importantly, it's about the spirit and perseverance of dozens of women to make their own cricket history.
It was the long, hot days at the end of 1934, and the bright start of 1935. It was, for Australia's women's cricketers, the maiden summer.