The Trailblazers

Show Notes

Episode 1 - The Trailblazers: those who battled hostility, scepticism and doubt to forge a path for the next generation of women cricketers.

In this episode of The Maiden Summer we tell the story of the women who challenged the idea that cricket was a game only for men. From early charity matches and newspaper scandals, to the first time a team of women from Australia play a team of women called "England", this is the story of the women who fought for the right to play Australia's national pastime.

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.au
Production by Chris Plumridge at Jet Streamer, visit jetstreamer.com.au
Featuring the voices of Jane Longhurst, Hazel Pigrum and Sue Westwood.

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). 

https://shop.fortysouth.com.au/products/on-the-front-foot-the-rise-of-tasmanian-womens-cricket-by-jacqui-triffitt-hb

Louise Zedda-Sampson, Bowl The Maidens Over – Our First Women Cricketers (lszpress, 2021)
https://louisezeddasampson.com.au/shop/bowl-the-maidens-over/

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.