THE world's greatest cricketer Don Bradman was one of the pioneers of women's cricket in Newcastle.
Hard to believe today, isn't it? And yet, it happened back on October 23, 1931 at No. 1 Sportsground in Newcastle.
It was the height of the Great Depression when (later Sir) Don Bradman came to Newcastle along with another legendary cricketer Stan McCabe. Each was to captain a female cricket team to aid charity.
Both men may have been unaware, but it was a very volatile time for Newcastle cricket.
Almost a year before at Birdwood Park in the city's West End, male and female teams clashed over who had use of the cricket pitch there.
It was a fiery start to the cricket season. The men didn't like to be challenged in their own special game while about to play on their turf - especially by upstart women.
The women, on that day in November 2, 1930, complained the men swore, were using profane language, like 'bullockies,' and then started to pelt the women with cricket balls. Police were called.
The women were accused of totally upsetting the men by pulling up their stumps . . .
The women were accused of totally upsetting the men by pulling up their stumps, throwing away the bails and trying to rip matting from the pitch. The men eventually abandoned the wicket and the women played instead, cheered on by about 200 supporters.
So, it probably seemed a bit of a surprise when Don Bradman suddenly turned up with McCabe to play cricket, not with males, but with each captaining a female cricket team.
"It's a forgotten story. The teams were called Bradman's Girls X1 and McCabe's Girls X1," former long-time Newcastle Herald sportswriter George Piggford told Weekender.
"Bradman went into bat and was caught out for 18 runs by McCabe from a ball by Merewether's Eileen Thornton. She was the exception in the ranks of women cricketers back then as most women didn't bowl overarm.
"The game was later washed out and it's faded from memory. So has the fact that at one stage in the early 1930s hundreds of local women played cricket, before it died out.
"That was after a dispute in 1935 with the women's state association. They didn't come back for 40 years."
Author Piggford has now done justice to the overlooked era by finally published a slim, boutique book called Cricket Found A New Frontier - Newcastle's Female Pioneers.
Inspired by his researcher John Hay, now of Warialda, the book reminds us of how far females in cricket have really come over time and what a coup it was to get The Don here in 1931, especially to lead a female team.
"You must remember that Bradman even aged 23 years in 1931 was already an established international cricketer. He'd played in the 1928-29 Test series and then went to England in 1930. He was well and truly established," Piggford said.
He said his book had a long history dating back almost 20 years. The initial setback had been the death years ago of the book's publisher Norman Talbot.
"But the book is far more appropriate now than it would have been in 2003 because women's cricket has really taken off. Look at the recent Test match between Australia and England," he said.
"When Bradman (1908-2001) and McCabe came here it was in the depths of the Depression to raise money for the Mayor's Relief Fund and Newcastle Ambulance.
"It was in an era when they'd hold 'tarpaulin musters' to raise money. This involved four people each holding one end of a canvas and going around the crowd urging them to throw coins into it."
"The female teams had names like the George Wallace X1 (named after a versatile, Aberdeen-born comic of the day) and the Jack Lang X1 (named after the controversial NSW Premier who built the Sydney Harbour Bridge)."
Piggford, now 86, said he was especially pleased selling the Bradman Museum in Bowral 12 copies of his book.
"I was told there is no other record of the day when Bradman captained a female cricket team," he said.
Cricket Found A Fresh Frontier ($25) can be ordered via email at geepee159@gmail.com. The book's foreword is by former Australian captain Belinda Clark.
HIDDEN CUP YARNS
Here's some feedback regarding last weekend's yarn about Terry Ryan's mystery portrait of the Hunter's 1908 Melbourne Cup winner Lord Nolan.
As you may remember, the horse was owned by famous Maitland race trainer John Mayo whose horse Lord Cardigan earlier won the Cup in 1903.
Mayo was the great, great grandfather of Mayfield's Robyn Mayo who recalls a family story associated with the 1908 Cup win.
"After the race, John Mayo had his horse Lord Nolan drink champagne straight out of some sort of a trophy," she said.
"I don't know though where the English names of his racehorses all came from. Maybe he himself came from England. I would like to know more, but a lot of family material was lost in the 1955 Maitland flood.
"I did hear though that Lord Cardigan, his 1903 Cup winner, was better-looking than Lord Nolan, but I don't know if that's true or not," Ms Mayo said. (Both horses were related by blood.)
Another Mayo descendant, Ray Pearce, of Warners Bay, revealed trainer John Mayo almost won the Melbourne Cup twice in a row.
And the following story is largely confirmed by race records.
Pearce said he'd heard his relative played poker back in 1904 with a bookmaker who then lost 2000 guineas to Mayo.
Unable to pay the debt immediately, the bookmaker instead offered his mare, Acrasia, a recent Caulfield Cup winner, to settle the debt. Mayo agreed. (Back then, 2000 guineas might be nominally worth $4200, or more likely it's worth about $90,000 today.)
Pearce said the next day the wily bookmaker returned to Mayo, saying he now had the money, so could be get his horse back?
Mayo, being a "fair man' agreed to the exchange. Shortly after, Mayo's horse Lord Cardigan and the bookie's horse, Acrasia, were rivals together in the 1904 Melbourne Cup.
"But the bookie's horse won the Cup by a nostril. I reckon my great, great grandfather John Mayo should have agreed to return the horse, but only AFTER the race" Pearce said wryly.
- Postscript: Mayo's Lord Cardigan, only in his second Melbourne Cup, strained his heart in the 1904 race and died a few days later.
