EE: Research Notes * Document in Bodleian Library dated 1344 showing a nun holding a ball while a monk waits to strike it with what looks like an old-fashioned cricket bat. In the background stand four fielders, two monks and two nuns with hands raised waiting for a catch * Depressing reference by a woman to cricket in 1677 – Earl of Sussex’s wife reported she was growing tired of cricket… * First recorded women’s cricket match took place a year after the publication of the first Code of Rules in 1744.

* Newspapers printed in the 18th century were low, so there was little mention of women in the game

* As interest increased, reports become more detailed

* 26th July, 1745 first account of a women’s match in published press

* Village matches were played at this time in areas of England.

* Games played in souther England in 1700’s – cricket flourished with high levels of women’s involvement.

* Matches such as “Single vs Married” or “Married vs Maiden”

* 1775 recorded in Weekly Register- first six-a-side game

* Wives of men who played cricket often had much influence on their careers: John Small, a Hambledon player in England, had a wife who was a great enthusiast for cricket and could be seen on any matchday hurrying to the ground and when her husband was batting would yell “Run man run! You’ll be out!”

* Developed into a more serene game, 1777 match between Countess of Derby and some other Ladies in Surrey – famous for Elizabeth Burrell

* Burrell was a beautiful woman, who shined in the reported 1777 match and from this mment on, the 8th Duke of Hamilton fell in love with her.

* Encouragement by men for women to be athletic and involved in sports

* 3rd Duke of Dorset: wrote in magazine in 1777: “What is human life but a game of cricket? If so, who should not the ladies play it as well as we?” “Go on, and attach yourselves to the athletic, and by that convinve your neighbours the French that you despise their washes, their paint and their pomatons, and that you are now determined to convince all Europe how worthy you are of being considered wives of plain, generous and native Englishmen!”

* In the next 100 years this sentiment changed about athletic pursuits of women

* Upper class seemed to think that it was unladylike to take part