WOMEN'S CRICKET MAGAZINE, 1930-1967: MAKING CRICKET POSSIBLE, ENJOYABLE AND FRUITFUL FOR ALL WOMEN AND GIRLS?

Speaker: Rafaelle Nicholson (Queen Mary, University of London)

In the first edition of Women's Cricket magazine, published in 1930, the editor Marjorie Pollard stated that the aim of the magazine was “to make cricket possible, enjoyable and fruitful for all women and girls”. This paper considers the magazine as a whole up to when it ceased publication in 1967, and asks how successfully it managed to achieve this. It argues that in publishing the magazine, the editors were attempting to create an Andersonian “imagined community” of female cricketers.

The various ways in which this imagined community took shape is demonstrated by a detailed examination of the magazine's content, in particular its editorials, the Women's Cricket Association's “official news” page, the inclusion of advisory article series and articles on the history of the women's game, and the “personal news” pages. The correspondence pages are used to indicate who read the magazine, and how they perceived its content. Ultimately, it will be demonstrated that the key reason for the death of the magazine in 1967 was its failure to create an effective “imagined community”. The paper helps to explain the continued struggles of women's cricket to find a popular audience in the post-war years, shedding light onto a sport which remains chronically under-researched.

Rafaelle Nicholson is in her second year of a PhD at Queen Mary, University of London. Her PhD examines the changes and continuities in women's cricket in Britain since 1945. She previously studied at Merton College, Oxford, for a BA in History and Politics and a Master's degree in Women's Studies.

Time and Date: 5:15 PM, Monday, 20th February.
Location: Bloomsbury Room (Room G35), Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU.

All are welcome. For more information, please contact Dion Georgiou, at sportshistory@hotmail.co.uk.