Through the 1920s Marjorie Pollard was the leading all-rounder in English women's cricket and the founding journalist of the women's game. Her playing career, her organisation of the 1926 Colwall cricket week, and her editorship of Women's Cricket magazine from 1930 onward made her the central figure in the institutional history of women's cricket in England.
Women's cricket in England had been organised through clubs since the 1880s but lacked a national governing body, a national fixture list and dedicated journalism. Pollard provided all three.
Marjorie Pollard was born in 1899 and learned cricket at the Old Vicarage Ladies' Cricket Club in Northamptonshire. By the early 1920s she was the leading all-rounder — opening bat and slow left-arm spinner — in English women's cricket. Her playing career produced over 100 first-class hundreds (in informal women's cricket, no formal averages were kept) and she captained club sides into the 1940s.
In 1926 she organised the women's cricket week at Colwall in the Malvern Hills that produced the foundation of the Women's Cricket Association on 4 October. She was on the WCA executive from its formation. In 1930 she launched Women's Cricket magazine, the first dedicated women's cricket publication, which she edited until 1967.
Pollard also wrote on women's hockey (she captained the England hockey side) and on women's lacrosse. Her dual role as the country's leading woman cricket player and the country's only woman cricket journalist made her the central figure in the inter-war development of women's sport in England.
Early 1920s: Established as leading all-rounder in English women's cricket
1926: Organises Colwall cricket week
4 Oct 1926: WCA founded with Pollard on executive
1930: Launches Women's Cricket magazine
1934: WCA-organised first women's Test at Brisbane
Early 1920s
Pollard emerges as leading women's cricketer
Oct 1926
WCA founded at Colwall
1930
Women's Cricket magazine launched
1934
First women's Test, Brisbane
“We had to do everything ourselves — play the cricket, write the reports, persuade the editors. There was nobody else.”
Pollard continued to play, organise and write through the 1930s and 1940s. She edited Women's Cricket until 1967 and was instrumental in the development of the post-war women's game. She died in 1982.
Marjorie Pollard was the founding mother of English women's cricket — playing the leading role on the field, organising the institutions off the field, and writing the journalism that gave the game a public voice.
Pollard is regarded as the founder of organised women's cricket in England. The Marjorie Pollard Trophy is awarded annually for outstanding service to women's cricket.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.