The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-08-17
GIRLS PLAYlAG CRICKET.
The Red and Blue Elevens Meet
on the Field at
! Windsor.
"A Self-Willed Lass who Main
tanned That the Game
was Feminine.
The "Original English Lady Cricketers"
and the Gsmo They Play-Women
Willow Wielders.

The "Orixinal English Lady Crioketers"
and the Game They Play-Women
Willow Wielders.
Especial Correspondence Of The IHDEPENDENT.]
LONDON, Aug. 7.-As the train from
Hampton Court whirled last night toward
the Waterloo station fragment of the con-
yersation between two other occupants OF
the compartment reached my ears. An
older lady was demonstrating. A younger
one replied:
"rm sure auntie, cricket is just as feml-
nine as hunting or golf, and for my part
mean to play whenever get an oppor-
tunity."
As feminine as hunting or golf! shades of
salts and the vinaigrette, or Pamela
and Clarissa, what comparison! Truly,
the English are before all things else, a
race of athletes, and their women share to
the full the national enthusiasm. Two
years ago remember seeing an eleven OF
lady cricketers play against an eleven of
young men handicapped with broomstlcks,
but last week saw at Windsor match OF
quite another description.
The series of public matches which is
being played this summer by the Red and
Blue elevens Of the "Original English Lady
Cricketers'' arouses a considerable degree
of enthusiasm, both because of the
really good hitting and fielding and because
of the position of the girls who
make up the teams. Miss Daisy Stanley,
the captain of the Blue eleven, has taken
the Trinity college certificates in music and
art, and before she went in for cricket
taught in the Music gymnasium at South
Kensington, pc rforminR several times be-
fore the Princess OF Wales in callsthenlc
displays. Miss Violet Westbrooke, the
captain of the Reds, is handsome girl of
20, who comes of county family" and
Miss Ella Heather, Miss Sheffield, Miss
Robinson, Miss Moss and the other crack
bowlers are, in the English sense, ladies"
who play cricket in public, not to make a
dime show spectacle of themselves, but
partly from love of the sport, as the public
school teams play, or as the great mate
was played of England against Australia at
Lords, and partly to popularize the game
among women, the two teams challenging
all amateur elevens of women and Offering
odds to arrange games.
Miss Heather. Miss Moss and Miss Charles
played a good deal last summer, Miss
as capital wicket keeper, but Miss Stanley
never played until the "Original Lady
Cricketers' organized last autumn. What
ever women take up nowadays it is with I
resolve to win, and so the teams went into
practice last September at st. Georges
tai Palace, South London. Here they wer
coached all winter by Mr.. Matthews, tn
Surrey professional, superintendent b.
Maurice Reed, of the Surrey county Cricke
club, and George Hearne, of the Ken
County club, and before their first publ
match at Liverpool was played this summe
such reports of their proficiency had sprea
abroad that visitors assembled by thousand
to watch the spirited contests of the girl'
They travel with matron and an assistan
matron who attend to the proprieties an
look after their comfort, and are maxim
quite a triumphant tour of the kingdol
with their jolly party of two dozen an,
allow for cases of illness, their trainer. I'M
pire and manager.
The grounds chosen for the exhibitic
match at Windsor were very pretty, wit
magnificent rows of old chestnuts formir
the background and shading the spectator
castle looking down from their height al
dominating the scene. 1t was such
as one will see in no other country tina
England, with pond on the left amol
the trees, where fantastic old Witty STUN
leaned over the water, contemplating the
own reflection, their gaunt arms twists
into tho most curious shapes and curv'
while shooting out from the trunks We
the Young branches. fresh and of viz
green, in strong contrast to the gnarl
crayness they grew from. Under thu
trees was grass of the intensest emerald,
color heightened by the black shade
thrown on 1t in this black and green Bl
~ :.1c-I Novnipv mt from un6er thu lI
foliage that dropped with its own weit
to the ground, one found the sunshine
golden. and the whites and the pinks a
the mauyes of the gaily dressed assembl.
contrasting with the great tree and
background.
whom took to be newspaper reporte
thew are beginning to have women report
even here. She protested that woma
cricket was no novelty, said she had play
with her brothers constantly until she '
And why do You stop at that hat, a ,,g
asked her companion, broau-shouldel
young Englishman.i
''Oh, we lost our money, and had to
tie down to earn my living.
eve no objection to girls cricket" Q
tinued he of the shoulders, III only
pretty to look at, but it's apt to be like
dies's Greek without the accents. and {
doesn't like to see fine old game carl
tured."
What further heresies the scoffer wo,
have unfolded were interrupted by the
pearance of the teams. It was an exec
ingly picturesque spectacle as the Reds a
Blues filed up the ground. I
not think ! have ever seen more exc
tionally fine lot of girls, speaking now
their physique and bearing. Most of thu
looked to be above the average height a
they were splendidly proportioned, GIRLS
" slender, but erect and with a supplen,
and swing about them that seemed to i
dictate some considerable muscular strene
and to speak of life in the open air. l
Iced, the further ones acquaintance pl
ceeds with the class of English girls "
fill up the ranks of the feminine tennis a
cricket players the less one wonders at tn,
nerve and skill in the magnifcently equi
ped gymnasiums, and at their feats on
running path and in the hunting field. Z
daughters of English gentlemen-a1
since any Englishman is legally entitled
call himself gentleman if he has an
come of EGO year which he doesn't We
for, the term in the assimilation of mt
ners is becoming very broad one
fairly brought up out of doors. b,
seem them punting .on the Thames 9
tramping in the highlands until b.
learned that the aurora borealis that tin
their cheeks and their lips, and the stocl
endurance that makes them on an aver
far more formidable tennis players Il
their sisters in America are the natural
hefitance of generations of healthful
The Blues wore sailor blouses of wi
flannel, open at the throat and with Il