Forgotten women's cricket league told in play

The forgotten story of the working class women and girls who played cricket in 1930s Bradford is to be retold on the stage.

Kirsty Smith wrote This Girl Did after seeing a photograph of the Bradford Ladies' Evening Cricket League in a history book.

The play follows a girl and her grandmother who work together to research the league, in particular three players who competed.

An informal read-through is taking place at Kala Sangam in Bradford later, followed by a question and answer session.

Ms Smith said: "The play follows two time periods. There is a grandmother and her granddaughter, Zainab, who is playing cricket today in Bradford and finds out about the story.

"Between them they research the ladies' league and step into the past, finding out about three cricket players from Bradford."

The women are Dot Allen, who played for Bradford and represented Yorkshire; Annie Taylor, who was the Keighley Captain and also represented Yorkshire; and Kathleen Wilson, who was inspired by the first female clerk employed by the Halifax Building Society.

The English cricket legend Betty Snowball - who appeared in 10 Test matches between 1934 and 1949 - also appears in the play as a fairy godmother.

Ms Smith said: "In the 1930s, there were thousands of mill-working girls playing cricket across West Yorkshire. There was a real boom, especially in Bradford.

"There were even county matches played between Yorkshire and Lancashire for a huge big silver cup called the Hannah Drake Trophy.

"These matches were played in Keighley, Bradford and Morecambe, where they once had to find extra deck chairs as so many spectators turned up."

Ms Smith, whose previous work includes a play based on the Bronte sisters called Jane Hair, said she tried to find out more about the league but drew a blank.

She said she spoke to Bradford Libraries, local museums including the Yorkshire Cricket Museum in Headingley, she even went to the cricket ground Lord's, but no-one had any record of the league.

"I thought, why has this story not been told? And why has it been forgotten?

"I think you can come to your own conclusion about why that is because really, it's working class women from Bradford."

Ms Smith added: "We do know quite a bit about ladies who were playing association cricket, who went to private schools like Harrogate Ladies College and Roedean.

"But this Bradford league was very different. It was girls in the mills playing cricket, it was wonderful.

This Girl Did received funding from Bradford Council and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, supported by West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

West Yorkshire Women and Girls Cricket League are partners in the project.

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