UNUSUAL MATCH

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20115, 8 December 1939, Page 4

UNUSUAL MATCH

MEN AND WOMEN NEW ZEALANDER IN TEAM Miss P. Vosper, the New Zealand girl cricketer, had the honour of being chosen for the women’s team which lately played a match in Sydney against a team of men internationals. This unusual match was staged to augment the Lord Mayor's patriotic fund, and attracted a good crowd to the North Sydney Oval. There was a good deal of “chipping” before the match, the men pretending to be most worried about their sartorial appearance for the great day, some suggesting that perhaps a little starch should be added to the cuffs of their trousers! Arthur Mailey suggested that Stan McCabe should have his hair ("both of them,” he added) “permed” for the occasion. He himself was very worried about the match. “One cannot bowl a vicious legbreak which crashes into the lender shins of a female, and bully the umpire into giving the lady out legbefore,” he said. "And when batting against the weaker sex. is it gallant to crash a full toss to the boundary? These problems are disturbing, but not insurmountable.” On the great day, the men proved that they were not insurmountable by playing against the women with the greatest chivalry. With the aid of on ingenious operator who had obviously forgotten his schoolday lessons in arithmetic, they even allowed the score board to show that they had won. It was a good match, for all the picnic atmosphere—or perhaps, because of it, and the women did very well to knock up 184 for eight wickets in reply to the men’s innings of 208. ■