How an opening batswoman in England saved the lives of guest staying at Mount Isa’s Argent Hotel.
In 1934 England selected a women’s team to tour Australia and New Zealand for the 1934-35 summer. The first Test match for women began on 28 December, 1934 and a tall elegant opening batswoman strode to the crease for the home side.
Hazel (right) walking out to face the first ball in women’s Test Cricket
Her name was Hazel Pritchard and she turned 21 two days before Christmas and five days before the Test began. In all she faced the tourist four times during their tour, the first for her home state New South Wales.
Hazel top scored in both innings making 27 and 75 in a match England won by seven wickets. She had the honour of facing the first ball ever bowled in women’s Test Cricket at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground but it was not a long day for her.
She was out hitting her own wicket for four against Myrtle MacLagan’s bowling and in the second innings scored 20. The second Test was rather forgettable as she collected a pair and in the third and final Test scored five in each innings.
Official Program (Melbourne Cricket Club)
Myrtle MaLagan proved the destroyer for England, first with her off spin and then wielding the willow. She bowled the first ball in Test cricket and took the first wicket in Test cricket (Hazel’s) and when the innings was complete she had figures of 7 for 10 as Australia crumbled for a total of 47.
Myrtle then opened the England innings to score 72 runs and in the second Test made the first century in women’s Test Cricket with 119 at the Sydney Cricket ground. The English won the first two Test convincingly and were on top in the drawn third.
Hazel was a very good fielder and normally patrolled the cover area but in Australia’s first innings int eh first Test Australian wicket-keeper, Hilda Hills retired hurt with a broken nose on 2. Hilda was unable to play any further part in the match and it fell to Hazel to don the gloves and keep wickets.
It was a disappointing series for Hazel who was seen by most as the batter most likely to succeed. She was the most attractive stroke maker in the country, and during the tour match against New South Wales English captain Betty Archdale noticed her.
““Hazel Pritchard, small, rather shy and very good looking, was the attractive bat in Australia. She made 27 and 75 for N.S. W. Her batting was graceful and stylish. Hazel Pritchard was also one of the best Australian fielders, most often fielding at cover.”
Her words were prophetic and Hazel’s class realised when the two teams met in England in 1937.
During the 1936–37 season domestic season Hazel scored the first century in women's interstate cricket, retiring after scoring 144 against Queensland. Her good form continued in England scoring 617 runs in eight matches with a high score of 144 not out.
She warmed up for the First Test with 74 not out against Kent and 96 and 43 not out against the Midlands. Her 87 runs in the first innings set Australia up for their first Test win and she celebrated by scoring the first century by an Australian woman in England against a team representing the "North of England."
She was Australia’s best batter on tour and that 144 not out, and a total of 306 runs in three Test at the average of 51.
In Australia women's Cricket had struggled for acceptance until that 1937 tour. It was considered a man’s game and women at times faced criticism and ridicule when playing.
Then of course there were the boorish critics who warned that sport might distract women from their main task of procreating. The debate about suitably modest uniforms to wear while playing led one local councilor in Sydney to describe women’s Cricket as "burlesque and a leg show".
The 1937 tour forced many to change their view with Hazel’s performance at the forefront. In a 1937 newsreel of the women's cricket Test at Northampton, the announcer couldn't resist a jab at the naysayers:
"What astonished everybody and annoyed all the men was the skill the ladies showed at this difficult game."
The photo of Hazel in the Women’s Weekly is captioned with a description of the suitable clothing (Keegan/Scanlan family)
There was little coverage of the women’s game however Hazel seemed to be the catalyst for change. She was a natural cricketer, attractive, likeable and engaged to be married and on that 1937 tour the British newspapers dubbed her the "girl Bradman".
The ‘girl Bradman’
The first interstate matches were held in 1930-31 when Victoria and Queensland were invited to a carnival by New South Wales. The captain of the New South Wales side was Hazel’s older sister Edna.
Born in Newtown the sisters and their brother Norman were taught to play cricket in their backyard by their father. A keen sportsman Bill owned a little jewellery shop and was an alderman on Newtown Council becoming mayor, briefly, in 1922.
Edna (right) took up netball when she was 12 and when old enough Hazel joined her. Edna was selected in and named captain of the first New South Wales state team in 1928.
She captained the state side for four years and Hazel joined her from 1930 to 1932. While Hazel had height Edna was the opposite, a five foot bundle of energy.
In 1927, the Pritchard family moved from inner Sydney to the seaside suburb of Brighton-Le Sands were Edna and Hazel joined the local female lifesaving club.
As members they took part in the opening ceremony of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in March 1932.
She first represented New South Wales in cricket in 1928–29 and was featured in the Australian Women’s Weekly. She remained skipper of the New South Wales side until 1935 when her competitive career was ended by repeated ankle injuries.
In 1936 Edna married Western Suburbs rugby league star Alan Ridley who toured England twice with the Kangaroos. After their marriage Edna and Alan moved to Orange but the sisters remained close throughout their lives.
Edna and Alan’s son Robert played rugby league with the Balmain Tigers in the early 1960s and daughter Yvonne represented New South Wales in netball.
Edna and Hazel played Cricket for a St George team called the Cheerios but Hazel’s introduction to the game was by accident.
"I was interested in tennis and didn't give a thought to cricket.” Hazel said in a newspaper report. “Elder sister Edna was the cricketer. One day her team was short and I was asked to fill the team."
The tour of England was not the experience of today where players are paid and all travel, accommodation and everything else is covered by Cricket Australia. Players had to pay their own way and provide their own equipment.
The team sailed tourist class on the S.S. Jervis Bay, stopping in Colombo, Aden, Port Said and Malta before docking at Southampton. Whenever they stopped Hazel embraced every chance to explore.
The 1937 team on the SS Jarvis Hazel sitting front left (Keegan/Scanlan Family)
In Colombo she rode a 30-year-old performing elephant named Raho; in Port Said she took a side-trip to Cairo crossing the desert by camel to marvel at the pyramids and the Sphinx.
While the other women held back, Hazel learned to bargain with stallholders and reported her frugality with pride.
Editorial cartoonists mocked the list of shipboard rules which dictated where the women could go, what they should wear to dinner, early bedtimes, no drinking, smoking or gambling, and compulsory "physical drill".
Sportswriter Pat Jarrett of the Melbourne Herald persuaded her boss Keith Murdoch to let her cover the series and so she travelled with the team. She filed reports throughout the tour which all the major newspapers carried, as did the Women's Weekly.
Hazel front right (Bradman Museum)
In England, the Australians were treated with a mix of novelty and admiration.
They attended George VI's coronation, were billeted with aristocratic families, took tea at 10 Downing Street with Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin and Mrs Baldwin (herself a cricketer for the White Heather Club) and had bats crafted at the Gunn & Moore factory in Nottingham.
Just as Bradman had lifted spirts the women captured the English public’s imagination and steadily drew them in and earned their respect. From 2,000 spectators at the first Test crowds grew to 15,000 for the final.
"All these women ask is that they be taken seriously and not judged by male standards," journalist Pat Jarrett wrote In one of her last dispatches 90 years ago.
The third Test was held at the Oval but they were not permitted to play at Lord's. It was until 1976. 40 years later that the doors to the home of Cricket were opened for women.
A member of that 1976 team was Karen Hill who recalled the occasion.
"We played the first-ever women's game at Lord's. A photographer wheedled his way into the change rooms and took a shot of us half-dressed. That was the picture on the front page of the papers the next day. So, like our predecessors, we've been fighting for acceptance all this time."
Hazel wrote letters home and they captured the rivalry with the English perfectly with the home side nicknaming her "Schnitzel".
"Am sure we took some of the conceit out of them, for although they are really very nice, they have got an annoying superior look about them," she noted dryly.
Hazel produced some tremendous batting on the tour and she was touched by the many ovations she received from the growing crowds throughout the series. Despite her success she was a hard marker on herself.
"The third test is over and with it a lot of worry and concentration. I go to bed at nights and toss and turn, score centuries and ducks in the one innings, drop catches and take spectacular ones. Oh, it's been a strain, believe me. I'm awfully sorry to disappoint you all by not scoring a century in one of the tests. But had you seen me batting, I think you would have been satisfied." She wrote after the final match at The Oval.
Hazel batting in England (Keegan/Scanlan family)
When Hazel departed on the tour of England she was engaged to Les Scanlan, the son of the Argent Hotel lease Thomas Scanlan. Les had set his alarm clock for 1:30am so he could listen to the Test match on the radio.
When he awoke he could not locate the radio but heard the crackling of burning timber and felt a rush of smoke. Realising the building was on fire he felt for the door and as he went through heard the bed fall through the floor to join the radio in the fire below.
Though the origin of the fire could not be found investigations found it started on the ground floor in the centre of the building. Les’s room was directly above it and only the alarm for his wife’s Test match saved his life and many others.
From the time he raised the alarm the blaze spread so rapidly that eight minutes later the roof caved in. None of the guests, staff or Scanlan family saved anything except what they were wearing when they went to bed.
The building was destroyed but the quick action of MIM’s Chief Engineer George Catt in rushing several fire-hoses, to the scene from the Company's power house helped contain the fire to the Argent only.
Hazel and Les married on 23 March, 1938 and she moved to Mount Isa where she planned to continue preparing to play interstate and international Cricket.
Les and Hazel on their wedding day (Keegan/Scanlan family)
"I will still play for New South Wales, and I hope to get practice with the men's teams in the Mt Isa district. At present I plan to go to Sydney about two months before the important games so that I shall be able to get match practice with women players."
For his part Les was looking forward to travelling with her and watching her perform as he had mostly only been able to read about or listen to her achievements.
At the beginning of 1939 she travelled to Sydney but in her first outing was dismissed third ball. At the time she said,
"I intend to try also for selection for the team to meet the English tourists coming to Australia this year. In Queensland my only practice has been on a concrete wicket against male friends of my husband. That was back in November as it's been too hot in the last two months to do anything, but rest. I shall stay in Sydney for at least three months.”
Her goal was to make the New South Wales side for the inter-State carnival In March. In those days there was no home and away games it was a carnival and Hazel made her debut for New South Wales at the tender age of 17 in 1931.
In September the English postponed their tour due to the outbreak of World War II and essentially ended Hazel’s career. She finished with 340 runs in six Tests at an average of 28.33.
In first class Cricket she scored 1461 runs at an average of 47.12 and a high score of 193 not out.
She passed away from cancer in 1967 at the young age of 53 and her contributions to Cricket was recognised in 2011 when she was inducted into the Cricket New South Wales Hall of Fame.
Hazel with Les and family (Keegan/Scanlan family)
