An appointment in Queensland

History Makers—Part VI

The next few installments in this series will explore women’s domestic cricket in Australia and administrative arrangements ahead of the 1934/35 Ashes. We begin in Queensland, where the First Test Match will be played in December. The previous installment is here.

It’s late October 1934, and the Australian domestic cricket season is getting underway. Two-day elite-grade matches are to be played across the country. In anticipation of the English tourists, and as a concession to their custom, overs will consist of six balls rather than eight. The Queensland A-Grade tournament consists of four teams, down from six in previous years. The B Grade, on the other hand, has expanded to ten.

The Queensland Women’s Cricket Association was formed in 1929, and two years later became a founding member of the Australian Women’s Cricket Council, along with New South Wales and Victoria. Although they have participated in every interstate tournament since that year, Queensland are probably the weakest of the State teams.

As the tourists set sail, the first round in the A Grade concluded in Brisbane on the weekend of the 20th, Excelsior entertaining Bluebells at Musgrove Park, while Wynnum hosted Poinsettia. Queensland’s Test hopefuls Joyce Brewer, Jean Brewer, and Kath Smith took the opportunity to impress. Joyce, one of three cricketing sisters, scored an unbeaten 57 in anchoring the Excelsior innings. For Bluebells, all-rounder Kath Smith, bowling left-arm fast, secured four scalps, but Brewer’s sister Jean went one better with five as Bluebells stumbled following on. Wicketkeeper-batter Nell Whillans just about held the vistors’ innings together. In the other A-grade game, the fast-medium bowling of former vigoro state player May McLean was too much for the Wynnum batters. Edna Crouch, too, put in an excellent all-around performance to enhance her claims. More match details can be found here.

Asked which Queensland players she could see playing for Australia, Dot Waldron, Secretary of the QWCA, put forward three names:

Joyce Brewer (Excelsior), 19, is a right-handed middle-order batter and medium-paced bowler. She is one of three sisters who play for the State team. She debuted in 1932/33, contributing valuable runs at the top of the order.

Kath Smith (Breakaway CC), 19, Queensland’s captain, is a left-hand medium-fast bowler and middle-order right-handed batter who has played in every interstate tournament. To date she has taken eighteen wickets at 13.16 with a best of four for twenty against Victoria in 1930/31. Her name will still be current in women’s cricket a century from now: The Kath Smith Medal, named in her honor, and given each season to “the best and fairest women's cricketer playing in Queensland Premier Grade Competition,” will be awarded for the first time in 2002/03. (Ruby Strange, from Western Suburbs Cricket Club, will take the 2022/23 title.)

Nell Whillans (Bluebells) is a right-handed batter who also keeps wicket. She has played in two interstate tournaments without showing her full potential, but is a great prospect.

The Queensland selection committee—Dot Waldron, Kath Smith (captain), and Kath Wilson—remains unchanged this season. They will choose the team to play England in early November. It will practice at the Brisbane Cricket Ground.

A list of publications referred to in the compilation of these articles may be found here.