Rachael Heyhoe Flint, Baroness Heyhoe Flint, ( Heyhoe; 11 June 1939 – 18 January 2017) was an English

cricketer Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

, businesswoman and philanthropist. She was best known for being captain of England from 1966 to 1978, and was unbeaten in six Test series: in total, she played for the English women's cricket team from 1960 to 1982. Heyhoe Flint was captain when her team won the inaugural 1973 Women's Cricket World Cup, which England hosted. She was also the first female cricketer to hit a six in a Test match, and one of the first ten women to become a member of the MCC. She also played as

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...

for the England national

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

team in 1964. According to

Scyld Berry Anthony Scyld Ivens Berry, known as Scyld Berry (pronounced "Shild", born 28 April 1954) is an English journalist and cricket correspondent of the ''Daily Telegraph''. He was editor of ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'' from 2008 until 2011. He was ...

: "She was, among other achievements, the Dr WG Grace of women's cricket – the pioneer without whom the game would not be what it is."

Early life

Rachael Heyhoe was born in Wolverhampton. Her parents Roma Crocker and Geoffrey Heyhoe were teachers of

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorat ...

who met at a college in Denmark. They both taught in Wolverhampton. She was educated at Wolverhampton Girls' High School from 1950 to 1957, and then attended

Dartford College of Physical Education Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames estuary, is Thurrock i ...

(then became a part of

University of Greenwich The University of Greenwich is a public university located in London and Kent, United Kingdom. Previous names include Woolwich Polytechnic and Thames Polytechnic. The university's main campus is at the Old Royal Naval College, which along with it ...

) until 1960.

Cricket career

Heyhoe Flint was chiefly a right-handed batter, and occasional

leg spin Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when the ball bounces on the ...

bowler. She played in 22 Women's Test cricket matches from 1960 to 1979, with a batting average of 45.54 in 38

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). Innings, in cricket, and rounders, is ...

. She took 3 Test wickets and scored three Test centuries, including her highest score of 179 not out, a world record when she scored it in 1976 also against Australia at the Oval, earning a draw to save the series by batting for more than 8½ hours. She also played in 23 Women's One Day Internationals, with a batting average of 58.45 and a top score of 114. She was captain of the England women's cricket team for 12 years, 1966 to 1978; while the captain, she never lost a match. She hit the first six in a women's Test match in 1963, at

the Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...

against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. She was instrumental in the effort to hold the first Women's World Cup, securing funding from her friend

Jack Hayward Sir Jack Arnold Hayward (14 June 1923 – 13 January 2015) was an English businessman, property developer, philanthropist, and president of English football club Wolverhampton Wanderers. Biography Early life The only son of Charles William ...

. She captained the England team in the tournament, and scored a half-century in the final, which England won against Australia at Edgbaston on 28 July 1973. The women led the men: first men's Cricket World Cup was not held for another two years. In 1970 she was one of those who set up a fund to pay for police protection for the planned South African tour. and she was one of the many who argued that sport and politics should be kept separate. Unequivocally in her 1978 autobiography she said "Who are we... to tell the South Africans how to run their country?" It was, she said, "... their country, and hardly the place of any English people to criticise". This was also the position of the British Women's Cricket Association in which she played a leading part. She was captain of the first England women's team to play at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England ...

in the 1976

Women's Ashes The Women's Ashes is the perpetual trophy in women's international cricket series between England and Australia. The name derives from the historic precedent of the Ashes in male cricket and, until 2013, was similarly decided exclusively on th ...

series. After being replaced as England captain in 1978, she played her last Test match in the 1979 series against

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

, but went on to play in the 1982 World Cup. Her final WODI appearance was in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

of the 1982 Women's Cricket World Cup. She primarily played domestic cricket for West Midlands, whilst also making appearances for West of England,

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, L ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avo ...

and various composite XIs.

Other sports

She played as

for the England national

team in 1964 and was a single-figure handicap golfer. She played hockey, squash and golf for Staffordshire. She served on the board of directors of

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club' ...

(football club) from 1997 to 2003 and was then a vice-president.

Outside sport

She was a teacher of

from 1960 to 1964, at Wolverhampton Grammar School and then Northicote School also in Wolverhampton. She then became a journalist with the ''Wolverhampton Chronicle''. She was a sports writer on a freelance basis for the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph. She also worked as a broadcaster, and in 1973 she was appointed TV's first woman sports presenter with ITV's '' World of Sport''. After retiring from cricket, she continued to work as a journalist and broadcaster and also became an award-winning after-dinner speaker, businesswoman and board director. In 1973, she was selected by the Guild of Professional Toastmasters as the Best After Dinner Speaker. She was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in 1972, and was one of the first ten women admitted to the MCC in 1999, as an honorary life member. In 2004, she was the first woman elected to the full committee of the MCC and latterly became a Trustee. She was made a director of Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. in 1997, later becoming an ''ex officio'' Vice-president. She was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of the West Midlands in 1997, and was President of the Lady Taverners charity from 2001 to 2011. She was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(OBE) in the

2008 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2008 for the Commonwealth realms were announced on 29 December 2007, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 2008. The recipients of honours are displayed here as they were styled before their new honour, and ...

, and in October 2010 was inducted into the

ICC Cricket Hall of Fame The ICC Cricket Hall of Fame recognises "the achievements of the legends of the game from cricket's long and illustrious history". It was launched by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in Dubai on 2 January 2009, in association with the Fe ...

, the first woman to achieve this accolade. She became one of the first female directors of the

England and Wales Cricket Board The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the national governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was formed on 1 January 1997 as a single governing body to combine the roles formerly fulfilled by the Test and County Cricket Board, ...

in 2010. On 19 November 2010, it was announced that she was to be ennobled to sit in the House of Lords as a

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

peer. "I was completely taken by surprise when I took the call from the Prime Minister in September", Heyhoe Flint said. "Obviously I am really thrilled at my appointment but still very humbled at the thought of joining such a historic institution ... My background in sport, journalism, charity and community work will I hope stand me in good stead, and I hope I can make a positive contribution as a working peer. I will certainly look forward to the commute from one Lord's to another Lords." She was subsequently invested as a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

on 21 January 2011 taking the title Baroness Heyhoe Flint, of

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...

in the County of West Midlands. The formal designation of her title without a hyphen broke a rule that peerage titles could only have one word, previously observed by the likes of Lord Lloyd-George, Lord Alanbrooke, Lord Chuter-Ede and Lord Lloyd-Webber. In April 2011, Heyhoe Flint was granted the

freedom Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving one ...

of Wolverhampton. In 2021, the MCC announced it would name a gate at Lords after Rachael Heyhoe Flint, and this was formally opened, and a plaque to her unveiled, by her son Ben, along with her protégée

Clare Connor Clare Joanne Connor (born 1 September 1976) is an English former cricketer who batted right-handed and bowled slow left arm spin. She held the presidency of Marylebone Cricket Club from 2021 until 2022. She made her England One Day Internati ...

, the MCC president, during the August 2022 test match there against South Africa.

Personal life

On 1 November 1971, Rachael Heyhoe married Derrick Flint (1924–2018). Her husband had a

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

career comprising 10 matches for Warwickshire CCC in 1948–1949 playing as a leg-spin and googly bowler. She adopted a double-barrelled surname, becoming Rachael Heyhoe Flint (erroneously hyphenated in many sources as "Heyhoe-Flint"). Their son Ben (born 1974) also played cricket. He emigrated to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

in 2001 where he runs businesses related to sports and entertainment. She was also stepmother to Derrick Flint's children: Simon, Hazel and Rowan Flint.

Death

Her death, after a short illness, was announced by

on 18 January 2017. She was remembered during the ''in memoriam'' at the 2017 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards. In memory of Heyhoe Flint, in 2017 the International Cricket Council named their ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year accolade, the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award. In 2020, the women's domestic 50-over competition was named the

Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy The Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy is an English women's cricket domestic competition, named after former England captain Rachael Heyhoe Flint, Baroness Heyhoe-Flint, who died in 2017. The first edition of the tournament took place during August ...

Bibliography

With

Netta Rheinberg Netta Rheinberg MBE (24 October 1911 – 18 June 2006) was an English cricketer, journalist and administrator. She appeared in one Test match for England in 1949, against Australia. She played domestic cricket for Middlesex. Her single Test m ...

, she co-authored a history of women's cricket: ''Fair Play: The Story of Women's Cricket'', Angus & Robertson, 1976, (). She also wrote an instructional guide to field hockey called, ''Rachael Heyhoe Flint: Field Hockey'' with Barron's Sports Books () in 1978. She authored her autobiography ''Heyhoe'' () in 1978, published by

Pelham Books Pelham may refer to: People * Pelham (name), including a list of people with the name Places In Australia * Pelham, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region In Canada * Pelham, Ontario * Pelham Range, on Vancouver Island, British ...

with a foreword from comedian and cricket-lover Eric Morecambe.

References

External links

*
MCC delivers first 10 maidens
(

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

, 16 March 1999)
July 1969 appearance as the 'castaway'
on BBC Radio 4's ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a "castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usua ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Heyhoe-Flint, Rachael Heyhoe Flint, Baroness 1939 births 2017 deaths People educated at Wolverhampton Girls' High School Alumni of the University of Greenwich Cricketers from Wolverhampton England women Test cricketers England women One Day International cricketers West Midlands women cricketers East Midlands women cricketers West women cricketers Warwickshire women cricketers Female field hockey goalkeepers Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. directors and chairmen Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II Conservative Party (UK) life peers British sportsperson-politicians Deputy Lieutenants of the West Midlands (county) Officers of the Order of the British Empire