Enid Bakewell ( Turton; born 16 December 1940) played for the English women's cricket team in 12

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between 1968 and 1979, and in 23 one-day international matches. A right-handed batter and

slow left-arm orthodox Left-arm orthodox spin or left-arm off spin, also known as slow left-arm orthodox spin bowling, is a type of spin bowling in cricket. Bowlers using this technique bowl with their left-arm and a finger spin action. Their normal delivery spins ...

bowler, on her figures she has a strong claim to be regarded as the best

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

that the English women's game has produced.Dual table toppers
/ref> In Tests she scored 1,078 runs at an average of 59.88, with 4 centuries, as well as taking 50 wickets at an average of 16.62. In what proved to be her final Test, she scored 68 and 112 * (out of an England total of 164) and took 10 for 75 (including career-best figures in the second innings of 7-61) against West Indies at Edgbaston in 1979.Scorecard
England Women v West Indies Women, Edgbaston, July 1979 Her final WODI appearance was in the

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of the 1982 Women's Cricket World Cup. She, along with Lynne Thomas, set the record for the highest opening run partnership in the history of

Women's Cricket World Cup The Women's Cricket World Cup is the quadrennial international championship of Women's One Day International Cricket tournament. Matches are played as One Day Internationals over 50 overs per team. There is also another championship for Tw ...

(246). In 2014 ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'' selected her as one of the five greatest female players of all time.

Early life

Bakewell was born in Newstead Village,

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

. She was encouraged to play cricket from an early age. She was educated at the primary school in Newstead and at Brincliffe County Grammar School, Nottingham. After playing for a local club, Notts Casuals WCC, she started to play for the Nottinghamshire county women's team aged 14. She initially concentrated on her batting but was encouraged to develop her slow left-arm bowling, which she modelled on Tony Lock. She studied at Dartford College of Physical Education, graduating in 1959. She married Colin Bakewell, an electrical engineer with Rolls-Royce. Their daughter was born in 1966, and they subsequently had two further children.

Cricket career

Bakewell was considered for selection for the Test tour to Australia in 1963. She was pregnant and so missed the home Tests against New Zealand in England in 1966. She joined the 1968–69 tour, playing in all three Tests against Australia and all three Tests against New Zealand. She opened the batting in her first Test, against Australia in 1968, and made a century on debut (an innings named by '' Wisden Cricket Monthly'' as one of the 'centuries that changed cricket'). She also scored centuries opening the batting in the first and second Tests against New Zealand in 1969. Small but quick and athletic, with good footwork, on the tour she achieved a batting average of 39.60 in 29 innings, and took 118 wickets at a bowling average of 9.70. In the first ever Women's World Cup competition in 1973, which England won, she scored 118 in the final match against Australia and took 2/28 in 12 overs. She also played, at age 41, in the 1982 Women's Cricket World Cup, taking 3 for 13 against India at Wanganui and then three for 29 against the International XI at Wellington. She also played in the three Tests at home against Australia in 1973, and the three home Tests against the West Indies in 1979. At Edgbaston in 1979 she scored 68 in the first innings, carried her bat to score 112 not out in the second innings, and took 10 for 75 in the match (3-14 and 7-61).

International centuries

Later life

She continued to play for

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and later

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into her 50s. She is an ECB-qualified coach. Bakewell has continued to play cricket into her 80s, playing for Caythorpe CC Women's Team in 2021 and in 2022 she toured Australia with the East Anglian Veteran Ladies team, playing matches against veteran men's and women's sides. Bakewell 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 ...

in 2012, becoming the third woman cricketer to be thus recognized (after Rachel Heyhoe-Flint and Belinda Clark). She was awarded the MBE in the 2019 New Year Honours.

References

External links