Ingrid van der Elst (born 4 May 1955) is a Dutch former sportswoman who represented her country in both

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

and

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

. In hockey, she was a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), 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 i ...

for the Dutch national indoor team, while in cricket she played as a right-handed batter, right-arm

off break Off spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners bowl with their right-arm and a finger spin action. Their normal delivery is called an off break, which spins from left to ...

bowler and occasional

wicket-keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the Cricket player, player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop Delivery (cricket), deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the ...

, and represented both

the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and International XI, playing seven

One Day Internationals One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four year ...

for the latter team at the

1982 Women's Cricket World Cup The 1982 Women's Cricket World Cup, known as the 1982 Hansells Vita Fresh World Cup for sponsorship purposes, was an international cricket tournament played in New Zealand from 10 January to 7 February 1982. Hosted by New Zealand for the first ...

. She played domestic cricket for

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

Sporting career

Born in

Bilthoven Bilthoven is a village in the Netherlands, Dutch province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. It is a part of the municipality of De Bilt. It has a railway station with connections to Utrecht (city), Utrecht, Amersfoort and Baarn. It is home to the Ne ...

, Utrecht Province, van der Elst is first recorded as playing cricket for her country in 1977, when the Dutch team toured England. All of her early matches for the Netherlands were played against regional and underage English teams, as the side was not yet judged competitive enough for full internationals.Women's miscellaneous matches played by Ingrid van der Elst
– CricketArchive. Retrieved 30 June 2015. At the

1982 World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain from 13 June to 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy, who defeated West Germany 3–1 in th ...

in New Zealand, van der Elst was one of two Dutch players (alongside Babette van Teunenbroek) to be selected for International XI, a composite team featuring players from several different countries. All seven of her ODI matches were played in the World Cup. Van der Elst was the team's number-three batter for the first five matches, but after a run of three consecutive

ducks Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family (biology), family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and goose, geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfam ...

(against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

), she was pushed down the order for the rest of the tournament. Her best score was 16 * in the second game against Australia, made from number seven, and she finished the tournament with 28 runs at an average of 5.60. Despite being a regular bowler for the Netherlands, van der Elst did not bowl at all in the World Cup, and in her last game, against

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, was asked to keep wicket in place of Chris Miller, going on to effect a

stumping Stumped is a method of Dismissal (cricket), dismissing a batter (cricket), batter in cricket, in which the wicket-keeper put down the wicket, puts down the wicket of the Glossary_of_cricket_terms#S, striker while the striker is out of their Bat ...

off the bowling of Gill McConway. In 1983, van der Elst played her first recorded internationals for the Netherlands, appearing against

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, and "Young Netherlands" in the one-off Centenary Tournament at

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

's Sportpark Maarschalkerweerd. Her tournament included scores of 43 against Ireland and 70 against Denmark, the latter made from a team total of only 116. Later in 1983, van der Elst moved to New Zealand. For three seasons (1984–85, 1985–86, and 1986–87), she played for

in the Hansells Cup, and was also a member of the New Zealand national squad (without playing any matches).

Other activities

Van der Elst later returned to the Netherlands from New Zealand and continued to play club cricket and hockey for several more decades. Outside of her playing career, she worked as a sportswriter – in New Zealand she wrote for '' The Evening Post'' and '' The Dominion Post'', and in the Netherlands for the

Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau The Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau BV (ANP) is the largest news agency in the Netherlands. ANP was founded on 11 December 1934 by the association of Dutch newspapers (NDP). The news agency's founders sought to produce a fast, fair and accurate ...

(ANP) news agency and certain regional publications. She has also worked in administrative positions for the

Koninklijke Nederlandse Cricket Bond The Royal Dutch Cricket Association ( Dutch: Koninklijke Nederlandse Cricket Bond; KNCB) is the governing body of cricket in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was formed in 1890 and received a Royal charter in 1958. The KNCB is responsible for ...

(KNCB), the governing body of Dutch cricket.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:van der Elst, Ingrid 1955 births Living people Cricket writers Dutch expatriates in New Zealand Dutch female field hockey players Dutch sports journalists Dutch women cricketers Female field hockey goalkeepers International XI women One Day International cricketers Sportspeople from De Bilt Wellington Blaze cricketers 20th-century Dutch sportswomen