Old Ds Making Headlines
Claire Taylor, Class of 1989, has made history! On 14th August, 2006, she became the first person (male or female) to score over 150 runs in a one day international at Lord’s when she made 156 off 151 balls to win the match for England. Claire who is a member of the class of 1989 came to Dolphin in 1985 when she was nine. She still remembers that her first class was called Holst because we were onto musicians that year and her last was Einstein. She immediately made an impact on the sporting life of the school, both in girls and boys sport. A tomboy, she loved most sports and her prowess was soon well known. She began her cricket career at Dolphin and captained the school team who won the Wrigley’s cricket county competition. No prize for Dolphin of going to Lords to play in the regional final since we were an independent school that had a girl playing for them! So we went to the Oval instead and played hard ball cricket for the first time! Claire also was an excellent chess player and in those days the school was one of the best in the country, often beating schools such as Magdelen College in the Times Competition. Her father, Fred, was an inveterate supporter and drove our 27 seat Mercedes bus to matches all over the county (with a team of five or six!). I particularly remember him setting off in a blizzard to Northampton for a (several times cancelled) match at the crack of dawn. In those days we thought nothing of sending a parent off alone with teams. Claire also played the violin and still plays with the Reading Symphony and Aldworth Philharmonic orchestras. After Dolphin Claire went to The Abbey briefly before moving onto Kendrick where she continued to work hard and play hard! One summer’s day I heard a loud knock on my kitchen door; it was Claire in her cycling helmet come to tell me that she had just won her place at Oxford to read maths. Claire went to Queen’s College where she captained the university hockey team, winning three hockey blues and 3 ½ blues for cricket. She played men’s cricket for her college 1st X1 and trained with the men’s university 2nd X1 (the Authentics). She graduated with a 2:2 in maths in 1997 and went to work at Procter & Gamble. In those days women’s sport was even more poorly sponsored than it is today. The Women’s Cricket Association had just merged with the ECB and major sponsors were just coming on board. As recently as 1995 England players had to buy their own blazers and contribute to kit and travel costs. Claire rose to fame as a wicket keeper and batsman, playing her first match for England in 1998 against the touring World Champions, Australia. Sometimes I enjoyed listening to her on the radio in the lunch breaks of the men’s games. Claire went to her first world cup in 2000 in New Zealand and there decided that to become one the best batsmen in the world she would have to concentrate more on her cricket. In 2002 she became a professional cricketer and gave up her job. She was supposed to exist on a grant of £9000 per year from the National Lottery; this would cover any sporting costs and help towards living costs. However work too much or get too much sponsorship and some of this money would be taken away. Obviously no one can be a professional lady cricketer without helpful parents or partners! But things had improved from the days when the ladies rugby team had to raise all the funds for trips abroad by walking around men’s club matches with begging buckets. The climax of her career so far and that of her team mates was winning the Ashes in 2005. I was keeping my fingers doubly crossed when KP was batting that final Monday in September, knowing full well that there would be no open top bus trip to Trafalgar Square for Claire and her team should the men not bat out their draw and win their series. This summer at a one day match at the Rose Bowl a die hard Hampshire cricket member told me in amazement that he had had no idea how really well the women played; it looked exactly like a men’s game except it moved in slight slow motion. That game was one of two televised by Sky so things are moving on, although it is a pity more people do not attend women’s matches. There aren’t as many sixes, but the bowling is fantastic and the steering of the runs incredibly accurate. In August the Indian Ladies came to England to play two tests and a one day series. This was the first time England Ladies had played at Lords since 2001. A few days earlier, looking forward to going to the Lords match the next week, I opened the sports pages of The Guardian and turned, as usual, to the cricket section. There was a lovely article about Claire who had just made a test hundred at Grace Road (Leicester). The article pointed out that Claire had never in her whole career made a fifty and not gone on to convert it into a century. Claire had got England into a good position in the game with her resolute batting and with some equally determined bowling England made inroads into the Indian batting line up. Unfortunately England were unable to take the last two Indian wickets and had to settle for a draw. The night before the Lords match Claire knew it was a big game and hardly slept at all. She knew they needed a big performance. Early on the ball was seaming and it was difficult to find the centre of the bat. Claire was facing the formidable bowlers Amita Sharma and Jhulan Goswani, often in the past the nemeses of England. At 13 and 19 Claire was dropped. Laura Newton (England Vice-Captain), her partner, said, ‘We will make them pay!’ Claire relaxed and went on to make 156 (off 151), her career best with nine fours and century partnerships with both Newton and Gunn. England went on to make 253, restrict the Indians to 153-7 and win by 100 runs. Claire made history on this day, the first English woman ever to make a century at Lords. She was, of course, Man of the Match and perhaps they’ll find a board to put her name on somewhere. Rumours abound about it being placed in the Ladies rest room in the pavilion! Claire has recently gone back to work; based at Reading University she works part time as a consultant at SUMS, a higher education consultancy company. She’ll be playing cricket, injuries aside, until the next world cup in 2009 in Australia. Now that’s she’s working the balance may be harder but she’s about to move into her first house and is looking forward to the next match and the next opportunity to score runs for England. |
