CRICKET AT LAST
Cricket, again at imitation Test level, had started in England with the Victory Tests, against the Australian Services. In 1946 we were back home to see Middlesex play Yorkshire at Lords. In the two sides were plenty of Test players: Hutton, Gibb, Bowes, Robins, Compton, Edrich, Sims. Both sides were out in a day: things were back to normal.
Returning home to find post-war cricket was a disappointment. It just hadn't started. Although we had a good practice area at home, we also had a good tennis court, and because of my father's ability; an even better archery course. This took up quite a bit of my time, for archery was the diet at all meals. As both my parents were very keen, naturally, some of it rubbed off, and as there was no local cricket to speak of, it was archery instead.
Tantalisingly, the course at Brocklesby was near the cricket ground, near the white cottage and it was my idea to wait for things to get going. In the meantime, which was 1947-8, my archery had come on quite a bit, and was good enough to enter the Grand National at Worcester College, Oxford.
A young lady1 was staying with us, who took my interest. This was difficult, as her husband to be was in close attendance, but she spent all her spare time on the practice ground. She told me that the groove down her nose was caused by the bowstring being smack in the middle of her nose, otherwise she wasn't in the middle of the target. She proved this by winning the British Championship, and the following year the World, with a record score of 2605. This shows that if you are prepared to disfigure yourself there are no limits, like Warne.
My own archery reached dizzy heights, being 23rd out of 79. This was to remain my best and only entry, for on returning from Oxford the phone rang; it was the Sergeant of Police. We'd had a bit of a tussle over surrendering our wartime firearms, which he'd won, and this might have been a further dose, but it wasn't. He said "Would you like to play cricket for Ulceby?". The answer was obviously, "Yes".
So began a mini-season of perhaps seven matches, including two against Kirmington, who were next season to become Brocklesby once more. So these were matches against next season's team mates. In fact, the last match of the season was my first with Brocklesby. That was the end of cricket with Ulceby, and they only lasted a season or two. This then was the end of a long wait for serious cricket, but to start at 24, is better than not at all.
- Barbara Waterhouse, Women's Individual World Archery Champion 1949.↩
