While women’s cricket flourished during the 1940s and 50s,
it had died a slow death and was virtually extinct by the mid-1970s. In 1975 Jenny Halliday and Barbara Schmidt organised a game during Trinity Week. This was the spark that reignited the game
and the women of Clontarf were so inspired that they took to the game to such
an extent that they dominated the early years of Leinster Women’s Cricket.
The summer of 1975 was spent organising and practising.
Games against Leinster and Phoenix were arranged and a mixed friendly with the men’s
team was organised in September 1975. Over
the winter, Isolde Howard, a member of Leinster CC and a woman who had been at
the forefront of women’s cricket in its first incarnation in Leinster, contacted
clubs to attend a meeting with a view to organising a league for the following
summer. Five clubs attended the meeting,
Railway Union, Leinster, Phoenix, Merrion and Clontarf and arrangements
made. In April 1976, 30 attended the Inaugural Annual General Meeting of Clontarf Cricket Club, Ladies Section
and Phyllis Spence was voted in as Captain.
The 1976 season was a resounding success, with the First XI
playing 8 league games and winning seven.
The team was coached by Bill Dalton-Brown, Kevin Harding and Brian Bunworth
and the outstanding batswoman was Susan Cassidy who scored 186 runs at 46.5. The top bowler was Marie Coffey who took 31 wickets at a remarkable 3.6. While Marie had played for Clontarf in the 1950s,
in contrast her bowling partner was the 11 year old Stella Owens whose 26 wickets
only cost 4.38 runs each including a hat trick against Phoenix. The Irish Times reported 3 games in one
edition, in all cases Clontarf bowled first and dismissed Railway Union for 22,
Merrion for 45 and Leinster for 37. Clontarf were not just fielding one team
however and others teams played numerous friendly games including one in
Mullingar. The numbers playing were incredibly strong and evidence of this was
the six a side tournament run on 10 July 1976.
Clontarf fielded 6 teams in the competition, however other Leinster
clubs also participated bring the total playing to 72 and the seed of an idea
for an annual Leinster-wide 6 a side competition was sown. This would become the famous, or indeed
infamous, Pernod competition, famed for the après match activity.
The off season between the 76 and 77 seasons saw the new
committee hard at work and in April 1977 a press conference was held to
announce the inaugural Tyler Cup, a 25 over cup competition.
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Marie Coffey, Phyllis Spence, Isolda Howard and Clarrissa Crawford |
The work of the committee lead to an
incredible amount of press coverage for the new competition and Clontarf
featured heavily in this press interest. The Irish, Sunday and Evening Press
newspapers carried articles and photos on Marie Coffey, Stella Owens as well as
members of Leinster and Phoenix.
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Press coverage at Clontarf |
Press
coverage is of course a double edged sword and following a photograph of
Clontarf’s Mary Taaffe in The Irish Times of 1 July, the letter writers made
their views known to the Editor.
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Unwanted Press coverage! |
The first
running of the “Pernod” took place on 1 June 1977, an entrance fee of £3
entitled entry to the cricket competition, tea and disco afterwards and of
course a sample of the sponsor’s wares. Back in the regular competitions, Clontarf won
the Tyler Cup, beating Phoenix. Susan Cassidy top scored with 47 not out as
Clontarf made 116 for 3, however Phoenix could only manage 51 in reply as
Coffey and Owens ripped through the home team batting. In September, Clontarf had a date with
Leinster in the League Final and it looked as through a straightforward double
was on the cards as Clontarf reached 50 for 3 with 2 overs remaining chasing
Leinster’s 52 for 6. However a Colette
Brannagan hat trick caused some panic before Mary Hackett hit a boundary in the
final over. Mary finished the season with 522 runs and an extraordinary average
of 174 to win the Crawford Trophy and Marie Coffey won the Harrison Trophy in
taking 39 wickets at 3.7 runs each. It
was Marie’s third time to win the bowling award, having won it the previous
year and in 1955.
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The Clontarf Double winning team of 1977 with individual award winners |
In an incredibly short time Women’s cricket had re-established
itself (thanks mainly to a small and very dedicated band of organisers) and
Clontarf was the club that took the lead on the field. Others such as Leinster, Merrion and Phoenix
would step up to the plate in the coming years before a new band of Clontarf
women would once again dominate the
sport in the 1980’s – but more of that later.
(Many thanks to Phyllis Spence for the loan of her archive which records the early days of Clontarf Ladies)
(Many thanks to Phyllis Spence for the loan of her archive which records the early days of Clontarf Ladies)