Lord's set for fresh vote on women (6 May 1998)

6 May 1998

Lord's set for fresh vote on women

Christopher Martin-Jenkins

ANOTHER vote on whether women should be admitted as members of MCC could take place as early as the autumn of this year. A ballot in September or October seems both a likely and a sensible outcome of what is sure to be a stormy annual meeting at Lord's this afternoon.

The agenda also includes discussion of the decision to charge members for tickets to World Cup matches at Lord's next year. A vote of no confidence in the committee has been threatened, but no notice of one given.

There is indignation from some about the unprecedented decision to charge members £45 for a ticket to the matches between England and Sri Lanka and a 'Super Six' second-round match, and £75 for a reserved seat at the final on June 24.

These are, however, subsidised prices and it would have cost the club £1.4 million to recompense the World Cup organisers and allow members in free. Members of MCC, and also of county clubs, have priority in booking tickets until next Thursday, May 14, when the general public are allowed to apply for entry to the 42 matches.

A further ballot of the club's 17,800 members on the question of women's membership was not expected until next year at the earliest after the special meeting at Lord's in February in which the majority voting in favour of female admission - 6,969 to 5,538 - was less than two thirds and therefore insufficient to make the rule change required.

The MCC president, Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie, has already said that he would be in favour of another special meeting before the end of this year and his successor, who will be named today, is likely to accept the committee's consensus that, in view of the club's public role, it is no longer tenable to have an all-male membership.

Although some lawyers have suggested that the change could be viewed as a regulation, which would require only a simple majority, three distinguished lawyers on the committee have advised that it is, strictly, a rule and that 66 per cent will therefore need to vote in favour.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)