MCC lifts 211-year-old ban on women (29 September 1998)

29 September 1998

MCC lifts 211-year-old ban on women

By Ben Fenton

Members of the Marylebone Cricket Club last night overturned 211 years of history by voting to admit women to the club that guards the sport's heritage.

The first women entitled to wear the "bacon-and-eggs" colours will step into the pavilion at Lord's in time for next year's World Cup final after the election of up to 10 honorary members.

With obvious relief, Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie, the MCC president, announced that members had voted by 9,394 to 4,072 in favour of admitting women.

A total of 69.8 per cent of the 13,482 who voted approved the change, just reaching the required two-thirds majority to change the club's membership rules.

Last February, 56 per cent voted in favour of the change, but since then there has been a £70,000 campaign to persuade members to change their minds.

It was the third time that MCC members had been asked to vote on the issue, the first being a vote on the application for membership in 1991 by Rachael Heyhoe Flint, the former England women's captain.

"I think it's wonderful," she said outside Lord's last night as MCC members walked past in various states of humour.

"It's very important for cricket around the world that the MCC can now be considered with the utmost respect. It's important for sponsorship and the development of the game." But as she spoke, a middle-aged member of the club walked past, turned to look at her and said: "Life as we know it is over."

Ms Heyhoe Flint responded: "It's not surprising there are people who still don't like it, it is 211 years since this club has been formed. I can now apply to be a member, though with a 17 or 18-year waiting list, I'll probably be dead and buried before I can join my husband who is a member in the Long Room."

Anthony Wreford, an MCC committee member and chairman of the working party on women membership, said the committee was "delighted" with the result. "We feel the result is good for the MCC and good for cricket," he said.

"We are also very encouraged by the high turn-out of nearly 80 per cent and also the way in which the proceedings were conducted in a very sensible and intelligent manner."

A spokesman for the England and Wales Cricket Board, which represents both the men's and women's game, said: "We are pleased that MCC members have finally allowed women to join their Club.

"The ECB, as the national governing body for cricket, has always vigorously promoted the women's game."

The MCC committee now plans to invite up to 10 prominent women cricketers or administrators to join the club as soon as possible.

In addition, there will be playing members, who will have to satisfy the same criteria as men of playing at least six games for the MCC's new women's branch over two years.

The first games played by women in sere and yellow banded cricket sweaters will take place next summer, against women's teams from Oxford and Cambridge and schools and clubs.

The vote means that the MCC now has a chance of attracting National Lottery funding for projects centring on its Hertfordshire training academy.

A source within the MCC committee told The Telegraph that a defeat would have meant that it would be "years" before they could think of asking the members to vote on the issue again.

Since the last vote, the committee had commissioned a polling organisation to find out why so many members did not approve of the change.

It found that members thought women would jump the 18-year queue for membership and that there would not be enough room in the bars and public rooms of the Lord's pavilion.

These issues were addressed in a report produced by a sub-committee and published in a glossy brochure and circulated to all members in mid-August.

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