The sad death of Jimmy Hill, described by the BBC as “one of English football’s most influential figures”, was announced today.

Hill will no doubt be remembered for his football punditry, especially on Match of the Day, as well as his reign as chairman of the Professional Footballers’ Association.

Not many will remember him for his relationship with women’s cricket. But I will.

Hill was born in 1928 in Balham. In one interview in 1985, he recalled his days growing up in the 1930s in south London:

“We were a cricketing family. My father often took me to see Fulham. My stepbrother, Wally, played football and cricket… My step-sister, Irene, played cricket for England. They were quite a bit older than me and they dragged me around to watch them.

The first time I went on a train was when Wally took me to see the Redoubtables play cricket at Beddington. It was only three stops down the line but to me going on a train was as exciting as today’s kids would feel about travelling on Concorde.”

Irene Panton never actually played a Test for England, but she certainly played at the highest level in the early organised years of the sport – the Women’s Cricket Association was set up in 1926, five years after Irene’s club, Redoubtables, formed. Sadly she was killed in a motorcycle accident in the late 1930s.

When I heard the news of Hill’s death, it took me back to the time several years ago when, going through the archives of the Surrey-based women’s club Redoubtables WCC as part of my PhD – the club still exists, and now play at Purley CC – I stumbled upon the most amazing series of correspondence between Molly Gilbert, then club secretary, and Hill himself:

October, 1985:

“Dear Mr Hill,

I was so delighted and surprised to read your ‘potted’ autobiography in the ‘Roots’ article in the Sunday Express Magazine. It was great to think that you remembered our Club name and were kind enough to mention it. We are still a club of keen players…When you came with Irene I was Match Secretary. I remember her so well, she was a lovely girl and a great player. Her early death was such a tragedy…

I also remember her friend Joyce Wawman… ‘Panton’ and ‘Wawman’ used to bring a small boy to our matches who may have been the brother of either of them, ie you.

I have a small snapshot of some of our members at that time accompanied by a small boy (Irene Panton is in the picture). We would be most interested to find out if we have a famous portrait or not. I think Irene and Joyce joined us in 1932 and we have five ‘old girls’ still interested in the Club, one as President (Miss S Swinburne OBE for Services to Women’s Cricket), two as vice-presidents, myself as Secretary (since 1935!!) and one other and we all remember Irene well.”

December, 1985:

“Dear Molly,

Thank you for your letter following ‘Roots’. Forgive my late reply… I’m certain I was the young boy in the photograph. Joyce Wawman was a kind of cousin who lived with us and who continued to take me around even after Irene’s death.

I remember your name well and Sylvia Swinburne too… Thank you for writing and do have a very happy new year.

Your sincerely, Jimmy (Hill).”

January, 1986:

“Dear Mr Hill,

Thank you so much for your letter… the Women’s Cricket Association is 60 years old this year and they are arranging a celebration match between two teams made up of first class players from all over the country. The match to take place at Bramley Cricket Club on Sunday 8^th June, afternoon… We are hoping to have several famous people at the match (to draw the crowds) and I do hope you still have enough love of the game to come along and meet present day players. If you can possibly spare the time, we should all be delighted to meet you.”

February, 1986:

“Molly,

I’m afraid I shall be in Mexico in the World Cup on June 8^th, otherwise I would have been delighted to have come along. Perhaps there will be an opportunity on another occasion. Do please keep me informed if there is another match that I might attend after August.”

Sadly the correspondence ended there. I like to think that perhaps Hill did, though, attend another Redoubtables match or two after his trip down memory lane.

So there you have it. Jimmy Hill, 1928-2015: football pundit, player, chairman, manager and analyser…and friend of women’s cricket.

Former England international Enid Bakewell was last night honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2015 Sunday Times and Sky Sports Sportswomen of the Year Awards.

The award “recognises a lifetime of sporting success”, and Bakewell, who averaged nearly 60 with the bat and took 75 wickets over her 14 years as an England all-rounder, is a worthy recipient.

Born Enid Turton in Newstead, Nottinghamshire in 1940, she first played cricket aged 9 in a field in the village with some of the local boys. Several years later, while attending the local grammar school – where they were not permitted to play cricket – a teacher recommended that she join a nearby club in Nottingham, advice she duly accepted.

She went on to study at Dartford College of Physical Education (now part of the University of Greenwich), which was a hotbed of women’s cricket, producing many future stars of the game including Rachael Heyhoe-Flint. This enabled Bakewell to continue with her sport of choice, and she toured Holland with a Young England side in 1959 while still at Dartford.

Her full England debut came in December 1968 at Adelaide on England’s tour of Australia and New Zealand. She hit 113 in that match, and went on to score over 1000 runs and take more than 100 wickets on the tour – the first woman to ever achieve the feat. It earned her a full page feature in the 1970 edition of Wisden – the first time ever that a woman had been awarded such exposure.

It was a remarkable achievement partly because by this time Bakewell was married and the mother of a two-year-old daughter. In order to tour, she had to leave her daughter behind in the care of her husband and parents, at a time when it was exceptionally difficult to combine motherhood and playing international-level sport.

She went on to represent England in the first ever Cricket World Cup in 1973, and played a large part in their victory against Australia in the final at Edgbaston, hitting a century and taking 2-28 as England triumphed by 92 runs.

Six years later, in her last Test against West Indies, she became the first England player, male or female, to score a century and take ten wickets in the same match. By this time she was a mother of three young children, but she continued to play international cricket until the 1982 World Cup in New Zealand.

After retiring from international cricket, she remained involved with the Nottinghamshire and England set-ups, eventually going on to coach a Junior England team which included future stars Arran Brindle (then Thompson) and Charlotte Edwards.

Now aged 74, she can still be found shouting encouragement from the boundary at most England matches, both at home and abroad. Even more remarkably – as CRICKETher reported earlier this year – she is still playing regularly, both for her club Redoubtables and for MCC.

She was named one of Wisden‘s 5 greatest ever female cricketers in 2014, and this latest honour is undoubtedly thoroughly deserved. Congratulations Enid!

CRICKETher can exclusively reveal that former Junior Wimbledon champion Ashleigh Barty will be acting as joint coach for the Cricket Australia XI team at the U15 Female National Championships, to take place at Hobart next month.

Barty will be working alongside Hobart Hurricanes coach Julia Price, who last season took the Tasmanian Roar side to a 4th placed position in the state T20 competition.

It had already been announced that Barty would be participating in the inaugural WBBL for Brisbane Heat, after attending a Southern Stars training camp earlier this year and, more recently, undergoing training with Queensland’s WNCL team, Queensland Fire.

Barty has been quoted as saying that she was attracted to the idea of team sport because: “There’s never a lonesome moment on the field if you’re struggling.”

Now it seems that Cricket Australia are looking to utilise her experience in junior tennis coaching to help talented cricketing youngsters too. As an international athlete who has trained at the highest level, it is also the case that Barty will be able to provide guidance for a new generation of girls coming through into a cricket set-up which is now increasingly professional, with ever-higher expectations of its players.

Cricket Australia’s National Coaching Manager Matthew Betsey told CRICKETher:

“Ash is an experienced athlete with a tennis coaching background and we want to use these skills alongside a ‘cricket’ coach in Julia Price.  It will also help Ash understand the game more deeply before she plays in the WBBL for the Brisbane Heat.”

The WBBL kicks off on Saturday 5th December, with Barty likely to feature in Brisbane Heat’s double-header against Melbourne Stars at the Junction Oval.

It was announced last month that England Academy Head Coach Lisa Keightley would be leaving the role she had done since early 2011 in order to return to coach in her native Australia.

What exactly will Keightley be doing Down Under? Her main role will be with the Western Australia Cricket Association (WACA), heading up their Female Talent Development programme. While she will have work to do – the Western Fury have underperformed in previous seasons – she also has a great deal of talent at her disposal, with the squad having been strengthened this year by the addition of Australian openers Nicole Bolton and Elyse Villani.

But CRICKETher have learned that Cricket Australia will be harnessing Keightley’s talents at national level, too. Next month at the U15 Female National Championships in Hobart, she will be acting as a coach mentor for all State coaches involved in the set-up. Following on from that, she will be coaching the Cricket Australia XI in the U18 Female National Championships, to be held at Canberra in January: effectively the equivalent to her recently-vacated Loughborough role.

While England are therefore left seeking both a head coach and an Academy coach – with Keightley’s replacement not to be selected until the New Year at the earliest – it seems that England’s loss is, for the moment, Cricket Australia’s gain!

The ICC have today announced details of the prize money and new format for the next World Cup, to be hosted by England in 2017.

Prize money for the 2017 tournament will now stand at $1 million, a huge rise from previous tournaments. While prize money for the men’s event (currently £2.5 million) is still significantly more, the ICC Board has also agreed that the 2021 event, in New Zealand, will be worth $1.2 million overall, and this therefore does appear to be a step in the direction of equal prize money for both sports.

Additionally, it has been announced that the 2017 World Cup will be an eight team round-robin competition, with the top four sides progressing to the semi-finals, followed by the final. This guarantees each team at least seven matches, and is a change from the 2013 tournament format, whereby the 8 participating teams were split into two groups and played 3 games each, before the top sides progressed to the “Super Sixes”.

Lastly, the ICC has confirmed that the Women’s Championship, which sees all of the top 8 teams in the world play each other in order to determine who automatically qualifies for the next World Cup, will continue after 2017 into a second cycle. The Championship has effectively acted as a Future Tours Programme for the women’s game since it was introduced in 2014, and its continuation is welcome news for the sport.