 In the House of Lords in 2015 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Rachael Heyhoe Flint | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1939-06-11)11 June 1939 Wolverhampton, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 18 January 2017(2017-01-18) (aged 77) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Right-armleg break | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | Batter | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| National side |
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| Test debut (cap 51) | 2 December 1960 v South Africa | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Test | 1 July 1979 v West Indies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ODI debut (cap 4) | 23 June 1973 v International XI | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last ODI | 7 February 1982 v Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1963–1985 | West Midlands | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1976–1982 | West | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source:CricketArchive,7 March 2021 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Member of theHouse of Lords | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Life peerage 21 January 2011 – 18 January 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rachael Heyhoe Flint, Baroness Heyhoe Flint,OBE, DL (néeHeyhoe; 11 June 1939 – 18 January 2017) was an Englishcricketer, businesswoman, and philanthropist. She was best known for beingcaptain of England from 1966 to 1978, and was unbeaten in sixTest series: in total, she played for theEnglish women's cricket team from 1960 to 1982. Heyhoe Flint was captain when her team won the inaugural1973 Women's Cricket World Cup, which England hosted.[1] She was also the first female cricketer to hit a six in aTest match, and one of the first ten women to become a member of theMCC.
She also played asgoalkeeper for the England nationalhockey team in 1964.
According toScyld Berry: "She was, among other achievements, theDr WG Grace of women's cricket – the pioneer without whom the game would not be what it is."[2]
Rachael Heyhoe was born in Wolverhampton. Her parents Roma Crocker and Geoffrey Heyhoe were teachers ofphysical education who met at a college in Denmark. They both taught in Wolverhampton.
She was educated atWolverhampton Girls' High School from 1950 to 1957, and then attendedDartford College of Physical Education (then became a part ofUniversity of Greenwich) until 1960.[3]
Heyhoe Flint was chiefly a right-handedbatter, and occasionalleg spin bowler. She played in 22Women's Test cricket matches from 1960 to 1979, with abatting average of 45.54 in 38innings. She took 3 Test wickets and scored three Test centuries, including her highest score of 179 not out, a world record when she scored it in 1976 also against Australia at the Oval, earning a draw to save the series by batting for more than 8½ hours. She also played in 23Women's One Day Internationals (WODIs), with a batting average of 58.45 and a top score of 114. She was captain of the England women's cricket team for 12 years, 1966 to 1978; while the captain, she never lost a match.
She hit the firstsix in a women's Test match in 1963, atthe Oval againstAustralia.[4] She was instrumental in the effort to hold the first Women's World Cup, securing funding from her friendJack Hayward.[5] She captained the England team in the tournament, and scored a half-century in the final, which England won against Australia at Edgbaston on 28 July 1973.[6] The women led the men: first men's Cricket World Cup was not held for another two years.
In 1970 she was one of those who set up a fund to pay for police protection for the planned South African tour. and she was one of the many who argued that sport and politics should be kept separate. Unequivocally in her 1978 autobiography she said "Who are we... to tell the South Africans how to run their country?" It was, she said, "... their country, and hardly the place of any English people to criticise". This was also the position of the British Women's Cricket Association in which she played a leading part.[citation needed]
She was captain of the first England women's team to play atLord's in the 1976Women's Ashes series. After being replaced as England captain in 1978, she played her last Test match in the 1979 series against theWest Indies, but went on to play in the1982 World Cup.[7] Her final WODI appearance was in thefinal of the 1982 Women's Cricket World Cup.[8]
She primarily played domestic cricket forWest Midlands, whilst also making appearances forWest of England,East Midlands,Warwickshire and various composite XIs.[9]
She played asgoalkeeper for the England nationalfield hockey team in 1964[3] and was a single-figure handicap golfer.[10]She played hockey, squash and golf for Staffordshire.[11]
She served on the board of directors ofWolverhampton Wanderers from 1997 to 2003 and was then a vice-president.
She was a teacher ofphysical education from 1960 to 1963, at Wolverhampton Municipal Grammar School and thenNorthicote School also in Wolverhampton. She then became a journalist with theWolverhampton Chronicle. She was a sports writer on a freelance basis for the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph. She also worked as a broadcaster, and in 1973 she was appointed TV's first woman sports presenter with ITV'sWorld of Sport. After retiring from cricket, she continued to work as a journalist and broadcaster and also became anafter-dinner speaker, businesswoman and board director.
She was appointedMember of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1972.[12] She originally applied for membership of theMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC), when the club was male-only, under the name R. Flint (so the MCC would assume it was a man). When she was offered membership, the MCC committee voted to reject her application but a few years later, they opened membership up to women.[13] Heyhoe Flint was one of the first ten women admitted to the MCC in 1999, as an honorary life member. In 2004, she was the first woman elected to the full committee of the MCC and latterly became a Trustee. She was made adirector ofWolverhampton Wanderers F.C. in 1997, later becoming anex officio Vice-president.[14]
She was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of the West Midlands in 1997,[15] and was President of theLady Taverners charity from 2001 to 2011.
She was appointedOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the2008 New Year Honours,[16][17] and in October 2010 was inducted into theICC Cricket Hall of Fame, the first woman to achieve this accolade.[18]
She became one of the first female directors of theEngland and Wales Cricket Board in 2010.[19][20][21]
On 19 November 2010, it was announced that she was to be ennobled to sit in the House of Lords as aConservative Party peer.[22] "I was completely taken by surprise when I took the call from the Prime Minister in September", Heyhoe Flint said. "Obviously I am really thrilled at my appointment but still very humbled at the thought of joining such a historic institution ... My background in sport, journalism, charity and community work will I hope stand me in good stead, and I hope I can make a positive contribution as a working peer. I will certainly look forward to the commute from one Lord's to another Lords."[23] She was subsequently invested as alife peer on 21 January 2011 taking the titleBaroness Heyhoe Flint, ofWolverhampton in the County of West Midlands.[24] The formal designation of her title without a hyphen broke a rule that peerage titles could only have one word, previously observed by the likes ofLord Lloyd-George,Lord Alanbrooke,Lord Chuter-Ede andLord Lloyd-Webber.[25]
In April 2011, Heyhoe Flint was granted thefreedom of Wolverhampton.[26]
In 2021, theMCC announced it would name a gate at Lords after Rachael Heyhoe Flint, and this was formally opened, and a plaque to her unveiled, by her son Ben, along with her protégéeClare Connor, the MCC president, during theAugust 2022 test match there against South Africa.[27]
On 1 November 1971, Rachael Heyhoe marriedDerrick Flint (1924–2018). Her husband had afirst-class cricket career comprising 10 matches forWarwickshire CCC in 1948–1949 playing as a leg-spin and googly bowler. She adopted adouble-barrelled surname, becoming Rachael Heyhoe Flint.
Their son Ben (born 1974) also played cricket. He emigrated toSingapore in 2001 where he runs businesses related to sports and entertainment. She was also stepmother to Derrick Flint's children: Simon, Hazel and Rowan Flint.[28]
Her death, after a short illness, was announced byLord's on 18 January 2017.[29][30]
She was remembered during thein memoriam at the2017 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards.
In memory of Heyhoe Flint, in 2017 the International Cricket Council named their ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year accolade, the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award.[31] In 2020, the women's domestic 50-over competition was named theRachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.[32]
WithNetta Rheinberg, she co-authored a history of women's cricket:Fair Play: The Story of Women's Cricket, Angus & Robertson, 1976, (ISBN 978-0-207-95698-0). She also wrote an instructional guide to field hockey called,Rachael Heyhoe Flint: Field Hockey withBarron's Sports Books (ISBN 978-0-8120-5158-2) in 1978. She authored her autobiographyHeyhoe (ISBN 978-0-7207-1049-6) in 1978, published byPelham Books with a foreword from comedian and cricket-loverEric Morecambe.
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