User:Harrias/Myrtle Maclagan

Myrtle Ethel Maclagan MBE (2 April 1911 – 11 March 1993) was cricketer who represented England 14 times between 1934 and 1951. Maclagan played in the first women's Test match, and was the first woman to score a Test century. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Cras elementum diam non neque accumsan, id malesuada sapien bibendum. Ut mi velit, molestie vitae urna et, auctor imperdiet mauris. Etiam pretium, risus ac lacinia lacinia, nibh enim scelerisque ante, eget tempor tortor lectus sit amet mauris. Nulla posuere vehicula augue ut sagittis. Ut sed nunc a magna eleifend interdum eget a dui. Donec in pharetra magna. Sed consequat ultrices nisi quis tristique. Cras aliquet dapibus purus, nec tincidunt sem lobortis in.

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Early life
Myrtle Ethel Maclagan was born in Ambala, United Provinces, British India on 2 April 1911, the second eldest of four children born to Robert Smeiton Maclagan and Beatrice Ethel (née Duperier). She grew up in a military family; her father served as an officer in the Royal Engineers, while both her grandfathers, Robert Maclagan and Henry William Duperier, were generals. Her older brother, Malcolm, joined the Royal Engineers and played two first-class cricket matches for the Europeans in India. Younger brother Robert Dalrymple also joined the army, and was awarded a CBE in 1968, while the youngest sibling, Rosemary, also played cricket, frequently appearing for her sister's team during women's cricket week.

Upon her father's retirement from the army in 1919, the family returned to England for him to take up a post as bursar at Haileybury College, and Maclagan started at the Royal School, a girls' boarding school in Bath in 1922. As a child, she played cricket with her two brothers, and by the age of twelve—in her second year at the Royal School—she was playing cricket for the school's first team. While at school, she received some instruction from Tich Freeman, a leg spin bowler for Kent and England. She described how Freeman "taught me to bowl so that the ball curled in the air". During her time playing for the school, she was very effective with her off spin bowling; she took five wickets from five subsequent deliveries against Cheltenham Ladies' College, and another time claimed six wickets against a Women's Cricket Association (WCA) team. She was captain of the school team for three years, and won cricketing awards in each of her final four years at the school. After completing her studies at the Royal School in 1929, she went to Harcombe House Domestic Science College and achieved a first-class certificate.

Domestic success
By the age of 20, Maclagan was a well-known figure in the growing sport of women's cricket. During this time, the WCA had started to organise women's cricket in England, and Maclagan was frequently turning out for a variety of sides; she played with the first women's club in England, the White Heather Club, for the WCA themselves, or for regional sides such as the "South". Women's cricket was predominantly played in just one day, but in 1932 Maclagan played in the first significant two-day match. Maclagan, representing Scotland in the match against England, was the stand-out performer, scoring 50 and 41 and taking three for 42 and two for 35, though Scotland lost the match by 91 runs.

In 1933, the WCA selected the first England women's cricket team, for a match to be played at Grace Road, Leicester, against "The Rest". Maclagan was selected to open the batting for England in the match, alongside Betty Snowball. Maclagan scored 20 runs, and took three for 8 as England won by 94 runs in a single-innings match. Early the following year, the WCA received an invitation from the Australian Women's Cricket Council (AWCC) to tour Australia and play the first women's Test matches. As neither the AWCC nor WCA had the funds to pay for travelling expenses, only players who could afford to pay their own way were considered for the team. Maclagan, who did not work for a living, made herself available, and played for England in a trial match at Old Trafford, Manchester; the first time that women had played at a Test ground. Maclagan once more put in the best performance, scoring 100 not out as an opening batsman. She was less impressive in the second trial match at the County Cricket Ground, Northampton, but did put in a good performance for the touring team against a team of "Veteran" women, scoring 61 runs.

First women's cricket tour
Maclagan and the touring party left England on the SS Cathay in mid-October 1934, and played their first match on 24 November, against Western Australia. In that match, Maclagan scored 48 runs and took five wickets. The Advertiser described Maclagan's innings, in which she played with a "sound defence", as being "[comparable] in style with the form of many batsmen in A Grade competition." After the match, the tour manager identified the slow bowling of Maclagan and teammate Joy Partridge as key factors in their matches, as the Australian batsmen were more used to medium-fast pace bowling. In the next match, against Victoria, Australia's Peggy Antonio took the headlines, but Maclagan was England's best performer, with 41 runs and four wickets. In a match against Newcastle, she belied her usual slow play as she made a century at a rapid rate. Her score of 103 not out was the highest by any of the English players in the series to that point.

After seven matches against club and state sides, England women faced Australia in the very first women's Test match, at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground. Maclagan opened the bowling for England in the match, and took seven for 10 as Australia were dismissed for 47. Following this, she also opened the batting, and scored England's highest total, making 72 runs. England won the match by nine wickets; Maclagan bowled 28 overs without a wickets in the second innings. The Brisbane-based newspaper The Telegraph named Maclagan as the player of the match for her all-round display. Her innings of seven for 10 remain the best figures on debut in women's Test cricket. The second Test followed soon after, played on a used wicket at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Despite playing at a large ground, which the Sydney newspaper The Sun described as producing the occasional bad ball, Maclagan followed her four wickets while bowling with a century when batting; the first in women's Tests. Maclagan and Snowball opened the innings, and reached 145 runs together, with Snowball the more aggressive before her dismissal. Maclagan's rate of scoring increased as she went along, and she brought up her century with one of four boundaries, before eventually being trapped leg before wicket for 119. She took a further two wickets in the second innings, but was not needed to bat as England won by eight wickets.

In three tour matches between the second and third Tests, Maclagan was most effective as a bowler; she took six wickets in a rain-abandoned match against Canberra, and ten wickets in the match against Junee, including a hat-trick to complete the second innings. The third Test match was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and Australia were more competitive than they had been in the first two matches. Maclagan scored slowly, reaching 50 runs in 90 minutes before being bowled by a fast delivery from Amy Hudson. Her score—her third half-century in as many matches—was the highest of the innings for England. She subsequently took three wickets in Australia's first innings and four in their second, but the match finished as a draw. That match completed the Australian leg of the tour, and the team continued onto New Zealand. Maclagan scored 76, and took six wickets; the Auckland Star reported that the local players "had not previously faced a spin bowler like Maclagan, with such a fine command of the ball." In matches against Canterbury and Otago, Maclagan prospered with the bat; scoring 143 and 114. In the only Test against New Zealand, Maclagan took five wickets in the first innings, but missed out with the bat, scoring 26 as Betty Snowball and Molly Hide posted totals of 189 and 110 respectively. England won the match by an innings and 337 runs. In all during the tour, Maclagan scored 888 runs at an average of 49.33 and took 81 wickets at 6.69.

Maclagan's exploits in Australia, combined with the disappoint of England losing The Ashes to Australia in 1934, led The Morning Post to celebrate Maclagan's exploits in a poem: What matter that we lost, mere nervy men Since England's women now play England's game? Wherefore, Immortal Wisden, take your pen And write MACLAGAN on the scroll of fame.

Though women's cricket was growing in prominence, and had decent coverage in The Morning Post and London Evening News, it was still scarcely covered in more mainstream cricketing media; The Times carried very short notices for the 1934–35 tour, and the Wisden Cricketer's Almanack did not carry a report on women's cricket until 1938.

Cricket at home
Following the tour of Australia and New Zealand, women's cricket in England enjoyed more prominence; new clubs were affiliated, and matches were played on more prestigious grounds. In one such match, the touring party faced "The Rest" at The Oval; Maclagan scored 56 runs in an even contest. She was conspicuous during the WCA cricket week in Colwall, captaining her own side and putting in a number of good bowling performances. In two single-innings matches against Amy Bull's team she took thirteen wickets, and collected another five against Betty Snowball's team. The 1936 season was spent preparing for the return visit of the Australians the following year, and Maclagan was once again strong during cricket week. She scored 94 runs on the first day, 63 the next, and took seven for 3 against Joy Partridge's team.

The Australians had improved by the time of their 1937 visit, and their team comprised mainly those players who had faced England a couple of years earlier. In contrast, Maclagan was one of only four players to retain their places in the England team. After the Australians scored 300 in the first Test, Maclagan batted at number four for England and scored 89*; she scored 28 as an opener in England's second innings, but England lost the match by 31 runs. In the second Test, Maclagan scored the first women's century in England; an aggressive 115 runs featuring 15 boundaries in the first innings. She subsequently scored another 49 runs in the second innings, and took three for 78 and two for 29 to help England to victory in the match. In the third Test, Maclagan was less effective; she scored 34 runs in her only innings and took four wickets in the match. Over the first seven Test matches, Maclagan scored the most runs (594), and took the most wickets (37). She faced Australia three more times during 1937; representing the South, she scored 87 and took seven wickets in the match, for the 1934–35 touring team she scored 93 in the second innings, while in a single-innings match for Surrey, she took no wickets and scored 11.

In 1938, Maclagan took ten wickets in a match for a side representing the Home Counties against "The Rest", including seven wickets in the first innings. The English summer of 1939 was intended to be preparation for the upcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand; and there are indications that Maclagan may not have been part of that touring side; she played for "The Rest" in two matches against England sides that summer. She took seven wickets during such a match at The Oval, and another seven in another during the WCA Cricket Week in late August. As it was, the outbreak of the Second World War meant that the tour of Australia and New Zealand was cancelled, and the next women's Test match was not played until 1948.

Military service
Maclagan joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), the women's branch of the British Army, in 1939 and was appointed as a company assistant, equivalent to the Army's second lieutenant, on 7 January 1940. She served in the anti-aircraft regiment in Dover, where she had a command. She transferred to the rank of second subaltern on 30 May 1941 when the ATS rank structure was reformed. Maclagan was subsequently promoted to the rank of junior commander (captain) and retired from the service on 16 December 1945. The following year, she was granted the honorary rank of senior commander (major), and was awarded the Territorial Efficiency Medal on 20 March 1947. She remained on the Army Reserve list and transferred from the ATS to the successor Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC) with the rank of captain and an honorary rank of major.

Maclagan re-entered service on 12 November 1951 with a regular short service commission as lieutenant (her previous ranks being war substantive or emergency commissions). She was granted seniority in that rank from 3 October 1945 and had to relinquish her honorary rank of major. She served as the supervising officer for physical training for the eastern command. In 1963, she was promoted to the temporary rank of major and made responsible for the physical training of the entire WRAC, posted at Aldershot Garrison. During her time in the army, she played a variety of sports alongside cricket, and was the army badminton champion for five year, and the squash champion for six years. In 1966, she made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) during the New Year Honours for her services to the army. Maclagan was subsequently promoted to the substantive rank of captain before she relinquished her commission on 24 June 1967, once again being granted the honorary rank of major.

Second tour of Australia and New Zealand
Maclagan returned to cricket after the war, and captained a Home Counties team in 1946. A plan was made for a tour of Australia and New Zealand in the English winter of 1947–48, but it had to be postponed by a year as they were unable to find a ship to take them. In 1948, Maclagan had strong performances for "Surrey and Sussex" against "Kent and Middlesex", taking six wickets in the first innings, and for the "Home Counties" against "The Rest", scoring 65 runs. The touring party to Australia and New Zealand left England on 15 October 1948 aboard the RMS Orion, and stopped at Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) on their way for a match against a hastily drawn-together Ceylon women's team. Maclagan did not play in the match, but sprained her leg while in Ceylon, which led to her missing the opening matches of the tour. Aged 37, Maclagan was one of few veterans of the previous tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1934–35, and she formed part of the three-player selection panel, along with Hide and Snowball, the team's captain and vice captain.

Maclagan began her tour with two strong statistical performances at the Gabba, taking five wickets against Queensland, followed by another five wickets and a century against an Australian representative side. Maclagan's hundred was scored patiently in a 180-run partnership with Hide, who also scored a century. Maclagan and Hide both scored centuries again in a tour match against South Australia in January, in the lead up to the first Test; writing for The News, Colin Hay praised Maclagan's "delightful back and square cuts." England lost the first Test match against Australia by 186 runs; Maclagan took two wickets in the match and made scores of four and ten batting. Roughly two weeks later in the second Test, England were in a losing position, Maclagan batted patiently for four-and-a-half hour to score 77 runs and help England draw the match.

1949 to 1951; her final regular years

 * Faced Aus in 1951, captained Eng in two Tests

Later cricket

 * Not in the team to face NZ 1954
 * Scored 81 against Aus in 1963

Later life

 * Died from cancer, aged 81, 11 March 1993

Style

 * She "drives splendidly, and is particularly punishing on leg-side bowling".
 * Has a "good defence and endless patience".
 * Is "a tall, robust girl".
 * "tossed the ball well up, with some variation of flight which was certainly deceiving"
 * Described as very stoic in 1934/35, but 1937 reports suggest she was more aggressive.
 * "as a batsman, she was a tower of strength and particularly difficult to dislodge. She saw it as her duty to be there when the first 50 of the innings was posted"