On the 10 September 1995, one of the greatest of the early women cricketers, Mary ‘Molly’ Edith Hide (1913-1995) died in Guildford, Surrey, aged 81.

Molly Hide was born in Shanghai, China and came to England at the age of six. She learned to play cricket at the girls’ school of Wycombe Abbey, and later studied agriculture at Reading University. She went on to captain the England women’s team, for 17 years.

Molly represented Worcestershire in 1932-1933, and toured Australia  and New Zealand with Betty Archdale’s first English women touring team, scoring a century in the Christchurch Test, when England defeated New Zealand in a one-sided match.

A quick scoring right-handed batsman, who bowled medium-paced off-spinners, Hide was given the captaincy of the South of England team in 1936 and, a year later, the England team against the touring Australian women. The series ended 1-1, Hide’s major contribution was 5 for 20 in the second innings at Blackpool where England won by 25 runs.

During World War II, she worked in her father’s farm in Haslemere. Test cricket resumed after 11 years with a tour of Australia which England lost 0-1. Hide scored 63 & 124 not out in the drawn match at Sydney. She scored five hundreds in the tour, including one in Colombo. She also captained England at home against Australia in 1951 and New Zealand in 1954

Molly was a dual international, since in her youth, she also played lacrosse for England.

Hide never married. In 1973 she was president of the Women’s Cricket Association.

10 September, 2019