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Percy Chapman: ‘The most delightful gentleman and an ideal captain’ – Almanack As a tall, polished left-handed batsman who, excelling in the off-drive and leg-side strokes, was generally willing and able to attack the bowling, he scored 16,309 runs, average 31.97, in a first-class career dating from 1920 to 1939. Of his 27 centuries, the highest and certainly one of the best was 260 for Kent against Lancashire, that season’s Champions, at Maidstone in 1927. The position when he went in was far from encouraging, half the side being out for 70 runs. Yet he and GB Legge (101) assailed an attack including such men as EA McDonald, the Australian fast bowler, Richard Tyldesley and FM Sibbles with such vigour that in two and a half hours they put on 284 runs. Born at Reading, Berkshire, he was in the Uppingham eleven for four years from 1916 to 1919, being captain in the last two, and soon attracted attention with splendid performances. Tributes to Percy Chapman Jack Hobbs I well remember the surprise caused by the appointment of Percy Chapman as the England captain for the final Test against Australia at The Oval in 1926. He was only 25 and all the team liked him. He was not a disciplinarian like his predecessors and he did not hesitate to seek advice. He often talked to me about tactics on the field and he set a great example with his brilliant catching in the slips. The Australian crowds loved him during the tour of 1928/29 when he made us a happy team. Billy Griffith I will always remember him for his debonair and aggressive approach to the game and as a great fielder. George Duckworth He was the most delightful gentleman and an ideal captain. He had such a persuasive charm as a leader that you could not help trying your utmost for him. Source: wisden.com/almanack/percy-chapman-the-most-delightful-gen...

The Woolloongabba Cricket Ground, aka THE GABBA, was established in 1895, with a capacity of 37,000, lush grassy banks, and beautiful Moreton Bay fig trees for shade. The first match was played on 19 December 1896 between Parliament and The Press, resulting in a tie with 61 runs each. The first Test Match was on 27 November 1931 against South Africa. There have been many memorable moments at the Gabba over the years. One of the most significant was the famous 1960 Tied Test between Australia and the West Indies played 9-14 December in which Richie Benaud was a stand-out. The grass and fig trees of the original Gabba ground have sadly been replaced by modern concrete stands and facilities – capacity has also been increased to 42,000. It is now officially known as the Brisbane Cricket Ground, but nostalgic cricket fans continue to call it The Gabba. Source: kangaroopointhistory.com.au/places/the-gabba-woolloongabb...

The founding mother of women's cricket in Australia was the young Tasmanian, Lily Poulett-Harris, who captained the Oyster Cove team in the league she created in 1894. Lily's obituary, from her death a few years later in 1897, states that her team was almost certainly the first to be formed in the colonies. During the 1890s, cricket and rowing were two of the most popular competitive sports for women in Australia.[1] Another of the first all-women's sports clubs founded in Australia was the Rockhampton Ladies' Club. They were fielding a women's cricket team in the mid-1890s. The team wore dresses with long skirts and long sleeves, sashes attached to their uniform, tight belts and straw boater hats.[2] Source: wikidocumentaries-demo.wmflabs.org/Q8031138?language=en

How women created cricket history and influenced today's game "It's interesting how many firsts are associated in cricket with the women's game," Mr. Wells told 702 ABC Sydney's, Dominic Knight. "One of them is that women invented round-arm bowling and they did this out of sheer necessity because of their crinoline skirts. "They couldn't bowl underarm in the early 1800s like the rest of the men were because they simply couldn't negotiate the width of their skirts." According to Mr. Wells, a woman by the name of Christina Wiles, of Kent, in 1807 bowled round-arm deliveries to her brother, starting a specific style that would overtake the underarm bowling style which dominated. "They discovered that, in doing that, they could get a bit more purchase on the ball, and they could make the ball move off the wicket, and so the men copied them." Mr. Wells said while cricket had often been viewed as a male-dominated sport, it was the men who had followed in the footsteps of female pioneers on the pitch. "Cricket was seen as a game of Empire and it was seen as something that had been sanctioned by the aristocracy in England, so the fact that women played was seen quite happily alongside the male game," he said. "Their mode of dress though didn't really allow them to excel themselves and, in fact, in many ways that stayed the case right through until the 1970s." While the dress code at the time hampered the sporting range and mobility for women, Mr. Wells said advances in the sport had allowed for a more equal playing field today. "These days the women wear pretty much what the men wear and they're equally athletic and equally proficient at the game because of it." Source: www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-08/140-years-of-women-playing...