Anonymous no more, the ladies cricket team

One thing I enjoy about the pursuit of history is those moments of serendipity. My 23rd February Capital history in the news post featured a local ladies cricket team photographed in about 1910. This was inspired by the Hall School Museum and Heritage Centre’s exhibition about cricket on the Limestone Plains.

The photograph came from the National Library of Australia. When I accessed the image there appeared to be no names recorded of the women in the photograph. I asked if anyone knew the names of the women photographed?

Now this is the serendipity bit. My family visited the Hall School Museum and Heritage Centre and the local ladies cricket team photograph complete with the names of the women features in their exhibition. And here they are:

Back row: Kit Moore, Mabel Smith, Myra Potter, Katy O'Brien, Una Southwell, Pop Shumack
Front row: Marie Maloney, Bella Southwell, Vera Curran, Olive Butt, Jane Moore

Also, there is a interesting story behind this photo. The ladies cricket team were photographed in 1914 when they played against a male cricket team who were heavily handicapped. The men had to play wrong-handed and bat with a pick handle. These pick handle matches were a practice of some of the early Cricket clubs in Canberra.

Acknowledgement: As explained already the image above is of a local ladies cricket team photographed in 1914 near Weetangera Lane on Peter Shumack’s property Fernhill. It comes from the National Library of Australia. Details are here.

Please share. Let’s get the past and present talking.