| Personal information | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Rachael Heyhoe Flint | |||
| Born | 11 June 1939 Wolverhampton, England |
|||
| Batting style | Right-handed | |||
| Bowling style | Right arm leg spin | |||
| Role | Batsman | |||
| International information | ||||
| 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 | |||
| 1980 – 1982 | West Midlands Women | |||
| Career statistics | ||||
| Competition | Tests | ODI | ||
| Matches | 22 | 23 | ||
| Runs scored | 1594 | 643 | ||
| Batting average | 45.54 | 58.45 | ||
| 100s/50s | 3/10 | 1/4 | ||
| Top score | 179 | 114 | ||
| Balls bowled | 402 | 18 | ||
| Wickets | 3 | 1 | ||
| Bowling average | 68.00 | 20.00 | ||
| 5 wickets in innings | – | – | ||
| 10 wickets in match | – | – | ||
| Best bowling | 1/3 | 1/13 | ||
| Catches/stumpings | 13/– | 6/– | ||
| Source: Cricinfo, 29 December 2007 | ||||
Rachael Heyhoe Flint, Baroness Heyhoe-Flint, OBE, DL (born 11 June 1939, in Wolverhampton) is probably the best known female cricketer in England. She was a member of the English women's cricket team from 1960 to 1982. She was captain of England from 1966 to 1978, and was unbeaten in six Test series. She was captain when England won the inaugural Women's Cricket World Cup, held in England in 1973.
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Heyhoe Flint was chiefly a batsman. She played in 22 Women's Test cricket matches, with a batting average of 45.54 in 38 innings. She scored three Test centuries, including her highest score of 179, a world record when she scored it against Australia at the Oval in 1976, earning a draw to save the series by batting for more than 8½ hours. She was captain of the first England women's team to play at Lord's in the 1976 Women's Ashes series. She also hit the first six in a women's Test match in 1963, also at the Oval against Australia. After being replaced as England captain in 1978, she played her last Test match in the 1979 series against West Indies, but went on to play in the 1982 Women's Cricket World Cup.
Since retiring from cricket, Heyhoe Flint has been a cricket journalist and broadcaster, and after-dinner speaker. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1972, and 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. Outside cricket, she played as goalkeeper for the England national field hockey team in 1964. She has been a director of Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. since 1997. She has been President of the Lady Taverners since 2001. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours.[1]
With Netta Rheinberg, she co-authored a history of women's cricket: Fair Play - the story of women's cricket, Angus & Robertson, 1976, ISBN 978-0207956980.
In October 2010 she was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame, the first woman to achieve this accolade.[2]
On 19 November 2010 it was announced that she was to be ennobled to sit in the House of Lords as a Conservative Party peer.[3] "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 an 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." [4]
Heyhoe Flint was educated at Wolverhampton Girls' High School.
She is the wife of Derrick Flint (born 14th June 1924), who had a first-class cricket career in batting and fielding between 1948 and 1949. He furthermore was a first-Class career bowler (1948-1949). Heyhoe Flint has a son named Ben G Heyhoe-Flint who also played cricket, regularly for the Sir JP Getty's XI.[5]