Interview
Here co e the girls Clare Connor CBE is on a mission to make cricket gender-balanced and to champion the game for girls. Having captained England to win back the Ashes, she is also Managing Director of Women’s Cricket for the ECB and the first female President of the MCC. We catch up exclusively with Clare to discover how her stratospheric career continues at full pace! How did your love of cricket emerge? As a little girl, I was obsessed by cricket. I’m not sure where that obsession came from other than a close relationship with my Dad who played club cricket. I was a tomboy who lived for sport. It was strange as I was the only girl in my school, club and community who played cricket. I went to Brighton College and played in the boy’s cricket teams all the way through. I captained the Boys’ under 10’s and then onto the 1st XI in the sixth form where we played against the big schools like Tonbridge and Cranleigh.
Throughout my school career I was the only girl playing. I didn’t come across barriers as I was picked on merit. I was either Captain or Vice-Captain of every team I was in. I was an all-rounder so I batted and bowled and was really welcomed and included by the boys right from the beginning. I didn’t meet any nastiness or criticism throughout those seven to eight years at school. I was really blessed and had nothing but positive experiences despite being such an oddity! SPRING 2022 schoolnotices.co.uk 55
