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FEATURE
MAY, 2020//
SENIORS
Bowled over Humble ex-Aussie rep guides rookies Tracey Johnstone
GROUND-BREAKER: Ex-cricketer Patsy Fayne broke gender barriers in the 1970s when she represented Australia in England. Now she’s passing on her skills to Noosa players.
WITH the summer of cricket over, the women’s team at Noosa have kicked up their heels to celebrate their friendship with mentor Patsy Fayne. The Tewantin Noosa (Qld) Cricket Club team has just played its second year of the eight-team Coast competition with Patsy’s strong support. She gently led the lively group out of the first-year blues and through a second season, with plans for the next campaign already on the table. At first glance, the 72year-old may have seemed an unlikely mentor for this fledgling, youthful team – until Patsy’s cricketing heritage was revealed. Patsy was a member of the first Australian women’s team to compete at Lord’s.
This was the first time women had competed at the famed venue. And bowler Patsy was also the first to take an Australian women’s wicket at Lord’s. Sadly, that year England trounced Australia. Patsy started playing backyard cricket as a child. Her older brother – who was bigger and stronger than her – owned the bat but he needed a bowler. “He took his little sister (Patsy) and bashed her up,” Patsy reminisces. “I used to practise at One Tree or one stump just to get my brother out. I didn’t plan to play for Australia.” Once at university, Patsy rediscovered her love for cricket, playing for her tertiary institution, then for NSW and then Australia. But by 1976 Patsy decided to give up cricket. She was broke. Everything she did had to be paid out of
her own pocket. Then in 2018 a news piece in the local paper caught Patsy’s eye and she showed the story to her proud husband, Michael. “I hadn’t been around cricket for 40 years, but then I thought maybe I can just go visit them and see if I can help, just while they get started,” Patsy said. “A week or two. Teach them to run between wickets. Just the basics of the game.” When Patsy walked into the come-and-try day for the newly formed Tewantin Noosa Cricket Club women’s team, no one there had any idea who this sprightly older woman was and why she had turned up. “I told them I had played a bit of cricket and I was happy to help out as I lived in the area,” the understated Patsy said. One of the women trying
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