The Big Interview Part 1: The Clare Connor Interview
Article Date: 6th May 2005
The Women's Cricket World Cup
Clare Connor (England's Womens Captain) celebrates a wicket
Last month the England Women's Cricket Team began their journey home from the 2005 Women's Cricket World Cup, having been defeated by the all conquering Aussies in the semi-final. Leading the team was 28 year old Clare Connor, the England Women's Cricket Captain, Right Handed Bat and Left Arm Spinner.
As Chipping Sodbury Cricket Club prepares for the CSCC Women's Cricket Open Day on Sunday 15th May (10.30am-12 Noon), we interview Clare Connor and discover how she made it in the world of women's cricket. Here is the first part of a three part interview. Keep checking back during the run up to the Open Day as all three interviews are published.
Mark Reynolds: How did you start playing cricket Clare?
Clare Connor: I started playing through my dad, he was a really keen club cricketer, he played for the same club for 35 years called Preston Nomads which is a Sussex league club and it’s set in the South Downs. It’s a really beautiful place and I just used to go there as a youngster to watch him play. I didn’t have older brothers or anything which is how lots of girls start.
I was just taken by it and I think one of Mum’s earliest memories of me is as a toddler sitting on the doorstep on a Saturday or Sunday because I couldn’t go and watch Dad play. So it was obviously something I was obsessed with from quite a young age. Obviously I can’t remember those really early days but that’s how I started playing.
I started playing with the Boys Colts there when I was 8 or 9 and played Colts cricket for Preston Nomads right the way through from when I was 8 or 9 up to 16, 17 and played for men’s teams as well on a Sunday and occasionally a Saturday, but by that time I was already playing school cricket at Brighton College Junior School.
I then went through into Brighton College and right the way through until I left at 17, 18, I played Boys 1st XI cricket there. I was lucky that I had a good supportive club and a school which had only just gone co-ed. There were no other girls interested in playing, but because I had coaching at an early age I was good enough to play for the boys right the way through. We had loads and loads of extra coaching from John Spencer who used to bowl for Sussex, he was Head of Cricket there.
Clare Connor (England's Womens Captain)
It was very unusual but the school’s attitude was that I could play along side the boys as long as I was good enough and fortunately I played until I left the college. My time there culminated in a college tour to Zimbabwe which was fantastic.
MR: So they obviously pushed cricket quite a lot at your school?
Clare Connor: Yes it was a really strong sporting school, for the boys cricket and rugby and for the girls it was netball and hockey, but I was not really interested in that it was just cricket all the way. I wanted to play cricket all the time, I was so passionate about it. A lot of my friends, family and teachers thought that maybe it was something I would grow out of or as I got into my teens I would want to go out with the girls more and get into other things, but I didn’t I just wanted to play more and more.
As I say I was lucky that I had the right people behind me, the right teachers, people at the cricket club and parents who backed me.
MR: I was going to say that a bit later. Both boys and girls tend to drift away from sport in their teens.
Clare Connor: It’s a real problem I think, teenage drop out rates from sport is something which the government are trying to address, particularly with girls. They’re trying to tackle it along side obesity in young adults and children. That’s where it’s so important that you have the parents that think sport is important and teachers and people in local clubs who think sport is important.
It’s a healthy and great thing for kids to do and be involved with, especially team sports which are so much fun and are a great thing to do as a youngster. I think it’s very important that kids are given those opportunities and encouraged, especially girls, it’s a good, healthy, fun thing to do.
MR: Was there something in particular that influenced you to carry on playing cricket through your teens?
Clare Connor: I just loved it, I didn’t ever grow out of it, I didn’t ever have a phase where I thought do I want to carry on playing, wouldn’t I rather be going shopping, or to the cinema or whatever. I played virtually every day of the week at school, 20 over cricket, I absolutely loved it and at 28 I haven’t grown out of it at all. I’m still a big kid when it comes to cricket, I just want to be playing all the time. I think it was something that was in the blood from a really young age.
What we’re doing now at our cricket club and what we’re doing through school initiatives in the Brighton and Hove area is making girls aware of the game and that it’s not just a sport for boys. We’re just trying to spread the word really in the area that there is cricket for girls, they can play it at schools, they can play it at cricket clubs and it’s a great thing to do.
MR: When did you first play in an all female team?
Clare Connor: It wasn’t until my mid teens that I was aware of girls or women’s cricket, I think I was so wrapped up in it as a male thing, playing with the boys at school and in my dad’s club and I hadn’t come across any girls that played. Then I heard that there were Sussex Girls trials down at Roedean School in Sussex, so I went a long and the lady who happened to be running the trial was Ruth Prideaux who at the time was the England coach. She was the coach of the England team that won the World Cup in 1993.
I remember my first meeting with Ruth at Roedean and she was watching me bat in the nets and I remember vividly seeing her there with a clipboard and her saying “if you carry on playing like that one day you’ll play for England”.
Clare Connor (England's Womens Captain) bowls
I didn’t know much about it then, it was my first experience of girl’s cricket and from there I got into the Sussex Girls Junior side and the Women’s senior side as well, that was my pathway into women’s cricket and from there almost immediately I was picked for an England Under 18 girls team and it snowballed from there. That was when I was 15 or 16, by 20 I was captain of the full women’s Sussex side and I made my full England debut when I was 19.
I was a quicker thing for me back then than it would be now, with the numbers playing now and there’s far more competition for places today. My grounding in boys cricket has obviously stood me in good stead. I made those steps into the women’s game really quickly.
Click Clare Connor for 2nd part of the 3 part interview.
If anyone fancies coming along or wants more details then please ring the CSCC Women's Team Captain Paula Young on 01454 852429.
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