Full Name

Betty Rebecca Wilson

Born

November 21, 1921, Melbourne, Victoria

Died

January 22, 2010 (aged 88y 62d)

Batting Style

Right hand Bat

Bowling Style

Right arm Offbreak

Betty Wilson was one of women cricket's greatest players, and her tag as the female Bradman is not untoward. As a child she was a talented, natural athlete who could "run like a hare". A right-hand bat, offspinner and superb close fielder, she learned her game by playing against a lamp post in the street and hitting a ball enclosed in one of her mother's stocking suspended from a clothes line.

She joined Collingwood women's team when she was only ten. At 14 she was in Victoria's 2nd XI, and in the full side by 16. She had to wait until after the war, by which time she was 26, to play Test cricket for Australia, but wasted no time in making a mark.

On her debut in New Zealand, she scored 90 and took 4 for 37 and 6 for 28. She had refused a proposal of marriage to play, as at the time married women were not supposed to indulge in such frivolities. "Why would anyone get married in preference to playing cricket for Australia?" she asked. On her Ashes debut the following season she scored 111, the first Test hundred against England, and took nine wickets.

She toured England in 1951, turning down another proposal of marriage to make the trip, staying on for two and a half years at the end of the summer. Her final series was in 1957-58 when against England she was again outstanding. At St Kilda she took 7 for 7 on a drying pitch, including the first hat-trick by a woman in a Test, and 4 for 19 in the second innings. She also made exactly 100. She bowed out with a brace of hundreds and 21 wickets at 9.71.

She was a consummate professional in an amateur era. Her team-mates practised once a week whereas she trained every day. She left nothing to chance, even starching her hat so it wouldn't flop around while she batted.

In 1985 she became the first woman cricketer to be inducted into the Australian Sporting Hall of Fame and that year the Under-21 National Women's Cricket Championship was renamed the Betty Wilson Shield. In 2005 she was awarded an honorary baggy green with the number 25.
Martin Williamson

Betty Wilson Career Stats

Batting & Fielding

FormatMatInnsNORunsHSAve100s50sCtSt
WTests1116186212757.4633100

Bowling

FormatMatInnsBallsRunsWktsBBIBBMAveEconSR4w5w10w
WTests11212885803687/711/1611.801.6742.4442
Betty Wilson

Explore Statsguru Analysis

Test

Recent Matches of Betty Wilson

MatchBatBowlDateGroundFormat
AUS Women vs ENG Women432/83 & 2/3421-Mar-1958PerthWTest # 24
AUS Women vs ENG Women1276/7108-Mar-1958AdelaideWTest # 23
AUS Women vs ENG Women12 & 1007/7 & 4/921-Feb-1958MelbourneWTest # 22
AUS Women vs NZ Women473/23 & 2/4218-Jan-1957AdelaideWTest # 19
AUS Women vs ENG Women7 & 113/27 & 2/4428-Jul-1951The OvalWTest # 15

Photos of Betty Wilson

Matthew Hayden, Ken Wilson (nephew of Betty Wilson) and David Boon
Betty Wilson
Marie McDonough takes a catch to dismiss Wilkie Wilkinson
The 1951 Australian Women's Cricket Team from left to right (back row), Valma Batty, Alma Vogt, Myrtle Baylis, Mavis Jones, Ruth Dow, Betty Wilson, Dot Laughton, Gladys Phillips, (front row sitting) Mary Allitt, Joan Schmidt, Mollie Dive (team captain), Ray Miller (team manager), Una Paisley, Amy Hudson, Norma Whiteman and sitting on the ground Lorna Larter and June James
Betty Wilson and Una Paisley
Betty Wilson bowls