Netta Rheinberg
Netta Rheinberg MBE (24 October 1911 at Willesden, Middlesex – 18 June 2006) played for the English women's cricket team in a single Test, but was a notable figure in the women's game as an administrator and journalist. Rachael Heyhoe-Flint, the former England captain, said of her work as an administrator, "Netta was an action girl. We had very few people then, and she galvanised activity, partly just by having a great personality and a sense of humour."
"For a north London Jew, playing cricket for England and being one of the game’s most important administrators is about as well-trodden a career path as prime minister or bacon-buttie salesman," wrote Rob Steen shortly after her death aged 94 in 2006. "That Rheinberg happened to be a woman made her accomplishments all the more admirable."[1]
She played her cricket mostly for Gunnersbury and Middlesex, as a batsman and slip fielder. Her one Test came on England's tour of Australia in 1948-9. She was the team's manager, and had to play in the match because of injuries to other players. She made a "pair".[2]
She was secretary of the Women's Cricket Association in 1945 and from 1948 to 1958. She was also membership secretary and vice-chairman of the Cricket Society.
She edited the magazine Women's Cricket, reported on women's cricket for Wisden for more than thirty years, and wrote a regular column for The Cricketer. With Heyhoe-Flint as co-author, she wrote a history of the women's game.[3]
In 1999 she was one of the first ten women to be awarded honorary membership of MCC.[4]
Notes
- ↑ "Passing — and failing — the cricket test" (Jewish Chronicle, 15 July, 2013)
- ↑ Scorecard
- ↑ Fair Play - the story of women's cricket, Angus & Robertson, 1976, ISBN 978-0-207-95698-0.
- ↑ MCC delivers first 10 maidens (BBC News, 16 March 1999)
References
- Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 2007, ISBN 978-1-905625-02-4, 1568-9: Obituary
- Cricinfo profile
- Cricinfo obituary
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