Nottingham graduate is world's oldest professional cricketer - officially!

On her early life and moving to Nottingham

"I always had a passion for cricket. I had a cricket scoring book for my 7th birthday and may well have learned some of my early arithmetic on the scoreboard – not that arithmetic features much in a mathematics degree (I was always rubbish at working out darts moves!).

"When I got to Nottingham there was no ladies cricket team so I simply joined the men. The men’s and women’s sport nationally were still organised separately at that time.

"I have always been a wicket keeper and I think my experience of keeping for the men’s 3rd team was a great development for me. I still maintain that keeping for the 3rds was harder than keeping for the 1st team as a) the bowlers were in the 3rd team because they didn’t always know what they were going to do with the ball and b) the 3rd team pitch was not as flat as the 1st team so the bounce was more ‘interesting’! 

"I don’t remember any actual results, just the enjoyment of playing the game.  I wasn’t allowed to go to away fixtures (some nonsense that there wouldn’t be a changing room for me) which was a disappointment but I scored for the 1st team at home instead.

"1976 was a very good summer and I well remember after one scoring stint discovering that the right hand side of both legs were bright red and sunburnt while the left hand sides were white!

"One cricketing highlight of that time was the 1976 test series when the West Indies were playing at Trent Bridge. One of the players fell sick and was hospitalised at Cripps health centre. Many bats were sent in for his autograph!"

To greatness in Gibraltar

"In 2020 my husband was appointed as Dean of Gibraltar and we moved there in the middle of lockdown. Gibraltar has a social midweek league which welcomes women to play alongside the men so I was able to play regularly in 2022 and 2023 often keeping wicket. 

"As the number of women playing increased there were plans to develop a women’s team and a wicket keeper was needed so I soon joined their training sessions. I qualified, by residency, to play for Gibraltar in 2023.   

"This year the ICC approved Gibraltar women’s first T20s and we played Estonia.  Fortunately, we lost the toss for the first game as we scored 147 for 6 from our 20 overs and bowled Estonia out for 47 in 12 overs.  We played two more matches and won by over 100 runs each time. 

"I was unaware that I was making history but my appearance was picked up in Asian countries and my record breaking went viral. Initially I was told they picked up that I was the oldest debutant, but then it was realised that I was the oldest person, male or female to play in an official ICC match."

Counting up the extras

Sally reckons her cricketing career at Nottingham spanned 20 years on and off, between 1975 and 2009. She also found time to inspire her daughters Emma (History, 2007) and Kate (Nursing, 2011) to study at Nottingham too.

She even put her time in Africa to use at the London 2012 Olympics, using her Swahili as part of the protocol team looking after VIPs and athletes, as well as participating in the opening ceremony as one of the pandemonium drummers!

"Why am I still playing? Most importantly because I enjoy it and I want to keep fit. I have had to adapt my keeping style but I still pride myself on taking any catches that come my way and mopping up most of the wides and no balls from the bowlers. 

"The other reason I am still playing is probably my experience when younger of being told that there were things I couldn’t do because I was a girl – I have a twin brother and I realised very early on that people made assumptions about us based on our gender and not on who we were. This has made me determined to be me and to do what I want to do and not to take no for an answer!

"I have no intention of giving up my sporting activities any time soon – the cricket coaching I have received has improved my batting and I intend to continue to improve - my target is to play for Gibraltar when I reach 70.

"My experience is that sport is not only a great way of relaxing to improve your studies, helping you make new friends and be part of a support community, it is also a way of life for your future and nowhere does it better than Nottingham."

Sally's cricketing prowess shows no signs of stopping - her last correspondence in mid-June came from Prague, where her Gibraltar team picked up the Central European Cup, winning three out of four games and also resulting in Sally breaking her own record!

Hear Sally interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 'Today' programme on 17 June (2h39m in) >