At first glance Ealing Cricket Club’s second-team ground – situated off an avenue lined with nondescript 1930s London semis, with the Piccadilly Line clattering away nearby – is not the most obvious place to mark a historic women’s cricket milestone.
But for the group of players who will assemble in the small clubhouse tonight for a meeting that is part pilgrimage, part homecoming, it holds a special place in their hearts.
It was exactly 100 years ago, on the evening of 14 May 1925, that a small group of women gathered at the ground – then belonging to Norland Park School – and resolved to form a cricket club. Men, of course, had been doing this for centuries; but given the Victorians had tried their level best to stamp out cricket for women, and that there was as yet no female equivalent of MCC, it was a radical move by the women of Gunnersbury.
There were so few women’s clubs that Gunnersbury played only two matches in their inaugural season. A year later, in October 1926, the Women’s Cricket Association (WCA) was formed, marking the beginnings of organised cricket for half the population on a national scale. Gunnersbury would be at the forefront of these developments: of the 27 players who toured Australia and New Zealand on the first two England women’s overseas tours, in 1934-35 and 1948-49, nine played for Gunnersbury.
Now, with many women’s clubs struggling for survival, Gunnersbury have defied the odds to become the first independent women’s club in the UK – possibly the world – to reach their centenary. It’s this unique milestone the women will be celebrating when they return to the site of their formation tonight.
When The Spin sat down to talk with the club treasurer, Emma Bernstein, and chair of the centenary committee, Suzi James, back in March, they were full of excitement for the occasion. “I think everyone feels proud of our history,” Bernstein said. “One of our ambitions was always to get to 100 years as a women’s-only club and make that milestone for women’s cricket.”
It says a lot about the roadblocks thrown in the path of women’s clubs that Gunnersbury are the first to reach 100 years. Two fellow London clubs, Redoubtables (1921) and Dukesmead (1927) almost made it, but fell before the final hurdle.
“Other teams are really suffering,” says James, who joined Gunnersbury in 2008. “We’ve got hardly any teams in our 40-over league.”
Somehow, though, Gunnersbury have not only survived but are thriving. The club run three XIs, have 45 members, and enjoy a strong junior pathway thanks to Highgate Cricket Club, whose girls’ section feeds into Gunnersbury. They are based at Old Elizabethans CC in Barnet – 20 miles from their original home on Gunnersbury Avenue – but have always kept their name.
How have they bucked the trend? “Our independence actually attracts a lot of people,” James says. “Some people feel second-class, compared to the men’s cricket. It’s always an add-on. Here, it’s just about female cricket, and that’s it. There’s no other concern or issue or interference in that respect, and that attracts a lot of good players.”
Gunnersbury’s vision of being proudly independent has at times clashed with the pragmatic need to access male-owned facilities. “Gunns have been roaming around west London and north London for a hundred years,” James says. “Being an independent club where we don’t have a home ground that’s totally owned by us has always been a struggle. We’ve ended up playing on some school pitches and some really rough third-level kind of pitches.”
Between 2010 and 2021 they had an agreement with Finchley CC, playing as “Finchley Gunns”, but the relationship broke down. “That was a moment that could have seen the end of Gunns,” Bernstein says. “There was a split in the club – there were a number of players that were more Finchley players rather than Gunns players. But we’ve grown a lot from it.”
For a few years they were again nomadic, limping from match to match and season to season. But in 2023 they brokered a new relationship with Old Elizabethans, establishing a shared home at the Memorial Playing Fields in Barnet, and now feel they have found the perfect balance between support and autonomy. “They could not be more supportive of ‘Sunday is women’s day’ – they are really strategically helpful for us, but not involved in the detail. They let us crack on and that’s been brilliant,” Bernstein said.
The club have been planning for the centenary for several years, ever since James’s digging in the WCA archive at Lord’s revealed a definitive date for their formation. She has produced a centenary booklet, 100 Years of “Gunns”, and written a feature for the 2025 Wisden Almanack. Gunnersbury will have the honour of playing at Lord’s on 8 August, against MCC. Look out, too, for a special presentation by the England and Wales Cricket Board to Gunnersbury during the interval of England v India at Lord’s on 19 July.
There is also a special Gunns centenary kit, designed by Lacuna Sports, which could not be more different from the original 1925 uniform (white dress, green and gold tie, white shoes, and long socks) but does contain a nod to history, with shirt side panels featuring the names of former Gunns stalwarts. Over the years, the club has been home to four England captains – Molly Hide, Cecilia Robinson, Mary Duggan and Charlotte Edwards – and countless other international stars. The honour of the oldest living Gunn goes to 93-year-old Anne Sanders, who represented England in 11 Tests between 1954 and 1969.
The only sad note is that James herself now feels unable take part in the centenary events. Following the ECB’s recent ban on transgender women in recreational women’s cricket, James – who is trans – told the Wisden podcast that she feels “cut off”. “My teammates are all gutted and said, ‘you’ll always be a Gunn,’” she said. “But I can’t go along and just watch, because I’m not part of that club, in that respect.”
As the club toast their centenary, the woman who made it all possible will not be far from their thoughts.
This is an extract from the Guardian’s weekly cricket email, The Spin. To subscribe, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
