The Richard Spooner Column: How to bowl the maidens over�
What would Johnners, the late doyen of Test Match Special commentators, have made of it? I 'm not really sure how he would have reacted to the MCC 's decision to officially make batsmen gender neutral.
They now have to be called batters and the decision would have certainly caused a few ripples of disapproval through the Long Room at Lord 's. But whatever he thought I 'm sure Brian Johnson would have reacted like the perfect gentleman he was.
This is all because of the amazing rise of women 's cricket. From now on, don 't think batsmen but batters, not to be confused with the stuff your fish comes in at your local chip shop.
You may have thought given my great age (238 years, since you ask) that I would have an old fogey 's view and demand that cricket maintains the status quo. Not so and I must immediately declare a self-interest here on two fronts:
1) One of my granddaughters is regarded as having high potential as a batswoman (sorry batter) and plays for her county.
2) I have received unlikely praise in a book for championing the cause of women journalists in the highly misogynistic Fleet Street of the Eighties.
So I have become quite used to the term batter. But from conversations with my granddaughter and her teammates (team friends?) they couldn 't care less. They are just happy to be playing a sport they are growing to love.
I don 't know if pressure had to be placed on the Lord 's hierarchy to issue their edict but I image they were happy to do so not only to demonstrate that women are a welcome addition to the cricket world but also to embrace them as valid exponents of our great game.
How otherwise would the England women 's team have become the great success they are, having captured huge chunks of television time through Test matches, one-day internationals and The Hundred?
The others side of the argument is why shouldn 't batters be called batswomen? Bit of a mouthful, I concede, and not something favoured by commentators like David Gower, the great former England batsman.
However, calling them batswomen would underline the proud march of women 's cricket and dispense with the ludicrous idea that they are just trying emulate men. That will never be the case because of sheer physicality and women would never be able to match men on a level playing field.
It 's a fact of life but it does not stop women playing alongside men, as my granddaughter did with her dad this season.
Now for women journalists. I only mention this because I was surprised to learn that I received an unlikely mention in a book called The Fleet Street Girls by Julie Welch.
Julie was one of the women who broke down the doors of what was a gentlemen 's club after becoming the first female football reporter in Fleet Street when she joined the Observer 's sports team.
My mention (on page 188, since you ask) came from Julie 's interview with Wendy Holden, who I employed as a “casual ” reporter on the London Evening Standard. She went on to greater things with the Daily Telegraph and became a war correspondent. She has also written more than 30 books under the name Taylor Holden to distinguish her from the author of the same name who writes romantic novels.
Anyway, back to a Fleet Street. Julie recalls: “We worked with and for all kinds of men; kind, decent and encouraging men; powerful men, tough bastards and legendary brutes; cads, lechers, dinosaurs and misogynists. ”
You get the picture? Anyway, I must have done something right in my role on the Standard because Wendy tells Julie: “Men like John Lamb made up for the gropey ones. ”
I was doubly honoured to be mentioned in Julie 's book because the first match she covered for the Observer was between my home team of Coventry City in their match against Tottenham Hotspur at Highfield Road in August, 1973.
If you want to read the whole book it 's published by Orion Books (hardback £18.99.)
So there you are. I made a mark in Fleet Street but not on the cricket field, I 'm sad to say�
JL
PS: the Sky Blues won 1-0, since you ask.