Peggy Antonio (2 June 1917 – 11 January 2002,
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, Australia) was an Australian
women's Test cricket
Women's Test cricket is the longest format of women's cricket and is the female equivalent to men's Test cricket. Matches comprise four-innings and are held over a maximum of four days between two of the leading cricketing nations. The rules gov ...
er, known as the "Girl
Grimmett".
Antonio was raised in
Port Melbourne, Victoria
Port Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Port Phillip local government areas. Port Melbourne recorded a populat ...
, a working class suburb of
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
. Her father was a
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
an docker of French and Spanish descent who died when she was 15 months.
With the encouragement of her uncle she learnt her cricket from the boys in her neighbourhood streets. As a young girl during the
Great Depression, she was lucky enough to find work at a shoe factory in the
industrial suburb
An industrial suburb is a community, near a large city, with an industrial economy. These communities may be established as tax havens or as places where zoning promotes industry, or they may be industrial towns that become suburbs by urban spr ...
of
Collingwood.
The factory was home to a women's cricket team where Antonio came to the attention of Eddie Conlon, a club cricketer with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the game. With the assistance of Conlon, Antonio developed a rare mix of
leg spin
Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when the ball bounces on the ...
and
off spin
Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which spi ...
, including a
top spinner and a
wrong'un.
She came to the attention of the
Australian Women's Cricket Council and was invited to play for
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
against the travelling
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
team. Taking 10/48, including the star batswoman,
Molly Hide
Molly, Mollie or mollies may refer to:
Animals
* ''Poecilia'', a genus of fishes
** ''Poecilia sphenops'', a fish species
* A female mule (horse–donkey hybrid)
People
* Molly (name) or Mollie, a female given name, including a list of persons ...
, she was selected to represent
Australia in the inaugural women's Test match at the
Brisbane Exhibition Ground at the age of 17.
The first Australian to take a wicket in women's Test cricket, Antonio took twelve wickets in the three Test series and was considered suitable for a publicity date with the great
Don Bradman.
Invited to tour England in 1937, the £75 passage was beyond the means of a shoe factory worker and her family. A campaign started and thanks mainly to the generosity of James McLeod, a businessman and sometime acquaintance of her late father, the necessary funds were raised to allow her to take her place in the squad. Antonio proved successful again on the tour taking 9/101 in
Northampton and 8/65 at
Blackpool.
The final Test of the series at
The Oval
The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...
would be Antonio's last. Tiring of the grind and no longer finding the game enjoyable, she retired from cricket at the age of 20. In 1943 she married Eddie Howard, an Englishman resident in Australia, and settled down into domestic life, raising a large family.
She died in Melbourne in 2002.
References
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Antonio, Peggy
Australia women Test cricketers
Australian people of Chilean descent
Sportspeople of Chilean descent
Australian people of Spanish descent
Sportspeople of Spanish descent
Australian people of French descent
1917 births
2002 deaths
Cricketers from Melbourne
Victoria women cricketers
People from Port Melbourne
Sportswomen from Victoria (state)