|
|
Jean Horner
Image Descriptions: Jean Horner was born in Forbes on 1 September 1916 and spent her early years in Bedgerabong (40 minutes drive west of Forbes) before moving to Gilgandra. The youngest of a family of nine Jean learned her early cricket with her four brothers on a dirt pitch alongside the family home.
In 1934 Jean first drew the attention of cricket writers when she blasted up 119, which included 19 boundaries in a match against Dubbo. She followed this in 1935 with scores of 128 not out and 125 and 119, and then followed a mammoth score of 215 not out, which was then the highest score recorded by a female cricketer in Australia.
In 1936 at Bathurst Jean scored 99 not out in a team score of 154 and she started 1937 with a score of 124 not out, which included 88 runs in boundaries. At this time she was selected for New South Wales and was freely tipped for the Australian team for the tour of England in 1938. However this was not to be and she was relegated to captain of the New South Wales Second IX for the 1939 season. Jean continued to turn in impressive performances in Sydney Grade cricket. In 1941, playing for Vice-Regals Jean scored 96, retired and took six for thirteen and followed up with another century in the following match.
Referred to by the locals as Gilgandra's 'Lady Bradman', Jean played for New South Wales between 1936 and 1948. Her outstanding record during this period earned her selection in the Australian team to play the touring England side in 1940. Unfortunately the tour had to be cancelled because of World War II and the team became known as the 'ghost team'. It was poor consolation that they were permitted to have the A W C C XI embroidered on their blazers.
In the Interstate series in 1940 Jean scored 149 in the opening match and in this innings her 100 came up in just 117 minutes with 20 boundaries. This performance forced the Australian selectors to choose her for the three test series against England.
Jean moved to Orange in 1942 and attempted to start women's cricket, and played with Orange Overlanders for several matches. Her form was still good enough to earn her a place in the New South Wales Team in 1947 to play the touring New Zealand women's team. Jean Horner retired from cricket in 1948.
Due to failing health in 2003, Jean moved from Orange to be near her family at Condobolin where she passed away on 4th March 2005 at the age of 88.
|
 |
|
.jpg)
