Cricket's Pioneering Cousins

Please note: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website contains names, images, and voices of deceased persons.

This National Reconciliation Week, we are focused on continuing to grow the game while also recognising those pioneers that came before us.

Cousins Edna Crouch and Mabel Campbell) were Quandamooka women from Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) who played in the Queensland women’s team that took on the touring England women’s team at the Exhibition Ground in 1934-35. 

Campbell (left), who played between 1934 and 1936, was a skillful batter while Crouch, who played between 1934 and 1938, was a left-arm spin bowler. 

The Australia Dictionary of Biography notes that the cousins hailed from sporting backgrounds with their extended families well known for their participation in sport in and around the Wynnum area.

A descendant of the Ngugi people, one of the three Quandamooka peoples of Moreton Bay, Edna's four brothers played rugby league, including Glen (Paddy) Crouch, who represented Queensland against New Zealand in 1925.

Edna and her first cousin Mabel Campbell played cricket for numerous Brisbane teams, including Triers, Wynnum, Excelsior, Bluebells, and South Brisbane during their respective careers.

Edna was named in a Brisbane representative team (the competition having six teams) that played against West Moreton in 1932.

The selection of the two Indigenous women for Queensland was not widely remarked upon in the press at the time, however the significance of their selection, and their performances in the game against England has subsequently become a highly important chapter in the history of cricket in the State.

The State Library of Queensland has outlined their achievements in a detailed post on their website which observed: "It was a major achievement in the 1930s as Aboriginal women had to face both racist and sexist disadvantages, all the while being under the control of the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897, which legally restricted civil rights to Aboriginal people." 

Captained by Queensland's Australian allrounder Kath Smith, and containing another national representative in Joyce Brewer, the Queensland team was not one to be underestimated by the English on their inaugural Women's Ashes tour of Australia.

The Australia Dictionary of Biography recounts the details surrounding the historic match as follows:

Edna and Mabel were selected to play for Queensland against the touring England cricketers in the 1934-35 season, and received additional guidance from the State men's coach Les Gill. Club fixtures were played on concrete pitches, so the move to the Brisbane Exhibition Ground’s turf wicket for this important match proved a challenge for the local players. The two-day game (22 and 24 December) was delayed by rain, and eventually began on turf that had been cut out, rolled, and prepared in twenty minutes after the covered wicket was found to be unsuitable for play.

The Queensland women wore sandshoes on the wet pitch and field, slipping and falling, while the England players wore spiked boots. Queensland won the toss and sent England in to bat. Adapting quickly to the turf, Edna took the wicket of the England captain Betty Archdale for 7 runs, and bowled the top-scorer Joy Partridge for 63. Edna captured the last three wickets for only five runs in England’s total of 181, returning 5 for 25 from 27 overs, and was presented with the match ball to commemorate the feat. Mabel top scored in Queensland’s first innings with 28 not out, but the England team won easily by an innings and 41 runs.

The Queensland Women's Cricket Association produced a program for the match, a copy of which now reside in the John Oxley Library collection.

There were other highlights for the pair. In the 1936 interstate carnival, Mabel scored 56 not out against the champions, Victoria.

The Australia Dictionary of Biography entry on Edna noted:

Edna’s bowling, delivered with the aid of strong wrists, was described in the newspapers as both economical and deadly. She continued to return impressive bowling figures in the Brisbane grade competition, her club batting, often as opener, was reliable. She and Mabel were selected to represent Queensland at interstate cricket carnivals in Sydney (1934 and 1939), Melbourne (1935), Brisbane (1936), and Adelaide (1938). Neither submitted their names for selection trials for the Australian team’s tour to England in 1937: each team member had to contribute £75 towards the cost and purchase their own cricket equipment, as well as forego any income during a six-month absence.

The Brisbane competition stalled during World War II, and some teams disbanded. In 1941 the Crouch cousins joined the Mowbray Park ‘cricko’ team, cricko being a fast, new game combining the rules of cricket and vigoro. They also participated in cycling and baseball. Although their cricket achievements were frequently reported throughout the 1930s, neither was identified in the Brisbane press as Indigenous.

Edna married Queensland heavyweight boxing champion Ben Archie Newfong (Archibald Nu Fong). Their son John would later become an Aboriginal Rights activist and editor.

Mabel married Sidney Ernest Shillington Crouch, who was a cousin to rugby league star Glen 'Paddy' Crouch, who was the brother of Edna Newfong (Crouch).

Edna passed away in 1997 and is buried on Minjerribah. Mabel passed away in 1957.

Campbell and Crouch were both made members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.

Edna Crouch's niece, Thelma Crouch, represented an Australian Women’s Youth team against England in 1940 and played for Queensland between 1948-49 and 1953-54.