Rachael Heyhoe Flint, Baroness Heyhoe Flint, (née Heyhoe; 11 June 1939 – 18 January 2017) was an English cricketer, businesswoman, and philanthropist. She was best known for being captain of England from 1966 to 1978, and was unbeaten in six Test series: in total, she played for the English women's cricket team from 1960 to 1982. Heyhoe Flint was captain when her team won the inaugural 1973 Women's Cricket World Cup, which England hosted. She was also the first female cricketer to hit a six in a Test match, and one of the first ten women to become a member of the MCC.
She also played as goalkeeper for the England national hockey team in 1964.
According to Scyld Berry: "She was, among other achievements, the Dr WG Grace of women's cricket – the pioneer without whom the game would not be what it is."
Rachael Heyhoe was born in Wolverhampton. Her parents Roma Crocker and Geoffrey Heyhoe were teachers of physical education who met at a college in Denmark. They both taught in Wolverhampton.
She was educated at Wolverhampton Girls' High School from 1950 to 1957, and then attended Dartford College of Physical Education (then became a part of University of Greenwich) until 1960.
She became a teacher of physical education from 1960 to 1963, at Wolverhampton Municipal Grammar School and then Northicote School also in Wolverhampton. She then became a journalist with the Wolverhampton Chronicle. She was a sports writer on a freelance basis for the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph. She also worked as a broadcaster, and in 1973 she was appointed TV's first woman sports presenter with ITV's World of Sport. After retiring from cricket, she continued to work as a journalist and broadcaster and also became an award-winning after-dinner speaker, businesswoman and board director.
Heyhoe Flint was chiefly a right-handed batter, and occasional leg spin bowler. She played in 22 Women's Test cricket matches from 1960 to 1979, with a batting average of 45.54 in 38 innings. She took 3 Test wickets and scored three Test centuries, including her highest score of 179 not out, a world record when she scored it in 1976 also against Australia at the Oval, earning a draw to save the series by batting for more than 8½ hours. She also played in 23 Women's One Day Internationals (WODIs), with a batting average of 58.45 and a top score of 114. She was captain of the England women's cricket team for 12 years, 1966 to 1978; while the captain, she never lost a match.
She hit the first six in a women's Test match in 1963, at the Oval against Australia. She was instrumental in the effort to hold the first Women's World Cup, securing funding from her friend Jack Hayward. She captained the England team in the tournament, and scored a half-century in the final, which England won against Australia at Edgbaston on 28 July 1973. The women led the men: first men's Cricket World Cup was not held for another two years.
In 1970 she was one of those who set up a fund to pay for police protection for the planned South African tour. and she was one of the many who argued that sport and politics should be kept separate. Unequivocally in her 1978 autobiography she said "Who are we... to tell the South Africans how to run their country?" It was, she said, "... their country, and hardly the place of any English people to criticise". This was also the position of the British Women's Cricket Association in which she played a leading part.
She was captain of the first England women's team to play at Lord's in the 1976 Women's Ashes series. After being replaced as England captain in 1978, she played her last Test match in the 1979 series against the West Indies, but went on to play in the 1982 World Cup. Her final WODI appearance was in the final of the 1982 Women's Cricket World Cup.
She primarily played domestic cricket for West Midlands, whilst also making appearances for West of England, East Midlands, Warwickshire and various composite XIs.
She originally applied for membership of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), when the club was male-only, under the name R. Flint (so the MCC would assume it was a man). But when she was offered membership, the MCC committee voted to reject her application. However, a few years later in 1998, they opened membership up to women. Heyhoe Flint was one of the first ten women admitted to the MCC in 1999, as an honorary life member. In 2004, she was the first woman elected to the full committee of the MCC and latterly became a Trustee.
In October 2010 was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame, the first woman to achieve this accolade. and the same year became one of the first female directors of the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Upon her death in 2017, in her memory, the International Cricket Council named their ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year accolade, the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award. In 2020, the women's ECB domestic 50-over competition was named the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.
In 2018, Malvern College in Worcestershire announced a Heyhoe Flint Scholarship to partially fund the education of talented girl cricketers at the College. The scholarship was kickstarted by donations received by her son Ben at the time of her death (who attended Malvern in the 80s/90s) who then conceived the idea with Headmaster Antony Clark. The Malvernian Society has since perpetuated the scholarship. Heyhoe Flint was on the Board of Governers at Malvern College for almost 10 years until 2008.
In 2021, the MCC announced it would honour Heyhoe Flint's achievements in the sport by renaming the East gate at Lord's after her. This was formally opened by her son Ben, along with her protégée Clare Connor, the MCC president, during the August 2022 Men's test match against South Africa. The gate was opened 100 years after the Grace Gate, which honoured the founding father of the men's game, WG Grace.
Some of her playing memorabilia has been gifted to the MCC Museum by the Heyhoe Flint family, including unseen personal video footage of the 1973 Women's World Cup.
She played as goalkeeper for the England national field hockey team in 1964 and was a single-figure handicap golfer.