‘The Cheering Was Loud and Long’: Practical Feminism and the England Women’s Hockey Tour of Australia in 1927

Abstract

Australian women’s hockey was the first women’s team sport to establish itself nationally in Australia and the first to play an international match – 1914 against England. In 1925, the All Australia Women’s Hockey Association (AAWHA) invited England to send a team to tour Australia. On October 26, 1926, Mysie Davy, the AAWHA’s international secretary, announced England’s acceptance to tour in 1927 to Sydney’s field hockey community at a fête at the Sydney Town Hall. After Davy’s announcement, it was reported that ‘the cheering was loud and long’. The 1927 English team toured Australia for nine weeks and played 19 matches, including three Test matches against Australia. In studying this tour, there is engagement with the concept of practical feminism introduced by feminist sport scholar Jean Williams in her analysis of the experiences of England’s national women’s field hockey touring teams during the inter-war years. Further, building upon Williams’ work by expanding the practical feminism analysis to cover the opportunities experienced by the English team and a cross-section of Australian women’s field hockey participants, the concept’s application to all levels of field hockey is broadened.