Great-niece Melinda Sheffield, left, Ralph Southwell’s partner Anne Lomax, nephew Ralph Southwell with the award and Jane-Anne Southwell at the Cricket ACT Hall of Fame event honouring cricketer Nina Southwell. Photo: Cricket ACT.
In the history of Canberra district sport, legend has it that few stood as tall, yet humble, as Nina Southwell.
A girl in a family of five brothers at a time when women were expected to spend their days indoors, looking after everyone else, Nina was different.
Nina Sylvia Jean Southwell was, according to her family – and Canberra’s early sporting records – not only passionate about cricket, but also very good at it. So good that, almost 60 years after her death at age 58, she has just been inducted into Cricket ACT’s Hall of Fame.
Members of her family, the region’s pioneering Southwells, were on hand in Canberra last week for the honour, including her nephew Ralph and her great niece Melinda Sheffield, whose middle name is Nina, a tribute to the sportswoman.
Honouring Nina Southwell as quite the force in the 1930s Hall village cricket side, Cricket ACT said she “confounded batters as one of cricket’s most successful wicket-takers in the FCT [Federal Cricket Territory] Women’s Cricket Association”.
“Her reputation was built on a unique dual threat: as a bowler, she was renowned for her ‘flight and direction’, possessing the guile to deceive a batter in the air, yet when she stepped to the crease, she was a ‘vigorous, hard-hitting’ batter who looked to dominate the bowling from the first delivery.”
Born in 1910 on the family property on Spring Range Road, Hall, part of which still remains in family hands today, Nina grew up, according to the Cricket ACT tribute, “in a landscape that demanded resilience – a quality she brought to every innings she played”.
“When women’s cricket was first finding its structure in the Federal Capital Territory, she was not just a participant, she was a pioneer of the women’s game in the Canberra region.”
One of the highlights of Nina’s career was the historic match in 1935 at Manuka Oval against the visiting English women’s side when she was chosen to open the batting. True to form, she scored the first boundary of the match.
The champion 1930s Hall Women’s Cricket Team featuring Nina Southwell, top row, far left. Photo: Supplied.
In the same season, serving as vice-captain of the Canberra women’s side, she played a pivotal role in the team’s triumph at the 1935/36 NSW Country Week Carnival – a win that put the FCT firmly on the cricketing map.
She also won acclaim off the pitch, when, as treasurer of the FCT Women’s Cricket Association, she kept the club afloat during the hard Depression years, ensuring the game had a future in this region.
“Perhaps most inspiring was her enduring spirit,” CricketACT said in the tribute.
“In 1947, after a world war had paused much of civil life, she returned to lead the ACT side to Country Week as both captain and manager. At 50 years of age, she proved her class remained permanent.
“During that tournament, she dismantled Goulburn with a four-wicket haul and top-scored with the bat, but it was her clinical 4 for 24 against Bathurst that truly underscored her status as a premier bowler of the region.”
She was described as a player of great skill, unwavering dedication “and a pioneer who ensured that women’s cricket would always have a home in Canberra”.
For her nephew Ralph Southwell, 83, Nina’s induction into the Hall of Fame was well deserved.
“Although I must say when I heard the speech about all her achievements, I didn’t know some of what she had achieved,” he said.
“In our branch of the family you never blew your own trumpet and Nina never did. We all knew Nina played cricket. It was spoken of back then, but that was about all.
Olive Southwell pictured with her daughter Nina Southwell. The photograph was taken in the mid-1960s. Photo: Supplied.
“She was quite a stoic woman, someone who could turn their hand at anything. She could drench sheep, muster cattle but could also make jam. She loved to sing and had a nice voice and she was also a great horsewoman.”
For great-niece Melinda, induction into the Hall of Fame was a great tribute to Nina. “For me, the saddest thing is that I never met her, although my mother talked about her a lot and I learned a lot from Ralph,” she said.
“I wish I had known her but I feel very proud that I was given my middle name after her.”
Melinda said Nina didn’t marry, choosing to devote her life to her family and life on the Hall farm.
Nina’s legend also lives on in the National Museum of Australia collection where some of her favourite cricket equipment, ranging from an autographed bat to a pair of white cricket stockings, were donated by the Southwell family.
Nina Southwell died on 9 March 1969. She was 58.
