Bronwyn Calver
Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Bronwyn Lianne Calver | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Footscray, Victoria | 22 September 1969||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Batting | Right-handed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bowling | Right-arm Fast medium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
International information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
National side | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Test debut (cap 135) | 6 August 1998 v England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Last Test | 21 August 1998 v England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ODI debut (cap 65) | 17 January 1991 v New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Last ODI | 25 July 1998 v Ireland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Domestic team information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years | Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1982–83 – 1994–95 | New South Wales | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Career statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: CricInfo, 23 May 2014 |
Bronwyn Lianne Calver (born 22 September 1969 in
Early life
Calver and her family moved from Broadmeadows to Canberra in 1980. After being alerted to cricket by a school flyer saying "Junior cricketers wanted", she started playing the game at the age of 11 in the 1980–81 season.[2][3] On some weekends in the early 1980s, she would participate in a junior boys' game and in lower-grade men's cricket on the Saturday, and then take part in the schoolgirls' and senior women's competitions on the Sunday.[2][4]
For about seven years, Calver played in women's cricket matches alongside her mother, Beverley. In 1981, the two of them even co-opted her then 69 year old grandmother, Lily, who did not have a cricket background, to make up the numbers and avoid a forfeiture, in a match in which they all played for Northern Suburbs DCC team against Braddon Catholic Girls High School. Calver has since described the occasion as "pretty cool".[2]
Domestic career
Calver made her top level domestic debut for the
Her bowling style was "... front on [in]swing bowling, with the occasional leg cutter, off cutter or slower ball ..." Her best bowling figures in top level domestic cricket were 5/40 (for the ACT against Victoria).[4] She was also an attacking middle order batter.[3]
From 1983 to 1995, Calver represented the ACT, playing 61 matches, taking 100 wickets at an average of 19.39, and scoring 1518 runs at an average of 18.85.
Calver became the first player to take 100 wickets and score 1,500 runs in top level domestic cricket.[7]
International career
Calver played her first international match in 1991 against
Four years later, in 1997, at the peak of her career, she played a major role in Australia's atonement for its 1993 let-down: the team's victory in the 1997 World Cup final at Eden Gardens in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India.[2]
In that match, against New Zealand, she took 2 wickets for 29 runs. Her victims included star batter
The following year, 1998, Calver compressed her three-
By the end of her international career, Calver had played in three Tests and 34 One Day Internationals.[6] In the latter form of the game, she took 29 wickets at an average of 22.41 and just 2.3 runs/over, and scored 531 runs at 53.4 and a strike rate of 75.2.[3] Her best international bowling figures were 4/4 off 12 overs (against the West Indies, World Cup 1993),[6] and her highest international score was 81*.[3]
Other sports
Calver has said that she would give most sports a try. Even while playing cricket, she was a youth international association football goalkeeper, until football officials gave her an ultimatum to choose between the two sports. Later, in her spare time, she was a FIFA assistant referee/referee who officiated at international level.[2]
At the age of 38, several years after ending her top level cricket career, Calver took up Australian rules football playing for the Gungahlin Jets. She gave that sport away when she was 45, because recovery from games was taking too long. Meanwhile, she played two seasons of baseball for the Ainslie Bears team, winning a premiership in 2009-10.[2]
Post retirement activities
Calver came out of her representative cricketing retirement in 2006 to help the fledgling
Calver's involvement in cricket after completing her international career has included being the women's statistician for Cricket Australia and the on-line scorer at Manuka Oval.[3] In 2013, she was a member of the team that won the inaugural ACT indoor cricket title, for which the prize was the similarly aptly-named Bronwyn Calver Cup.[8]
After a seven season break from playing club cricket, since the 2016–17 season, Calver has played for Barton in the Canberra City & Suburban Cricket Association. She missed the 2018–19 season after rupturing her Achilles tendon while playing indoor cricket but spent the season scoring for Barton's 4th grade team, and returned to play the following season, captaining the 5th grade team. In the 2020–21 season, she captained the 6th grade[2] and is currently the captain of 3rd grade.
In November 2019, she was a member of the undefeated NSW Blues team in the inaugural National Over 40's Women's Cricket tournament played at Bradman Oval in Bowral.
Personal life
When not engaged in sporting activity, Calver has worked as a federal public servant since 1992. As of 2022, she was employed in the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications. While riding home from work one evening in January 2015, she was involved in an accident when a kangaroo collided with her bicycle. In the accident, she suffered a knee injury that required multiple stitches; the kangaroo, which appeared to be dazed and "disoriented" by the impact, died soon afterwards when it was struck by a passing car.[9]
Recognition
- 2013 – Calver was inducted into the ACT Sport Hall of Fame[3]
- 2019 – Calver was one of the first six inductees into the Cricket ACT Hall of Fame. The other five were Peter Solway, Michael Bevan, Lorne Lees, Glenda Hall and Greg Irvine.[10]
- 2020 - Calver was awarded Life Membership of Cricket ACT [11]
- The "Bronwyn Calver Medal" is awarded to the ACT Meteors Player of the Year.[8][12][13]
- Calver is a life member of the Gordon Cricket Club, Women's Division[14]
- 2023 - Named in Cricket ACT Women's Team of the Century.[15]
References
- ^ Bronwyn Calver at ESPNcricinfo
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Jackson, Russell (12 December 2020). "Meet Bronwyn Calver, the great Australian all-rounder batting on in suburban park cricket". ABC News. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "CBR Sport Awards: Bronwyn Calver". ACT Sport Hall of Fame. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
- ^ a b van Dulken, Dianne (31 January 1997). "Bronwyn Calver: Australia's finest bowler". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
- ^ "Outstanding achievers win prestige tour of Lords". The Canberra Times. Vol. 64, no. 20, 022. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 5 February 1990. p. 26. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ a b c d "Palmcricket's International Advisors: Bronwyn Calver - Australia Women, 1991-1998". Palmcricket. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
- ISBN 0-19-553575-8.
- ^ a b c "Calver comeback is a family affair". August 2013. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
- ^ Riordan, Primrose (20 January 2015). "Former Australian cricketer injured in collision with a kangaroo". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
- ^ Helmers, Caden (5 April 2019). "Ethan Bartlett and Cherie Taylor claim Cricket ACT's top crowns". The Canberra Times. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
- ^ "2020 Cricket ACT Annual General Meeting Summary". 23 October 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
- ^ Gaskin, Lee (3 May 2014). "Cricket ACT signals interest in women's Twenty20 Big Bash League". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 23 May 2014.
- ^ Polkinghorne, David (7 May 2014). "Rene Farrell gets Cricket Australia contract". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 23 May 2014.
- ^ "Gordon District Cricket Club, Women's Division Annual Report 2017-18" (PDF). Gordon District Cricket Club. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 February 2022. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
- ^ "Cricket ACT Centenary celebrates Teams of the Century". Cricket ACT. 4 February 2023. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
External links
- Bronwyn Calver at ESPN Cricinfo
- Video of Induction into ACT Sport Hall of Fame