Until she was 18 and starting her PE Course at Adelaide Teachers College, she had no idea that women played cricket.
Jill Kennare was another of the group of confident young female athletes emerging from the 1970s and 80s, who were dual Australian representatives in two sports.
In Kennare’s case, she played for Australia in cricket and lacrosse.
Like most of the other dual representatives, she graduated from the then Adelaide Teachers College, as a high school PE teacher.
At the time of entering teachers’ college, she confesses she didn’t know that women played cricket.
In 2017, Kennare was named as an Honorary Life Member at Lords in England, a rare distinction. Unsurprisingly, she was also named in SACA’s All Time Best Women’s Team as selected by its members.
In a career for SA spanning 12 seasons, Kennare accumulated seven centuries and 14 half-centuries, featuring her highest score of 131. It was the game she loved and is quoted as saying, “I just couldn’t get enough of it. I was learning so much, so quickly.”
The beginnings of Kennare’s strong offside batting are explained this way, “I became a very good offside player as the kitchen window was on the leg side, so that was avoided at all costs.”
An attacking, aggressive, exciting player with a keen eye, Kennare was South Australia’s leading run-scorer in 1977-78, 1978-79, 1981-82, 1983-84 and 1986-87.
Kennare appeared in 12 Test matches and 19 One Day Internationals 1979 -1987, including captaining Australia on the 1984 tour of India.
She was the first Australian – woman or man – to score two consecutive centuries for Australia, achieved on consecutive days, and both against England in Melbourne in 1985. “I was the first Australian to do that and the first woman in the world. But not many people know that because Allan Border did it two weeks later,” Kennare says.
In 1985, Kennare and Denise Emerson hit a record partnership for Australia against England of 176 runs. The record was surpassed in 2001 by Belinda Clark and Joanne Broadbent who shared an opening partnership of 197 runs against England.
In late January 1985, Kennare hit the winning run in the third and final match of the 1984-1985 Women’s Ashes, which was Australia’s first series win against England since 1949.
Kennare also played in three international lacrosse series for Australia, including in 1981, claiming the first victory ever against the USA.
