Recently, Sally Barton, a Reader in the Chaplaincy of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity Gibraltar, became the oldest international cricketer in the world. This happened when Gibraltar’s women achieved the milestone of being recognised by the ICC and played their first T20 match against Estonia in April.    

Sally is a reader in the chaplaincy of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity Gibraltar.  She preaches on a monthly basis and sings in the cathedral choir.  She is also involved in the community as a Girlguiding leader for Rainbows and Brownies. Her husband is Ian Tarant, the dean of the Cathedral.

Here she reflects on her cricketing journey:  

“I have always played cricket – I had a cricket scoring book for my 7th birthday and was fortunate to play at school.  I often played with men including at university when I played for the men’s third team.  Given the opportunity, I have played in church friendlies and have been told that the clergy cup has opened up so I can hope to play when we are back in the UK (though if we have interest in the diocese and anyone wants to organise a Diocese in Europe team to go on tour I will join you!).    

When my husband Ian was an ordinand at St John’s there was a friendly match away at Cuddesdon, he had no interest in playing but I kept wicket for St Johns.  Cuddesdon were short and Ian ended up being 11th man for them and when he came in for the last over I had to catch him to send him back for a second run.  St John’s won the match.  

There have been some challenges with playing cricket and my commitments to the church – though cricket is more flexible than other sports – the other week I arrived, after our 11am service, to a game which had started at 10am to find that our batters were nearly all out and I was required to pad up to come in at 11.  I contributed 7 runs as we put on 48 for the last wicket.  So despite arriving 2 hours late I could still play and kept wicket for our side -we won the 40-over match by 6 runs.  

Ian and I arrived in Gibraltar during lock down and sport opened up as a way in which I could get to know people outside of the church when other paths were covid closed.  I arrived at just the right time for the women’s game as the number of women playing with the men in the mid-week league was just enough to get a team going.  Last year we entered the ECN (European Cricket Network) with a T10 series here in Gibraltar.  I had just reached my 3-year milestone here on the rock and was eligible to play.  We didn’t do so well but I took my first international catch behind off the bowling of Yanira, 49 years my junior. We had a team and we have had a year of intensive training and gaining match experience for some of our newer players culminating in recognition by the ICC (international cricket council) and Gibraltar women’s very first international T20 on April 20th.  We were playing Estonia and for me it was enough to see the improvement we had made – we won all 3 matches – each time by around 100 runs and bowled the opposition out.  Then it was realised that I was the oldest person, male or female, to play in an ICC cricket match and the scale of Gibraltar’s victory also helped the news spread!  

It has been great getting Gibraltar onto the map and I will be breaking my record again on the 14th -16th June when we travel to Prague to play Croatia and Czech in some more T20s.”