Obituaries Australia

On Thursday last the wife of Alderman Varley, of Rookwood, was buried. The deceased lady, who was a daughter of the late 'Ned' Gregory and a sister of Sid and Charles Gregory, was one of the Sydney lady cricketers. She had, in company with her sisters, Mrs. Donnan, Mrs. Meagher, and Miss Gregory and her brothers, ample opportunity for practice at the nets. They would watch the finish of the club practice and would then sally forth for their eight or 10 minutes batting and their bowling and fielding. In this way they developed wonderful skills notwithstanding the inconvenience of their skirts. It was not so very long ago that the lady cricketers played the actors, and there was an attendance of about 8000, the takings — between £500 and £600— being handed over to the hospitals. Mrs. [Louisa Caroline] Varley was an all-round cricketer, a fine batsman (if the term be permissible), a good slow bowler, and, what is very rarely found in the fair sex, a good wicket-keeper. Of the four girls Mrs Donnan was the best batsman. She could drive, square-cut, and leg hit, and with the ball send down over-arm off breaks worthy of fairly good cricketers. The girls were thorough athletes. In the off season they would be found at football and lawn tennis, and the three that married had for their partners good cricketers. Harry Donnan will be remembered by those at the other side as a member of the 1896 Australian team. Alderman Varley was one of our most prominent junior cricketers, and the third, H. Meagher, until this season, played for Burwood in the first grade competition. The late Mrs. Varley had a peculiarly sad death. Her mind became infected when her father died, and for years she had a living death.