Cricket: Anoraks sweat as records tumble

England 414 and 160-1 Australia 569-6dec Match drawn

RECORDS continued to fall by the wayside on the final day of the first women's Test between England and Australia. And with the sky as blue as the best of B B King, the temperature was probably a record as well. Not quite a 45; more like a 331/3.

Indeed, the Australians couldn't have felt more at home at the Guildford ground had there been gum trees around the boundary and crickets chirping incessantly. Not that they'd have been heard above the whooping that greeted the batting milestones. Wisden's women's section might not run to many pages, but the ladies here wisely came armed with a loose-leafed folder full of steps that would be the envy of the male game's anoraks. By close of play, a fair few pages were consigned to the dustbin.

England's Jan Brittin began the rewriting when with 146, her highest score in Tests, she became the leading run scorer in the women's game (1,631). But Australia's Joanne Broadbent put Brittin's eight-hour innings in the shade with a classy onslaught on the world record of 204, set by New Zealand's Kirsty Flavell against England at Scarborough two years ago.

On a nigh-perfect pitch for batting, and against bowlers lacking pretensions to pace or penetration, the record was certainly vulnerable. The left- handed Broadbent began the day on 146 not out and was soon picking up where she left off on Friday evening. A square-cut four took her to 150 and Australia past 400, and only England's first-innings total of 414 put thoughts of a declaration on hold.

Alan Bennett said somewhere that there was something odd about women who wear ankle socks; but there was nothing odd about the way Broadbent batted in smart calf-length stockings and culottes (meanwhile, England have gone for the trousered look).

There was power in the way she punished the ball past the cover fielders and wristiness in her leg-side strokes. A flick to square leg took Broadbent beyond Denise Annett's Australian record of 193, made against England in 1987, and before long a single off Lottie Edwards' leg spin had her waving her green cap in celebration of a double-hundred made off 475 balls in eight and a half hours. Exactly half her runs had come in boundaries. The next ball she faced, the England captain, Karen Smithies, bowled her, and Flavell's record survived.

The batting onslaught didn't stop. Either side of lunch, pigtailed Julia Price and ponytailed Olivia Magno put on an Australian record 89 for the seventh wicket and in doing so took Australia past their own world record total of 525, amassed at Gujerat in 1983-84.

It was all too much for the scoreboard. It wasn't geared for the heady heights of 500, and a makeshift "5" had to be found. The way Price, having just reached 50 from 84 balls, went to lunch with a six over square leg, signalled Australia's intent to have a tilt at victory in the afternoon, and the declaration left them 155 ahead.

It was ambitious, as Brittin and Edwards confirmed with a century opening stand to thwart the visitors. Edwards hit her second half-century of the game and Brittin added an unbeaten 59 to that world-record aggregate.