That's how our newspaper - then trading as The Horsham Times - described the Noradjuha ladies cricket club's formation in 1898.

It doesn't get much better.

"The 'snowflakes' are seriously thinking of challenging the males," the article continued.

Time has its way of changing perspectives, and each new generation holds a desire to be better than their forebears.

Nearly four decades on, however, views on women's cricket in the Wimmera had, if anything, got worse.

In 1932, The Horsham Times published a piece with the foreboding headline 'Should Women Play Cricket?'.

The article, some 400 words nestled between an embellished list of jokes and advertisements for Melbourne pubs, is credited to the conveniently ambiguous 'Fielder'.

"My chief fear is that women will fail to accord cricket the stately, time-defying dignity with which we men have invested the game. They are so impatient. They hate wasting time", the writer throws out there.

"If women take seriously to playing cricket with us they will expect us to run to and from the pavilion and rush about between overs as though we were trying to catch trains. Then we shall have to wait whilst the bowler powders her nose," he follows with.

IN OTHER NEWS: Creek racks up a month on the road

"Mind you, I don't say that women cricketers might not brighten up the game a bit. They would put on coloured pads and bandeaux and things, and have bats painted to match.

"They might arouse Press and the public interest by wearing, or refusing to wear, shorts on the pitch. And if there was to be a big summer sale on the following day, you could bet they would finish the game somehow."

The most extreme, the most misogynistic, saved for last.

Thankfully, these are views that one man held nearly a century ago and if repeated today would be met with disgust by most reasonable people.

Though, this is the climate in which the Wimmera's women's cricketers had to play.

This was the climate which stubbornly remained although groundbreaking advancements in the sport were made decades earlier on our very own doorstep.

April 8, 1874.

The first organised, competitive women's cricket game was played in Australia.

At Back Creek Cricket Ground, in Bendigo, to be exact.

Twenty-two women, professional and practised, took to an oval flanked with supporters, many who travelled hours to attend, for a match intended to raise funds for the local hospital and asylum.

"It certainly required a very considerable amount of courage on the part of the ladies to undertake to play a cricket match in public.

The thing was unprecedented as far as Australia was concerned, and such a remarkable event as a ladies' cricket match has seldom happened, even in the old country - the home of cricket," the Bendigo Advertiser reported at the time.

The teams returned the next year to do it all again.

Few opportunities for women to play cricket pre-dated these matches, and few would follow.

Whether it was the catcalling and jeers the players were reportedly subjected to, or for other reasons lost to history, ladies' matches were a rarity.

Though, as The Horsham Times' Noradjuha correspondent so bluntly reported, women's cricket clubs found their way to the Wimmera at the turn of the 20th century.

In the early 1900s, most major centres in the Wimmera were home to a ladies cricket club.

Reports show the Horsham, Dimboola, Stawell, St Andrews and the Wimmera Stars Ladies Cricket Clubs all played matches against each over a five-year-to-six-year period from 1901.

MAKING NEWS:

Socially-driven yet played to a competitive standard, the matches received glowing local newspaper reports.

Tales of batting prowess and bowling excellence held their place alongside news of local football signings and racing results.

Though, the odd match report wasn't immune to the mention of "social dances" and "delicious teas" that were commonplace for pieces on women's sport, but seldom men's.

The Wimmera's ladies cricket clubs pre-dated the first official teams in the state - born from the Victorian Ladies Cricket Association's creation in 1904.

There were likely more cricket clubs in the Wimmera - like the correspondent's much-loved Noradjuha - but reports of their existence have been lost to history or our ancestor's perception of the clubs' irrelevance to history.

Stories of the ladies' successes pop up throughout the archives, until 1907 when women's cricket all but disappears.

It would be foolish to think women's cricket vanished from the Wimmera at the turn of the decade, but one can only speculate without recorded history.

At the time, changes in the social acceptability of women's sport were taking place, and women's only sports clubs were created with feverish frequency - including the Victorian Ladies' Bowling Association, which was established in 1907 as the first women's bowls association in the country.

Soon, World War I was on the horizon, and any progress was in danger of being lost.

On the homefront, women were left to deal with the consequences of war - managing family responsibilities alone, shortages of resources, and the trauma of losing loved ones.

Women's sport in the Wimmera went largely unrecorded for the next two decades, bar the odd golf score or social bowls event.

Across the state, cricket slowly made its return.

IN SPORT: Horsham Saints product makes Victorian Premier Cricket debut

The Victorian Ladies Cricket Association was re-formed socially in 1930, as "The Pioneers".

The same year, women's cricket once again graced The Horsham Times' pages.

Gone were the Horsham and Dimboola clashes of yesteryear.

In their place was a "novelty" match between members of the Australian Women's Association and staff at the Wimmera Base Hospital.

The catch: the men all batted, bowled and fielded left-handed.

What was prefaced as a bit of a hit-and-giggle, quickly turned serious for the men, when the ladies' captain, Jean McPherson, knocked an unbeaten 58.

"Her score reflected several fine strokes, and it's been rumoured that several of the Horsham A Grade teams have offered her substantial sums for her services for the final," the match report read.

The AWA team won the game, ruffling a few feathers.

"Apparently, the Hospital Carnival committee were not satisfied with the defeat they received from the AWA ladies' cricket recently, because they have challenged the female 'wielders' to another match," The Horsham Times reported.

The ladies lost the re-match but won when the teams met again the next year, and the year after that, for good measure.

LOOKING BACK: The community spirit - small hotels outside Horsham

It wasn't long before war arrived again, and though resources were depleted and attention elsewhere, some sports competitions carried on.

Wimmera leagues were forced into recess, but the most determined athletes found action elsewhere.

The post-WWII years were stunted but offered opportunities for the region's female cricketers, particularly Ararat's Alice Hird and Lorraine Kennedy.

In 1949, the pair were selected to play with the Victorian women's cricket team - which had formed only two decades earlier - for a match against the visiting English women's cricket team at Ballarat.

Sadly, little is known about their feats in the match, nor are Hird and Kennedy officially recognised on the honour roll of Victorian representatives.

Until early in the 2010s, the nation's best female cricketers were classed as 'semi-professional'.

They earned just a few thousand dollars a year and were forced to seek part-time, or even full-time, employment to break even.

Famously, members of the 1997 World Cup-winning team were all sent invoices nearing $2000 on their return to Australia.

Now, our nation's top female cricketers have signed long-term contracts, secured landmark maternity leave and emerged as icons for thousands of young girls.

In the past four years, registrations for women and girls playing the sport have grown by 61 per cent.

Closer to home, this explosion has been recognised in the Wimmera Girls Cricket League's growth, and the stars our region sends to play for representative sides in Melbourne, or Geelong.

Ultimately, the growth of women's cricket at a community level will ensure the sport's success.

A success that not only credits the trailblazers who came before, but paves the way for what's to come.

Did you know you can receive updates straight to your inbox? To make sure you're up-to-date with news from across the region, sign up below.