In my street I was the only girl. It was all boys. And every time someone new moved in I was wishing that there’d be another girl. But there never was. It was always another boy! So I became a real tomboy. Climbing trees and getting into all sorts of scrapes. So when I went to Lawnswood High School after I’d passed my Eleven Plus that was the first time I’d really been exposed to the company of other girls. It was very, very difficult. Because, well, you were growing up. You were 11 rising 12 and some of the girls were quite feminine whereas I was a real tomboy. It was just difficult. And they played different games. Because I’d been used to running around, or on a bike, or playing cricket, or climbing trees. And I was always dirty because I was falling about all over the place. I’d always got a plaster somewhere where I’d fallen. That’s just how it was.

And then you went through school. And I didn’t go to university I just went out to work.

But where I lived in the through terraced houses it was very near Headingley cricket ground and so I spent a lot of time going into the cricket ground and watching the cricket. I can remember at six o’clock every night the gates were opened and you could go in for nothing. And I used to go down with my father and we’d sit on the seats and watch whatever was going on. And when it was the Test Matches we couldn’t afford a ticket but our back attic had a skylight and I spent all day, every day, when the Test Match was on sat on the top of a stepladder with my head out of the skylight watching the cricket. I had a transistor radio next to me because i didn’t know the score because I was facing the same way as the scoreboard so i couldn’t see it. [laughs] I always had a love of cricket. My mother used to shout up ‘Dinner time!’ ‘Teatime!’ Nowadays we watch it on the television or we have it on long-wave on the radio. But the cricket is not like it was. We don’t like this T20. No, you want the county matches and the Test Matches.

And when I was five my mum took me along to school on the first day but after that I just went on my own. Along Kirkstall Lane. Crossed over North Lane where there was a pedestrian crossing and a lady with a lollipop. And she would guide us across. And then up St Michael’s Road. And that was it. And you met up with other children. Or you met up with one or two teachers. Because it was a local Church of England school the staff lived locally. There were no cars. People walked. And we used to come home for lunch. And go back after you’d had your lunch. And then come home again at three. So four journeys a day. There were no packed lunches and very few school dinners. Very few. If you lived in walking distance you went home for your lunch.