Full name Clare Elizabeth Taylor Name Clare Taylor Role Cricket Player | Years Team Height 1.70 m 1990– England | |
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Date of birth (1965-05-22) 22 May 1965 (age 50) | ||
Place of birth Huddersfield, England | ||
Clare Elizabeth Taylor MBE (born 22 May 1965) is an English sportswoman, the first woman to have played on a World Cup team in both cricket and football. She represented England at both cricket, as a member of the winning World Cup cricket team in 1993, and football (World Cup 1995). She was awarded the MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2000 for her services to women’s sport. Taylor attended Moor End High School and still has her name on the athletics records board.
Football career
Taylor began playing at age 11 and after answering a Women's Football Association advert in Shoot magazine, started playing for Bronte Ladies. Her England debut came in a 2–0 defeat to Germany in Bochum on 16 December 1990. When Bronte were relegated Taylor moved to Knowsley United, who became Liverpool Ladies shortly after losing the FA Women's Cup final to Doncaster Belles in 1994. Taylor had joined Knowsley United in preference to the dominant Doncaster Belles because she wanted the challenge of playing for a developing club.
Taylor's Liverpool were also beaten in the following two season's FA Cup finals, by Arsenal and Croydon respectively. In 1993 Taylor had played for Knowsley United in the FA Women's Premier League Cup final at Wembley and for England women's cricket team in the World Cup final at Lord's Cricket Ground.
During her amateur sporting career, Taylor was employed by the Royal Mail. Though she noted: "The amount of time I spend away on unpaid leave has got beyond a joke." Although Taylor preferred football to cricket, she focused on cricket after being dropped from the England football team.