Lorraine Kutcher was a fast bowler from Victoria who toured England in 1963 and played against England again at home in 1968/9, some five years later.
Born on January 29th 1938 in Sunshine, Melbourne, Victoria, the allrounder was playing cricket from the age of 14 at the Sunshine Club and had scored three not out centuries going into the 1963 tour of England. Perhaps the Australian captain Mary Allitt didn’t see the programme, for Loraine spent the tour batting at ten or eleven.
Her key function on the tour was to take wickets and she did this regularly over the three Tests, starting 2ith 2-26 and 1-19 at Edgbaston and 5-59 at the Oval.
Five years passed before Australia would play another Test and once more it was against the visiting England side in 1968/9. And it was not until the third Test, at North Sydney Oval, that Lorraine was picked for the national team again. It would be her final Test match, but it was a final hurrah, for she scored 52 runs in the first innings, her highest score in Tests and then ripped through the England batting taking 5-49, also her best in Tests. What a way to go out!
In her four Tests Lorraine scored 68 runs (most of those at North Sydney!) at 22.56. With the ball 16 wickets at 18.62, with two five wicket hauls.