It’s amazing to think of the hurdles that women like Cecilia would have had to overcome in order to pursue playing cricket when they did. I’m in awe of how tough that must have been, and of how much spirit and determination Cecilia and her teammates had. It’s not just the fact they often raised their own money – though that is so impressive – but I know from playing in 2021 that you still have to deal with the odd raised eyebrow when you’re a woman in sport and Cecilia made her Test debut in 1949! It is women like Cecilia – and Eileen Ash, who we also lost this year – who paved the way for me and my teammates to do what we do professionally. We owe them a huge debt, and we’re so grateful to them. We’ll be thinking of them when we take to the field in the Ashes and the World Cup in 2022. We know they’d be cheering us and hoping for an England win.

Siobhan Cattigan – by Gillian Duncan, women and girls’ director at Stirling County RFC

“Siobhan was one of the kindest, most passionate people most of us have had the pleasure to share a pitch with,” Gillian Duncan told Telegraph Sport, following the tragic death of Scottish rugby international Siobhan Cattigan on November 26, 2021 at the age of just 26. “A fearsome opponent, and a team-mate who always had your back, Shib showed a talent for rugby from an early age and wasn’t afraid to join in with the boys to show them exactly what she was made of.”

A talented back-rower – Cattigan won her first international cap for Scotland in the 2018 Women’s Six Nations and won 19 caps in total for her country – Cattigan was the cornerstone of the women’s team at Stirling County, where she played her club rugby in the Scottish women’s premiership, while her off-the-pitch contributions earned her the fullest admiration. 

“As she progressed in rugby, she was more than happy to attend training sessions with younger players to encourage them, help them and show what could be achieved when you work hard – the girls loved it!” said Duncan. “Off the pitch she was a loyal and caring daughter, sister and friend. There’s a Shibby shaped hole in our hearts that will never be filled.” 

Dorothy Manley, GB sprinter and European relay champion

Dorothy Parlett (née Manley) was one of the last surviving British athletes to have won a medal at the 1948 London Olympics, before her death last month aged 94. 

In an interview with the Telegraph last year, she spoke of modern day athletes’ dedication, after the Tokyo Olympics were postponed: “They’re preparing for next year now – that was unheard of in my day. Now they have four years to prepare, but four years before ours there was a war on and you didn’t think of it in that way at all.” 

However, Parlett was downplaying her own dedication, as ahead of London 1948 she gave up working full-time as a secretary with the Suez Canal Company to focus on her sprinting, and took unpaid leave to compete at the Games. After travelling to Wembley Stadium by tube, she finished runner-up in 12.2 seconds in the 100m. Her silver medal made the sacrifices worth it, Parlett’s tears of joy on the podium a measure of how highly she ranked her achievement. In 1951 she became a world-record holder after forming part of Great Britain’s 4×220 yards relay team, and over her career recorded a personal best time of 12 seconds flat in the 100m. Her career was cut short in 1952 by a thyroid condition, and she went on to become a teacher, including in PE. 

Gillian Sheen, Britain’s Olympic fencing champion

Gillian Sheen remains Britain’s only Olympic gold medalist in fencing, having topped the podium at the 1956 Games in Melbourne. A dental surgeon by profession, she was said to have built up strength in her wrists through pulling teeth. She kept herself fighting fit with a meal of steak and a glass of burgundy after each training session.

Seen as a rank outsider ahead of the first Games in which electronic scoring was introduced, The Daily Telegraph hailed her triumph in the individual foil as, “a victory for modern classical fencing”. A seven-time national champion, she followed Olympic success with a Commonwealth Games title in 1958.

Born in Willesden on August 21, 1928 to Ethel (née Powell) and Ronald Sheen, the youngest of four children, Sheen took up fencing as a boarder at North Foreland Lodge school in Kent. She went on to study dentistry at University College Hospital, where she won the ladies’ university championship a record five consecutive times. 

Sheen’s book – Instructions to Young Fencers – was published in 1958 before she won her tenth and final British championship in 1960. She retired from competitive fencing three years later. In 2019, she was appointed MBE for her services to the sport.