That may still turn out to be true if less than two-thirds of the membership vote to allow the ladies to join them. In 1991, the last time their views were tested, only 33 per cent were in favour.
This time, however, there is an important difference in that the committee have placed themselves firmly among the modernisers with a strongly argued pamphlet urging members to support a change in the rules.
And yet, despite this apparent conversion, I retain some doubts about the real significance of the vote. My doubts are reinforced by a key paragraph in the committee's report to members.
This reads: ``With the exception of playing candidates, there is a waiting time of up to 20 years between nomination as a candidate and election as a full member. Therefore, if it were decided that ladies should be eligible for membership, very few would be elected during the two decades following that decision.''
In other words, women would go to the back of the queue. The committee may have judged that this is the most that members would stand for and that any proposal allowing women earlier admission would fail.
Even so, it would be a hollow victory for women if the best they could expect was admission to the Long Room by 2018. Once this was fully realised, the MCC would become a laughing-stock.
I am reminded of a woman's unworthy charge when I voted for her sex to be admitted to the Garrick Club. ``You are doing this in the sure and certain knowledge that the vote will fail, thereby preserving both your comfort and your liberal reputation.''
The MCC will have no credibility on this issue, either with the public at large or with bodies giving public money to sport, unless a convincing number of women are admitted immediately on a fast-track system.
If the MCC introduce a ladies' playing section, as they should, some will get in by that route. But that is not enough. If men are not required to demonstrate any cricketing skill to qualify for general membership, neither should women.
For a transitional period of, say five years, women should be elected in proportion to the numbers applying. If only 10 per cent of the total applications were from women, for example, then 10 per cent should be admitted.
It will be tough luck, admittedly, on men on the waiting list if women are allowed to jump the queue ahead of them. But I see no alternative if the club are to present themselves to the world as genuinely opposed to discrimination.
CONGRESBURY Bowling Club in Somerset want to rebuild their clubhouse, which used to be the village schoolroom over 50 years ago and now suffers from dry rot.
The design of the new building has been approved, but the senior planning officer for North Somerset Council, Mrs C L Grover, has imposed some extra- ordinary conditions, of which I quote only a few.
No more than 48 players and 24 spectators to attend the club at any one time. No more than four tournaments a year, with a maximum 48 players and 60 spectators. No more than 100 other matches or games in a year. Whist on only one evening a week for up to 36 people. Only one committee meeting a month for up to 10 people. Only six ancillary events a year for up to 60 people. Any other events ``to be subject to written approval by the local planning authority.'' No live or amplified music without the same approval.
Honestly, I didn't make this up. If I were the members at Congresbury, I would invite Mrs Glover along to the club - then dance that fearsome haka shown in a current television commercial.