The Gators acknowledged almost two decades of off-field toil by presenting Smith with the honour at their end-of-season function on Friday night.

She becomes the ninth person to receive life membership of the club.

Ross McKean, Jesse Adams, Jamie Henriksen, John McLean, Peter Newlands, Rod Sheen, Gary Strickland and Simon Rea complete the list.

“It’s lovely, it’s a huge honour. They’re not something that gets handed out willy-nilly and I don’t think they should be,” Smith said.

“They should be awarded to worthy recipients. Thankfully they’ve deemed me as a worthy recipient. They’re a special privilege in any club.”

Smith, 54, started working behind the scenes with the Gators when her son Michael joined the under 13 ranks shortly before the turn of the century.

She had been involved with the Allansford Football Netball Club for years beforehand — she is also a life member of the Cats — so the transition came naturally.

Setting up grounds, cooking Thursday night teas and helping organise the inter-association Sungold Cup are among her varied tasks.

Smith has also been the Gators’ secretary for the past decade. Michael has joined her on the committee, as treasurer.

“You have nominations (for new life members) and being on the committee I knew who was nominated,” she said.

“It goes to a vote, we all vote privately and hand it on to Michael. He was the only one who knew about it.” Smith said she did not want to be considered a trailblazer for women seeking to immerse themselves in cricket, but encouraged them to be involved.

“We do our best to keep the girls involved as much as we can,” she said.

“Cricket is a bit different to footy. You don’t have the netball with it, it’s more male-oriented. But we encourage the girls to come along.

“We do consider ourselves a family club. A lot of the boys have wives and little ones. We encourage the boys to come along and bring the kids.

“And we have a ladies’ day at the beginning of each season where the girls come and the boys wait on us hand and foot.”

Smith is the 17th woman to earn life membership of a Warrnambool and District Cricket Association club.

The others are: Bev Leske, Phillipa Hodgens (Port Fairy); Gaye Johnson (West Warrnambool); Lyn Rout, Kaye Divall (Russells Creek); Mary Creece, Joyce Palmer (Woodford); Debbie Gunther, Doreen Beks (Dennington); Beryl Murphy, Lois Prout, Carol Fish (Brierly-Christ Church); Kristy Frew (East Warrnambool-YCW), Margaret Shaw, Anne Fary (Merrivale); and Bridget “Ronnie” Dobson (Koroit).