Breaking the Grass Ceiling E-Book

Patricia Gregory

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 351

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Breaking the Grass Ceiling unveils the inside story of the Women's FA, tracing its creation and organisation from inception – as a result of the Deal Tournament for women in 1967 – to when it was formally handed over to the FA in 1993. In 1921, the FA had banned women from playing on grounds under its control, but organisations interpreted this as a ban on women playing football altogether. And the result was exactly that: it did prevent women from playing the sport. Almost fifty years later, on 1 November 1969, the inaugural meeting of the Women's FA took place. It was attended by forty-four clubs and seven leagues, forming the nucleus of the nascent association. Through the steadfast efforts of many men and women, the ban was finally lifted on 19 January 1970 and subsequently confirmed by the FA Council in 1971. Featuring original research, behind-the-scenes details and personal perspectives from many of the players, Patricia Gregory tells the full story for the first time. She recounts the early days, as a voluntary workforce fought to establish a new sport; the development phase, as a national cup competition and official national team were founded; and the later years, which dealt with the constant battle to gain and maintain recognition. Breaking the Grass Ceiling highlights the unsung heroes of the past who worked tirelessly for the right of girls and women to play the game they loved, and in doing so laid the foundations for the teams of the future.

Leseprobe

All due diligence has been made to trace original copyright owners and to give appropriate credit. If any error or omission has been made, please contact the publishers who will rectify it at the earliest opportunity.

First published 2025

The History Press

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© Patricia Gregory, 2025

The right of Patricia Gregory to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

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ISBN 978 1 80399 621 9

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Contents

Foreword

Introduction

1     Our Determination

2     Czech Adventure

3     In from the Wilderness

4     Becoming Established

5     Registration of Female Referees

6     Our First Ten Years

7     Opening the Office

8     1984 – England in the Final

9     Two Decades Down

10   Negotiations with the FA

11   Moving Forward

12   The Final Chapter

13   They Were the First

14   In Their Own Words

15   The WFA Cup Competition

WFA Cup Final Results

England Results 1972–92

England Legacy Numbers

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Anyone who reads this passage of history on the challenges faced in the development of women’s football will find it unbelievable that today one can truly state that so much is owed by so many to the few who gave their time and devotion in establishing the level that it has now reached.

Patricia has spent many months researching minutes of meetings, records and the personal memories of many people involved over many years. This involved time and travel at personal expense to herself. One thing you can guarantee, as honorary assistant and then honorary secretary of the Women’s Football Association from 1969 to 1982, is that Patricia will have written this record without bias or prejudice, in keeping with the high standards she always achieved as an officer.

Congratulations Pat, you deserve the publication of this book, which I hope will be enjoyed by all who read it.

David HuntWFA Honorary Life Vice President

Introduction

I like to think that there is a symmetry between my query of myself in 1967 – ‘why don’t girls play football?’ – with my thought over fifty years later that the history of the Women’s Football Association needed to be written down. As I was pretty sure that I was the only surviving officer from the first five, I felt that it was down to me – and it gave me something to do during the Covid years. My research started earlier than that, when I resolved to find all ninety-seven women who had played for England during the WFA’s lifetime. I had kept in touch with some of those early players, but finding the remainder was to take me until six weeks before October 2022, when the FA was to begin presenting caps to those official internationals.

Steadily, throughout the 2000s, I had searched for former members of the Association and done my best to ensure that they didn’t throw away records. Whenever there were files or memorabilia that the owner no longer wanted I was able to redirect these either to the British Library or the National Football Museum in Manchester. My own cellar revealed old minutes, newsletters and football programmes, all of which have been invaluable in compiling this book. I have not had access to a complete set of WFA minutes but I have done the best I could with whatever material was available to me – and it was a lot! Just as important, have been the memories of so many people who were involved with the WFA from its inception in 1968 and beyond.

Although, as the late Queen Elizabeth II said, ‘recollections may vary’, the memories of so many have helped to jog the brain cells to unearth long-buried stories. My thanks in particular to June Jaycocks, David and Marianne Hunt, Jenny Bruton, Pam Marlowe†, Mary and Suzanne Hull, Bill and Viv Bowley, and many more. Almost all of whom I tracked down were kind and generous with their time and their help. Occasionally someone did not wish to talk to me, but I hope that I have done justice in recording what was a relatively short existence for the Association. The WFA was founded on voluntary effort, which continued even after we were able to open an office. Unsurprisingly, given the time span, I was too late to speak with some volunteers. Clubs, leagues and much of the Association’s business was down to their efforts. When it became obvious that our inadequate resources would not be enough to develop the sport as it deserved, we handed its organisation over to the Football Association in 1993. The 2022 Euros trophy and England’s silver medal from the 2023 World Cup are surely proof that we were right to do so.

1

Our Determination

Since UK women’s football has found its way on to the sports pages of the national newspapers and even TV and radio news bulletins, there has been a steady increase in the number of books written on the subject. None, however, have been devoted to the re-emergence of the sport in the late twentieth century through the work of the Women’s FA following the Football Association ban of women’s matches from pitches under their control (and consequently the other British football authorities) in 1921. A ban that remained in place until the end of 1969.

Some women found a way to play football in the intervening years, but it took the selfless efforts of men and women in the 1960s to overturn the ban and secure a sound base from which today’s women’s players have benefitted. This book attempts to record the struggles of the Women’s Football Association to become established and to recognise what those people achieved.

Some time in the late 1960s/early 1970s, I was approached by a national newspaper journalist alerting me to an article published in the Daily Sketch in 1895. This was the first evidence of women participating in football matches before those more commonly believed to be the earliest around the time of the First World War. An enterprising young woman, who, allegedly, went by the name Nettie J. Honeyball, was organising matches in the corner of north London where I grew up. There are some researchers who claim that Nettie J. Honeyball was a pseudonym, but this has not yet been proved. Nettie was supported by the socialite Lady Florence Dixie, a noted feminist, and organised matches involving women from other parts of the country. However, even Nettie’s exploits were not the first as there were games played in Scotland a decade earlier. Many people today are aware of the Dick, Kerr’s Ladies from Preston, but there were other teams, including Manchester Corinthians. With so many men absent fighting in the First World War, women took on many jobs and activities previously barred to them and this included playing football. Female workers from the munitions factories were particularly active in this respect. The story of the legendary women of Dick, Kerr’s Ladies has been comprehensively documented by Gail J. Newsham in her book In a League of Their Own.

I grew up in a household where my father, George, regularly attended games at Tottenham Hotspur FC in the 1960s. Unsurprisingly, my older brother, Ieuan, gravitated towards Arsenal and, while he was allowed to attend Highbury, it took a few years of persuading before my father would let me accompany him to White Hart Lane, finally conceding in 1962. There were even occasions when my brother would be ‘encouraged’ to let me tag along to Highbury but I was only permitted (by him) to walk behind him.

I come from the era of secondary modern schools, which equipped you for work of some kind. Happily for me, that included an excellent teacher of office skills (Mrs Pannett) – shorthand, typing and common sense – and my father instilled in us a curiosity for the world around us. That probably stemmed from his job as a caption writer for the news agency Press Association. Standing in the crowd with my father outside Tottenham Town Hall in 1967 to welcome the Spurs team with their new trophy (FA Cup), I, a 19-year-old, suddenly think ‘why don’t girls play football?’

I decided to pursue this with a letter to my local newspaper, the Hornsey Journal, now no longer in print, putting this thought into the public domain. I knew very quickly that there were other like-minded girls out there when they made contact, wanting to join the team that I certainly did not have at that time. As was to happen on numerous occasions in those first years, I relied heavily on the goodwill of my parents in allowing me to convene a meeting at our home. To my surprise, enough girls attended to enable us to begin to make plans; we had no idea how difficult it was going to be.

The Hornsey Journal article that led to the White Ribbon’s formation. (Hornsey Journal)

We were ignorant of the 1921 ban that had the effect of preventing women from playing football because it ensured that female footballers were unaffiliated.

As a fledging club, we formed a committee and the honorary secretary, Sheila Gardner, wrote on 19 July 1967 to the FA, who replied with a copy of the FA Council decision made on 5 December 1921, which read:

Complaints having been made as to football being played by women, the Council feel impelled to express their strong opinion that the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged. Complaints have also been made as to the conditions under which some of these matches have been arranged and played, and the appropriation of the receipts to other than Charitable objects. The Council are further of the opinion that an excessive proportion of the receipts are absorbed in expenses and an inadequate percentage devoted to Charitable objects. For these reasons the Council request the Clubs belonging to the Association to refuse the use of their grounds for such matches.

Astonishingly, we were also informed that this decision had been reconfirmed by the FA Council in December 1962. In historical terms, you must remember that it was not until 1918 that women were allowed to be elected to Parliament and that year only a proportion of British women were given the right to vote (if a woman was over 30 and met the proper qualification). Not until 1928 was it extended to women over 21, according them the same voting rights as men. The simple consequence in 1967 was that I was unable to hire a football pitch, training facilities or secure a qualified referee for any matches that we eventually succeeded in arranging. Add to this the minor irritation of being a team with no name. Having the idea to form a team was simple compared with solving those few problems. The local council – the London Borough of Haringey in this instance – were emphatic: no access to any of their facilities to an unaffiliated football team. They finally relented in March 1968, with their Director of Parks writing:

… that careful consideration was given by the council at their last meeting to the question of matches between ladies’ football teams. The Council resolved that permission be granted for matches between ladies’ football teams, but not mixed teams, but that these may only be played in Chestnuts Recreation Ground, as adequate toilet facilities are not available in any of the Council’s other Parks and Recreation Grounds.

Resorting once more to the local newspaper – no mobiles and internet back then – brought forth contact from Fred Jordan of men’s team White Star FC, Tottenham, who offered – one assumes at peril to their own future in offering to help an unaffiliated team – to allow us to share their training facilities. Of course, initially we had no pitch and thus were only able to accept ‘away’ invitations. These came our way after placing an advertisement in a soccer magazine – which one escapes me. Initially all proposed matches were against boys and young men’s teams and, out of necessity, on their home pitches. Two matches stand out: one against my father’s departmental team, Press Association Photos, and the other against chefs from Claridge’s Hotel, London. The first was played in spring 1970 in aid of Hattie Jacques’ chosen charity, the Leukaemia Research Fund. Ms Jacques lives long in the memory for her various characters in the Carry On … film series and she came along, resplendent in a purple outfit, to perform the ceremonial kick-off. I still have her thank-you note, which was sent in addition to the official fund letter. We raised £67 13s 8d, which converted to 2022 values equates to just over £1,437. A valuable exercise.

The second match was played against the chefs. We dutifully turned up at the staff entrance in Mayfair and walked with our opponents to Regent’s Park to their pitch – and no, we didn’t receive any goodies from the kitchen. In fact, we played the PA Photos team more than once, on each occasion for a nominated charity. One day I was contacted by Arthur Hobbs, who had also seen the advert. As the organiser of the Deal Football Tournament, he invited us to visit his competition at the Betteshanger Welfare Sports Ground of the Betteshanger Colliery. Deal enjoys a long maritime history but I doubt that the people of this small Kent coastal town realised that the actions of their resident, Arthur Hobbs, were going to add to the story with the eventual creation of the Women’s Football Association.

Hattie Jacques kicking off the PA Photos v White Ribbon match. (PA Photos)

Arthur had been brought up in Wiltshire and fought during the Second World War in the Wiltshire Regiment. He served in France and was injured out. In civilian life he was a joiner for the Kent builders and funeral directors A.A. Cavell and settled in Deal, marrying Mary Arnold in 1945. It was at A.A. Cavell that he met Charlie Cooke, who was to become a friend and the first treasurer of the WFA.

Being too late in 1967 to enter the Deal competition, we ventured down from London to the Betteshanger Welfare Sports Ground to be confronted by eight women’s teams. To say that we were terrified at the prospect of playing some of them would be to exaggerate our reaction to the talent on display. However, it made us think about what we were getting ourselves into. That year the final was contested by Dover GPO (General Post Office), who beat Deal GPO 3-2.

By 1968 the tournament had increased in size to thirty-two participating teams (including my club), necessitating three days of competition over the month of June. Matches were generally only twenty minutes each way and in the main the teams were drawn from the southern counties of England, with a smattering from further afield. That year Manchester Corinthians took home the trophy by beating Deal Hockey Club 7-0 in the final. Like the modern football competitions, the number of competing teams mushroomed and in 1969 matches were played over five Sundays, culminating with another victory for Manchester Corinthians (2-0) over the Scots team drawn from the employees of Hoover, who rejoiced in the name Cambuslang Hooverettes. The Deal tournament had become the Deal International Ladies Football Tournament that year with participation by two Czech teams, Lokomotiva Praha and Koh-i-Noor.

In 1970 the Manchester Corinthians were again victorious over Hooverettes to claim the ‘Teddy Gray’ Memorial Challenge Trophy once more, but this time it required penalties to confirm the winners in front of a 500-strong crowd. The tournament was to continue for two more years at a new venue, with another Scottish side, Stewarton Thistle, beating Southampton in 1971 by a single goal at the Charles Sports Ground. It was played in front of Denis Follows, then the secretary of the Football Association, drawn no doubt through curiosity. The 1971 clubs participated only through invitation. The final Deal tournament was held in 1972, also at that ground, but victory that year went to Thame from Oxfordshire over Fodens (Cheshire), 2-0. Stewarton Thistle and Southampton had to be content with the third–fourth-place match, again settled on penalties with victory going to the Scottish visitors.

Where it all started – the Deal tournament programmes. (Author’s own)

Meeting up with other teams was only the beginning, and discussions began in 1968 of a regional league structure, with Arthur leading the way on the more ambitious plan to create a national governing body. In the case of my own team, the league was to be based around north London and stretch north as far as Luton and eastwards to Suffolk. Eventually the S.E. of England League was born and to this day no one is sure whether it or the Midland League was the first. League meetings, like those of my club, were initially held in my parents’ living room, although my father continued to believe that football was no place for women.

My nameless team ploughed on and our link with White Star FC did unexpectedly lead to a solution. They told us that in the 1930s Tottenham Hotspur FC trained with an amateur men’s side called White Ribbon. This seemed the perfect fit for our bunch of girls – we may not have had a pitch, training venue or manager of our own, but we had a name. We were also penniless. We set about raising funds – jumble sales, mowing lawns, car washing, garden tidying, baby-sitting and such like – as we had to raise enough money to invest in a kit and some footballs, plus there would be pitch costs as and when we gained access to facilities.

In the twenty-first century the tendency is to take your unwanted clothes and household paraphernalia to the local charity shop or sell them online, but in the 1960s you held a jumble sale. That meant that you needed to go door-to-door collecting donations that could generate income. I well remember collecting clothes from one house where the donations were still warm – it is to be hoped that the occupants had parted willingly from these garments. Our arrangement with White Star was that we would support their social events, so raffle ticket income went to the men’s club. Subs paid by the players were of the order of 2s a week (with decimalisation only occurring in the UK in 1971, that would convert to 10p). Looking back, it is impossible to recall how we managed to pay for transport to get to those early matches other than individuals contributing towards paying the bill, and myself as the organiser still being severely out of pocket all these years later. My parents had a telephone in the house (not so usual then) and my father began to notice that his bills were on the rise. Everyone involved in women’s football at that time was earning a living and contributing to the establishment of the sport on a voluntary basis. It would be remiss if I didn’t record here some of the White Ribbon players who my records reveal were members over the relatively few seasons that we existed – Pat Cottis, Carole Horner, Peggy Briffa, Barbara Oates, Linda Green, Carol Hudson, Marilyn Green, Virginia (Ginny) Howard, Kathy O’Reilly, Sheila Stone, Penny Howard, Pat Jennings (yes, she was a goalkeeper like her international men’s namesake), Brenda Hambridge, Lorraine Frost, Jackie Smith, Susan Wilkins, Lynne Lawrence, Wendy Rollings, Noreen Jones, Barbara Georgeson, Silvia Green, Hilda Blowes, Gillian Nudd, Trisha (Pat) Morley and Sheila Gardner. Brenda’s father was manager at one stage and her fiancé, Derek Norrington, the trainer. Sometimes Ginny’s husband Keith was called upon to drive a hired minibus. Everyone was put to work!

By 1967 I had become secretary to the sports editor of The Sunday Telegraph, putting to good use the shorthand and typing that I had learned at school. These were two very important skills for the task ahead when it came to organising meetings and taking minutes. A very old manual typewriter, acquired from an aunt, became my constant companion. I would come home from work, eat the dinner prepared by my mother, and disappear to my room to tackle the day’s correspondence, either for the club or league, of which I had become the honorary secretary. The creation of a governing body was only going to add to that workload as Arthur Hobbs was generating all his correspondence in longhand. I’d always suspected that my typing ability was too useful to be ignored and official correspondence that had to be typewritten fell to me.

Through Arthur’s determination, at the conclusion of the 1969 Deal tournament all participating teams, if they wished to do so, automatically became members of the Ladies’ FA of Great Britain. Upon advice from the Central Council of Physical Recreation/the Sports Council, the name of the Association was soon amended to Women’s FA as it was recommended that the use of ‘women’ was a more all-embracing title. We were informed that ‘ladies’ played golf but ‘women’ played cricket and football. Arthur had held preparatory meetings at Deal Town Hall and arranged for the inaugural meeting of the Association to be held on 1 November 1969 at Caxton Hall in London (eventually chaired by his local MP, David Ennals). Always with an eye to keeping everyone on side, Arthur had lined up representatives of each of the three main political parties to become joint vice presidents – Mr David Ennals MP (Labour for Dover), the Hon. Charles Morrison MP (Conservative for Devizes), and the Rt Hon. Jeremy Thorpe MP (Liberal for Devon North). The interest of the political parties would wane over the next couple of years. Arthur had taken advice from the Sports Council and was proposing that the first meeting appoint a steering committee who would work towards preparing a constitution for acceptance at the first annual general meeting, which would eventually take place on 6 June 1970.

White Ribbon team c.1968. (Vic’s Photos, Hackney)

At the FA Council meeting on 1 December 1969, item 37 paved the way for the lifting of the 1921 ban. The minutes record:

Ladies Football. The Secretary referred to a Memorandum which he had presented to the Executive Committee who had made the following recommendation to the Council: ‘That the decision of the Council of 1921, confirmed by the Council in 1963, be deleted and that ladies football no longer be considered to be classed as unaffiliated football, and that any ladies’ team which wished to affiliate to a County Association might be permitted to make such an application.’ Mr G. Evans (English Schools) spoke against the decision and said that he would not like to see ladies football introduced. Mr F. Barrett informed the Council that the matter was on the Agenda for the County Conference to be held on 11 December 1969. The Council agreed to the matter being deferred until the views of the County Associations had been obtained. It was also agreed that a copy of the Secretary’s Memorandum should be sent to Members of the Council and County Association Secretaries.

Happily, on 11 December the counties agreed that the 1921 resolution be rescinded and women’s teams be permitted to use grounds under the jurisdiction of the Football Association and registered referees be permitted to officiate at matches between women’s teams. It is interesting to note that even at this time the terms ‘ladies’ and ‘women’s’ could not be agreed.

Late in 1969, the FA advised Arthur that they were lifting the 1921 ban that prevented women’s teams from hiring facilities and, if nothing else, lent us the air of respectability – we would no longer be classed as unaffiliated football. They said:

1.  That the Council’s Resolution of 1921 be rescinded.

2.  That women’s football teams may be allowed to use grounds under the jurisdiction of the Football Association and registered referees may be permitted to officiate at matches between women’s teams.

3.  That the appropriate Rules of the Football Association be amended accordingly.

The actual FA minute lifting the ban bore the date of 19 January 1970 but it had to be confirmed by the AGM, which did not happen until 1971 following presentation to the Rules Committee.

Before our Association came into being officially there would be costs associated with the administration and Arthur set a sum of 30s to be paid by each club (in decimal currency and at 2022 rates that converts to over £30). At the 6 June 1970 general meeting, also held at Caxton Hall, none of the joint vice presidents were present and Pat Dunn chaired the meeting. The Association officers elected were:

Mrs Pat Dunn (chairman),

Mr Pat Gwynne (vice chairman),

Arthur Hobbs (honorary secretary),

myself (honorary assistant secretary)

and Charlie Cooke (treasurer).

In addition to the previously mentioned joint vice presidents, another vice president was elected, Mr H.G. van Suijlekom from the Netherlands. The meeting also confirmed an executive committee drawn from all parts of the country (and representing eight leagues, the Southampton Association, Manchester, Scotland and Ireland). One member of the executive committee recalls that if you were present and put yourself forward, you were accepted on to the committee. The members for that first year were:

Reg Berry (Midland League), Mick Gale (Sussex League), Roy Day (Southampton Association), John Thay (Heart of England League), Sid Doody (Hull League), Derek Barber (Northampton League), David Hunt (S.E. of England League), Len Piner (Kent League), Jenny Bruton (West Mercian League), Gladys Aikin (Manchester Area), Ann McBride (Cambuslang, Scotland), Kevin Gaynor (Dundalk, Ireland), Susan Lopez (Southampton), Bryn Poyner (Worcester), George Aikin (Manchester), Ron Hyde (Swindon), June Jaycocks (Brighton), and Florence Bilton (Hull).

To help Arthur, he was given the right to appoint regional private secretaries, but they would not enjoy voting rights. Brenda Burlinson (Ramsgate), Ernie Strutt (Rochester), Verena Steed (Minster), and Brenda Hambridge (Dagenham) took on these roles.

The Association started much as life over the years would dictate – with very little cash. The income reported at this meeting totalled £151 (in 2022 £1,976), expenditure £111 (£1,453), leaving a balance of £39 14s 9d (£510 approximately). Sadly, the last few months had not been plain sailing – an unaffiliated tournament staged by Butlins, in which Fodens participated, and thus withdrew from the WFA, was followed by the threatened withdrawal from the Deal tournament of the holders, Manchester Corinthians, due to a clash with a French tour. Apart from the acceptance of the proposed constitution, the main talking point of the day was whether affiliated teams could play unaffiliated teams – a situation at odds with the whole point of the Association’s existence. Happily, by thirty-three votes to nine (with two abstentions), the majority of the forty-four clubs present that afternoon threw their weight behind the Association. Although there was a caveat – permission could be sought for such encounters, which might be granted if, for example, it was for a charitable purpose.

I should record here the forty-four clubs who made history that day. Represented in London on 6 June 1970 were:

White Ribbon

Wilton Dynamos

Chiltern Valley

Bosom Buddies Utd

Manchester Corinthians

Yardley Hastings

Deal & Betteshanger Utd

Rainbow Dazzlers

Bedworth Rangers

Dundalk (Ireland)

Bantam Ladies (Coventry)

Talon Elite

Nuneaton Wanderers

Farley Utd

Rye Sussex

Lan-Bar LFC

Harlesden Athletic

Kays Ladies

Hartwell

Boreham Wood Hearts

Keresley

Thanet United

Gillingham

L’Oreal (Golden Ladies)

Reckitt (Hull)

Spurs Ladies

Hamstreet (Kent)

Medway Ladies

Rapide LFC

Hull Ladies

Swindon Spitfires

Spurs Supporters

Real Ladies, Southampton

Edgware

Manchester Nomads

Leicester City

Brighton GPO

Romford

Patstone (Southampton)

Cycle & General

Hellingly Hospital

Macclesfield

Ramsgate All-stars

Arland

Over the ensuing years the Association often made life difficult for itself by sometimes allowing petty differences to interfere with its main purpose. However, as we continued the struggle for recognition it was necessary to do our best to put these aside. However, there were enough instances when the problem would overwhelm our objectives.

At the executive committee meeting in August, the newly elected chairman, Pat Dunn, was faced with the suggestion from Arthur Hobbs that, in the interests of the Association, she should withdraw from the position because of the likelihood that past differences with the FA from her membership of an unaffiliated organisation would impede the Association’s progress. Mrs Dunn was one of the first women to qualify as a referee and, until the WFA secured an interim resolution with the FA in 1973 to allow female referees to register with the WFA for women’s matches only, she could not officiate at matches. The position was regularised in 1976, allowing women to appear as a match official at men’s matches. Mrs Dunn was unwilling to step down from the chair and the meeting did not support the stance taken by Mr Hobbs. Other developing situations were the refusal of the Scottish FA to recognise women’s clubs (this would persist until 1974), as well as a club trip by Chiltern Valley to Italy, where they were reported as being the ‘England’ team. The meeting was reminded that under the rules such trips could only be made under an individual club name, and they must never allow themselves to be portrayed as the national team.

David Marlowe served the WFA in various capacities and was assiduous in collating a record of minutes, newsletters etc., which it has been possible to donate to the British Library’s Contemporary Archives. I recall meeting David for the first time at the Deal tournament. He was employed by Hoover in public relations and was asked by the company to liaise with the Hooverettes at the event. He was subsequently asked by the Scots to represent them at WFA meetings if their nominee Ann McBride could not attend. In turn, the WFA agreed to approach the SFA with a view to encouraging them to alter their stance towards recognising their female footballers. This was done but was not successful.

One positive action reported by Mr Hobbs was the creation of a national cup competition that would be open to all member clubs. There would be area/regional tournaments producing sixteen teams who would participate in a tournament leading to two finalists and two losing semi-finalists, who would meet on 9 May 1971 at the Crystal Palace National Recreation Centre. The trophy donated by Mitre Sports would be known as the Mitre Challenge Trophy – hence what was to become more commonly known as the WFA Cup was born and celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2020.

By the time of the executive committee meeting on 3 October 1970, Pat Dunn had decided to resign and Pat Gwynne, a male referee from Leamington Spa, became the acting chairman until the next general meeting. A sub-committee was formed and drew up Cup rules, which were accepted by the meeting. One fundamental change was that eight, not sixteen, teams would participate in the quarter-finals and then semi-finals would be held at the Woodside Playing Fields & Sports Stadium in Watford, with the expectation that this would be more manageable for our voluntary operation.

In 1970 there was the first invitation for an exhibition match at the Daily Express National Five-a-Side Championship. This competition was for men’s professional teams drawn from the Football League (as it then was). The WFA was invited to provide an exhibition match as an interval attraction between the semi-finals and final. The original intention that year was for the exhibition match to be between players drawn from Manchester Corinthians and Southampton (as recent winners of the Deal tournament) for England and Glasgow Gay Ladies and Hooverettes for Scotland, but in the end it was Manchester Corinthians versus Southampton, with the final result being a single-goal victory for Southampton.

Although funds were improving, the Association sought an equitable solution to the costs borne by each representative when attending meetings. Pooling of fares was the answer and a proposal was submitted by Mr Marlowe to the December executive committee but a decision was deferred until the next meeting.

Having resigned its membership of the Association, Fodens now sought help from the FA in contacting overseas teams in order to challenge them by competing in the Women’s World Championships. The matter was passed to the WFA, who were, naturally, unwilling to assist an unaffiliated team as this would be to the detriment of those teams who had put their faith in the Association. Fodens would continue to play unaffiliated teams but it would be several seasons before they chose to rejoin the WFA. In 1974 they won the Mitre Challenge Trophy, beating the usually indomitable Southampton.

By late 1970 there were 127 affiliated clubs, many participating in ten member leagues. Among this number were Southampton WFC, who had caused some consternation with their unusual set-up. The club had so many players that it had split itself into several teams in order to provide games among themselves. It did not operate as a league but this had been the impression in the wider women’s football community and had led to bad feeling following their acceptance into the national Mitre Challenge Trophy competition. Having considered the matter, the executive committee agreed to the club’s continued participation in the cup competition, but the club would face disciplinary action for potentially misrepresenting themselves as a league and were subsequently fined.

For many years before the WFA existed there were examples of club sides playing overseas (and sometimes within the United Kingdom) who were advertised as ‘England’ versus the relevant country, even though they were not a genuine national side. The first such match is accepted as ‘Scotland’ 3 v ‘England’ 0, played in Edinburgh in 1881. Occasionally this practice continued once the Association was up and running with its own rules and regulations, one of which required any member team wishing to play overseas opposition to obtain permission from the WFA. It strictly forbade the team misrepresenting itself as the national side. If teams from more than a handful of countries were involved then international permission was required from the appropriate international bodies, e.g. UEFA (or appropriate confederation) or FIFA.

Italy was at the forefront of organising international competitions in the 1960s, but the WFA continued its cautious approach towards establishing a national side for England. It had no authority to create national teams for the other home countries, neither did it have the funds or access to grant aid for that purpose. There was no doubting that players who were now in a position to belong to a properly organised club looked forward to the day when a national shirt might be their reward. FIFA’s first attempt at a competition for national sides took place in China in 1988, with participation by twelve teams, but it was not called a World Cup. That honour went to the event, also held in China, in 1991, with matches played over eighty minutes between the twelve contesting nations. None of the UK nations participated because they failed to finish in the 1991 UEFA European Championship’s top five.

Probably the most widely known excursion into international competition was the unofficial World Cup played in Mexico in 1971 with participation by an English club side (Chiltern Valley), whose ranks were supplemented by a couple of players from other teams. The WFA did not give permission for the club to play and attempted at the time to rein in the British press, who were keen to portray the side as ‘England’ – one newspaper arguing with me that the players were English so the team was England. The trip was no doubt memorable for the players but it was not successful; they lost all their matches, including the one contested for fifth place against ‘France’. The Chiltern Valley club managers (Harry and June Batt) were suspended upon their return home, with the players suspended for short periods of time if they chose not to join a WFA club. Harry and June Batt applied for reinstatement within the WFA in November 1972, but a special sub-committee met to consider the matter with the outcome decided at full Council not to reverse the ban.

There was an offer to the WFA of a World Cup competition in the early 1970s. The proposal had the backing of some prominent players from men’s football as well as a major boxing promoter, but the Council of the WFA was split, with the final decision going against the proposal. Would it have been sensible to rush into an international competition without the backing of FIFA? There is no doubt that it would have been an undertaking way beyond the expertise of the voluntary workforce of the WFA, not to mention the financial risk that could have seen the end of the young Association. It was to be a long time before FIFA was confident enough to organise that first World Cup in 1991.

2

Czech Adventure

After leaving school in 1964 I began my first job (secretarial trainee at the head office of Imperial Chemical Industries) and set about saving to travel to Mexico for the 1968 Olympic Games. This involved the challenge of saving over the intervening four years at the rate of 10s a week (50p when converted to decimal currency). That sounds today like a minimal sum but out of a total annual salary of £600 (in 1964) it was a stretch. By 1967 I had moved to a new job as the secretary in the sports department of the Sunday Telegraph. The sports diarist, Michael Williams, proved to be sufficiently intrigued by my out-of-work activities. Coupled with my footballing endeavours plus the planned holiday, he felt this merited inclusion in his weekly column.

A trip to a park close to Fleet Street in the company of a staff photographer resulted in a not-so-good action shot to illustrate the article. My moment of fleeting fame had arrived and disappeared just as quickly.

I thought no more of it but a letter arrived in October 1968 from Essex businessman Leon Black, who had contacts in Czechoslovakia. He sought interest in arranging an exchange visit between my team and primarily a Prague side, Lokomotiva Praha. It has to be the recklessness of youth that accounts for even a second thought being given to such an enterprise. I have always felt that I was a cautious person and fifty years later I don’t recall exactly when I realised that it should have been inconceivable for us to be countenancing such a costly arrangement. I recall meetings of our new league, some at my parents’ home and some at the Beechams company, which involved one of our Home Counties teams travelling back from Maidenhead to London late at night. There was support from the league as a whole in hosting Lokomotiva Praha for two matches and then to making a return trip to the Iron Curtain country later, in July 1969. Fundraising was a priority and a Derby draw was held among the league’s clubs. Blakeney won the race that June, much to the delight, I have no doubt, of the draw winner, Mrs Irene Thompson, whose windfall was £50. In order to create a League representative side, trials were organised in January 1969, with Harry Batt of the Chiltern Valley Ladies appointed manager and David Hunt of Golden Limited the coach.

Michael Williams’ Sports Diary piece from the Sunday Telegraph. (Sunday Telegraph)

In due course it was eventually agreed that Lokomotiva Praha would visit the south-east of England in early July, initially to compete in the Deal International Tournament as well as playing the League representative side. While in Deal the Czechs were accommodated at Mrs Libby’s bed and breakfast establishment in Beach Street, having travelled across Europe on the train and across the Channel to Dover. Their first day in England was spent in and around Deal and concluded with hospitality provided for them and the other visiting overseas teams by the Betteshanger Sports Club. The tournament venue was that of the Betteshanger Colliery at their sports ground in Deal. The Deal tournament had proudly added the word ‘International’ to its title in 1969 by virtue of entries from Czechoslovakia, Austria and Scotland. That year White Ribbon entered a combined team alongside players from Orient in east London but didn’t make it through to the finals day on 6 July. The Czechs didn’t win the tournament, that honour going to the girls of Southampton, who would go on to dominate English women’s football in the early years of the Women’s FA.