Women and football - part three
Recollections of women’s ‘international’ football and ladies’ football clubs
Although women’s ‘international’ football came to an unscheduled end in late June 1881, the performances were not entirely forgotten. Thus despite becoming the butt of jokes, in March 1882 an advertisement was placed in a theatrical newspaper asking the female football players to get in touch. There were also occasional references in the press recollecting the dates and locations of certain matches. Yet the tour of Scotland and northern England by a ‘professional team’ of female footballers was usually remembered as an unsuccessful venture, indeed as a ‘fiasco’. Hence in October 1882 the Sheffield Daily Telegraph recalled ‘the experiment of organising a team of female football players, which … was so repulsive to good taste, and met with such emphatic denunciation on all sides, that it was soon abandoned’.
Just over two years later, in August 1884, the Naracoorte Herald (South Australia) observed that ‘in this age of women’s rights there are lady footballers’. Musing on the prospect of female footballers in every town, it provided sketches of two women playing in a fictitious match between Giggleton and Stayville Rise. One – shown below – was depicted as angered by an unfavourable umpiring decision. But in an attempt at humour, the journalist supposed that when the game was over she would soon get ‘peaceable and kissable’.
Giggleton v Stayville Rise (1884)
Staying in Australia, as early as May 1862 the Tarrangower Times (Maldon, Victoria) had printed a facetious letter to the editor concerning a ‘Ladies’ Football Association’. Poking fun at the recently formed gentleman’s football club in Maldon, which permitted no pushing, tripping or kicking an opponent, it asked to ‘give us girls a chance for a good romp in the open air’ since this courteous type of football was intended to be ‘a very lady-like game’. Some eighteen years later, in August 1880, it was reported that a large number of young ladies in Sandhurst, Victoria had recently received initialled postcards inviting them to attend a meeting ‘for the purpose of forming a ladies’ football club’. Not enough invitees, however, attended this gathering at which it was decided that the idea of a ‘team of lady footballers’ was ‘a little too advanced’. So the matter was dropped. Yet within a couple of years an unspecified inland town claimed the ‘glory of producing the first Female Football Club’ in Australia.
Nor was this an isolated innovation for as early as autumn 1874 female students at Vassar College, New York reportedly played football – although which form of the game is unclear from a flippant remark that it was ‘an inspiring sight to see one of them miss the ball and land on her head in the grass’. Perhaps this prompted increased feminine interest, for several months later it was reported that ‘Female football clubs’ were the ‘newest thing’ in America. Whether this account was meant seriously, however, is difficult to say since it is doubtless connected with a tongue in cheek story in June 1875 that a match at St Louis had been arranged between twelve brunette lawyers and a similar number of ‘blonde damsels’ belonging to the same profession. But what is certain is that a number of the ‘fair sex’ attended the opening game of the college football season between Princeton and Harvard in autumn 1877.
Across the Atlantic, at the beginning of January 1880 it was said that a ladies’ football club had been established in England. Again, in autumn 1886, after a successful summer season of women’s cricket, a ‘ladies’ football team’ was ‘astonishing’ the inhabitants of Burgess Hill, Sussex. Unsurprisingly some journalists belittled this ‘latest craze’, remarking that it was undecided whether the ‘fair Amazons’ were to ‘play under Rugby or Association rules’. Others, however, linked this ‘latest startling novelty’ to the issue of women’s rights on the principle that ‘what is good for man is good for women’. Ultimately such societal trends would bring about ‘a perfection of things that there shall be at last no difference whatever between the two sexes’. But in the meantime there were practical considerations: could young ladies of limited financial means afford football boots in addition to maintaining a respectable appearance in society?
‘Fair sex’ spectators
Besides forming female football clubs, women also attended men’s matches. As far back as May 1859 ‘lots of ladies’ had attended a couple of matches between Sheffield F.C. (the world’s first football club) and the local army garrison. Again, in March 1873 a ‘great number’ of ladies were among the 5,000 or so spectators that braved the elements to watch Sheffield triumph against London. So it is unsurprising that the president of a Dundee boys’ club voiced his preference for local girls to take a greater interest in the game by watching it rather than playing.
‘At the [Australian] football match’ (1877)
Sometimes women were admitted free of charge (particularly to the terraces rather than the grandstands), while men normally paid between three pence and six pence in the late 1870s and early 1880s. Yet this was not always the case for at Bramall Lane, Sheffield in January 1879 a parsimonious ‘admirer of athletic sports’ was astonished to discover that he had to pay admission not only for himself but for his wife and young children as well. On another occasion, however, namely at Annbank, Ayrshire in 1882, the policy of ‘Ladies Free’ backfired, for it precipitated an influx of ‘slovenly-looking, petticoated, and extremely vulgar’ women who swore profusely. Similarly, in January 1884 when Preston North End played at Great Lever (near Bolton) the referee was abused and threatened by a section of home supporters for appearing to favour the away team. After the match he recalled in a letter to a friend:
I was tackled by a flock of infuriated beings in petticoats supposed to be women, who without doubt were in some cases mothers … They brandished their umbrellas and shook their fists in my face … Before I had got away … a female struck me on the back with her gingham …
That same year in Horbury, Yorkshire a visiting team from Batley were, to quote a modern historian, ‘pelted with red-hot coals by a woman’ after defeating their hosts. All the same, as a correspondent to the Bradford Daily Telegraph maintained, it would have been a ‘mistake to abolish the privilege of free admittance to ladies entirely’. Indeed, he suggested that their presence as spectators would incentivise the male players to ‘distinguish themselves’ on the pitch. An English mother living in Ballarat, Victoria took the notion further. Writing to the local newspaper in September 1883, she suggested that just as the ‘presence of females incited combatants to victory or death’ in the Roman gladiatorial arena, so ladies attending ‘half-civilised’ games of football would goad the players into ‘a reckless state of excitement’ and, ultimately, violent conduct. By contrast, in a column on ‘Football Enthusiasts’ a writer for the Cardiff Times focussed on the reason why so many ladies attended football matches. Jokingly, he accounted for their presence either as an opportunity to engage in public display during the winter months or, alternatively, for those who had been jilted, as a way to vent their spleen by watching men knock each other about. Similar sentiments were expressed by a sketch writer for the Weekly Times in July 1886 concerning certain female spectators at a 20-a-side three-hour Australian football match played at Melbourne cricket ground. Hence one tall, ‘stately-looking’ lady had come not so much to see as to be seen. Indeed, among the ‘galaxy of beauty’ on show were several ‘belles in tailor-made gowns’ engaged in ‘mild flirtations’ with their ‘numerous gentlemen acquaintances’.
‘A Fair Spectator’ (1887)
Whatever the motivation, there is plenty of evidence that lots of women watched professional fixtures in Lancashire during the early 1880s. Thus a ‘number of fair sex spectators’ usually attended Blackburn Rovers’ home fixtures ‘in great force’ on big match days. Moreover, at an F.A. Cup tie played between Preston North End and Upton Park in January 1884, a local journalist reported that spotted among the 12,000-plus crowd at Deepdale were:
slim-waisted girls as fresh as daisies, and sprightly and full of life and vivacity … adorned here and there with bright flowers, but, whether or not, exercising a wonderful effect wherever they turn in reviving seedy spirits.
Following the tacit introduction of professional football – formally recognised in July 1885 – Preston North End scrapped free admittance for women after about 2,000 turned up for an Easter Monday game. The policy no longer made economic sense. Nonetheless, it has been estimated that during this period between 5–10% of the crowd at run-of-the-mill professional matches were female, with more still coming to watch local derbies and important cup ties.
For some women, however, watching did not suffice. Indeed, in a handful of cases they crossed the boundaries of decorum by flirting or even having sexual relationships with male players. Thus there are reports in 1886 of a junior Glasgow team getting drunk after a game in Oban and chatting up ‘unsuspecting Highland barmaids’. A few years later it was even alleged that in Glasgow’s Southside the pavilions of certain football clubs were being used as brothels, with some members ‘letting themselves and young women in by means of passkeys at untimely hours for improper purposes’.[1] Although the matter was dropped for lack of evidence, before the turn of the century two Celtic players were separately pursued in the courts for damages on the charge of seducing women – in one case reneging on the promise of marriage.
Female players
But ultimately for a few determined young women there was no substitute for playing. Thus at South Littleton, Worcestershire in May 1886 a women’s football match concluded the annual village tea party. Similarly, at Duffield, Derbyshire in June 1887 the jubilee festivities celebrating Queen Victoria’s reign featured a ‘football contest for women’. Elsewhere in Derbyshire, at Ashbourne, the famous folk football match played on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday in February 1885 was witnessed by a ‘very large number of the gentler sex’. This prompted a local journalist to remark that it was a ‘great mistake’ that a Ladies’ ball had not been provided for their ‘special amusement’:
No doubt some first-rate play would be witnessed, as some of them now can be seen in the thickest of the fight having a kick, as well as encouraging the men to ‘go in’ and play for their respective sides.
Ashbourne Shrovetide ball goaled by H. Hind on Ash Wednesday 1887
One of the longest descriptions of women’s football during this period concerns a game supposedly played at Lanarkshire in November 1885. It claimed to be ‘no fancy sketch’, but rather a genuine eye-witness account of a ‘stirring contest’ between brawny-looking mill-workers and the like. There are too many resonances, however, with reports of the 1881 women’s ‘international’ matches to believe it a completely ‘veracious narrative’. Nonetheless, since several newspapers reprinted it either in its entirety or in summary, it merits discussion because it evidently reflected widespread contemporary attitudes. According to the author, the match was played ‘not for love but lucre’, with spectators charged six pence. Yet the pitch – a field lent for the occasion – was in a ‘sloppy state’ and the weather inclement. The teams were kitted out in knickerbockers and jerseys, one wearing ‘Red and White’, their opponents ‘Blue and Yellow’. Even so, it was only ten-a-side, each team being a woman short. As for the game itself, it was ‘a very fast one’, featuring scrimmages, charging, corner kicks, ‘pretty’ dribbling, ‘beautiful’ running, ‘excellent’ passing, heading, tussles, foul play and face scratching. There was also shooting in the wrong direction, sitting on the ball, running aimlessly without it, not to mention a disallowed goal which resulted in the umpire being removed from the ground. With fifteen minutes remaining, the score at 1-0 to the ‘Blue and Yellow’, and most of the players ‘red with heat, white with passion, blue with dismay, or yellow with jealousy’ the match was abandoned following a pitch invasion. The unfortunate ‘combatants’ were roughly treated by the excited spectators and borne off to the pavilion in ‘a fit of manly indignation’, forcing the local authorities to intervene by putting a stop to future fixtures.[2]
Red and White v Blue and Yellow, Lanarkshire (1885)
Within a couple of years several charity matches were played between ‘Ladies’ and ‘Gentlemen’: at Fleetwood (Lancashire) for the benefit of Preston Infirmary; at Blackpool; and at St Arnaud (Victoria) in aid of the Ladies Benevolent Society. But on all occasions the ‘Ladies’ were actually young men in female attire, mostly without beards or moustaches. Moreover, the ‘extraordinary costumes’ worn by the ‘Gentlemen’ at Fleetwood was reminiscent of the ‘Zulu’ footballers who, with blackened faces, had played a series of charity matches at Sheffield and elsewhere from November 1879 to raise money for the widows and orphans of British soldiers killed during the Anglo-Zulu War.
Madam Kenney’s Edinburgh team v Madam Wills’ Grimsby Town team
Besides men in drag, there were some well-publicised women’s football matches in spring 1887. These were ostensibly between Madam Kenney’s ‘famous’ Edinburgh team and Madam Wills’ Grimsby Town team. Their first known fixture was played at an unnamed north-country town (possibly Grimsby) for the prize of a silver cup. What was intended as a humorous account of this event was printed in the Cardiff Times on Saturday, 2 April. According to the sketch writer, many of the male spectators went along merely out of curiosity. Prior to kick off there was also much speculation as to what the ladies would wear. Eventually, after much waiting and joshing, the two teams were escorted onto the pitch flanked by policemen. Upon discarding their outer garments – ‘by gum … like a transformation scene’ – the ladies revealed themselves to be attired in the ordinary garments of male footballers, ‘nothing more nor less’.
‘A Full Back’ (1887)
Cruelly, some of the pioneers of this ‘new era of female muscularity’ were described as fat; their bulk better suited to an agricultural show than a football field. Nor were they ‘fair to gaze upon’ with their ‘snub noses, toothless gums, and frowsy hair’. As for the game, it was ‘uncommonly slow’, provoking a ‘verbal fusillade’ of playful humour laced with imprecations from the crowd. Indeed, it became so ‘wearisome’ that interest was maintained only through ‘tooth and nail contests’; i.e. watching opposing players scratch and pull each other’s hair. Eventually, having had his fill of this ‘unedifying exhibition’, the reporter left early as did some of the disillusioned spectators.
‘Coming up to the scratch’ (1887)
Undeterred, large posters were used to advertise a follow-up match for Good Friday, 8 April at East End F.C.’s ground on Holderness Road in Hull. Club officials had agreed beforehand to let their ground for the small advance payment of £1 to a Mr G Soule, manager of a music-hall called the Alhambra Palace. Soule had led them to believe that the fixture was to be played between two theatrical companies then in Hull. He had omitted to mention, however, that it was to be a ladies’ match. On realising that they had been duped the club officials confronted Soule, but he reacted in a most ungentlemanly manner. Accordingly they took legal advice, only to be told that they could be sued for damages if they prevented the match from going ahead. At the same time Soule claimed that he had also been negotiating with the honorary secretary of Southcoates F.C., who apparently had been prepared to let their ground in return for a third of the gate money.
Meanwhile a rumour spread that the female footballers were actually ballet dancers, prompting a columnist for the local press to express surprise that a ‘decent’ club like East End could be associated with such a ‘low and demoralising’ spectacle. He therefore hoped that the ‘football-loving’ public of Hull would withhold their support from a match that would doubtless bring the ‘noble game’ into disrepute. For good measure, at their annual general meeting the Hull and District Rugby Football Union passed a motion proposed by Southcoates F.C.’s secretary condemning the upcoming ‘Ladies Football Competition’. What happened next can be pieced together primarily from correspondence printed in the Hull Daily Mail.
Eleven players from the Edinburgh and Grimsby Town teams
Although the match went ahead, it was unceremoniously abandoned after the players were ‘mobbed by roughs’. Thousands had turned up, the vast majority out of ‘idle curiosity’. But after only two or three minutes a ‘physically powerful’ section of the crowd broke down the barriers and began encroaching on the pitch. Amidst ‘derisive laughter’ and with players and spectators compressed into ‘one inseparable, screaming mass of excited men and fainting women’, play was stopped. As with the ‘international’ match played at Glasgow on 16 May 1881, so at Hull on 8 April 1887 the teams had to be escorted off the pitch by the police ‘in a high state of nervousness and damaged condition’. Indeed, it was subsequently remarked that the match promoters should have thought themselves highly fortunate if the ‘contestants’ had escaped without serious harm. To add insult to injury, and again evoking the fate of the women footballers of 1881, the ‘indignant crowd’ reportedly demanded their money back only to discover that the gatekeeper had absconded with the match takings. Remarking upon the incident, one commentator suggested that the ill-starred young ladies were ‘mere tools’ in the hands of unscrupulous impresarios, who acted only from ‘mercenary motives’. Another eye-witness called it a ‘distinctly disgraceful scene’, but likewise considered the players largely blameless. There was nothing reproachable about their costumes. Rather, the rowdy elements within the crowd were responsible for creating a ‘dangerous hullabaloo’ that was ‘utterly unwarrantable’.
Afterwards both the honorary secretaries of East End and Southcoates distanced their clubs from the match promoter in communications to the Hull Daily Mail. Yet relations between the clubs became strained. So much so, that a planned fixture was scratched following a ‘scandalous statement’ made by an East End official at that club’s dinner.
Hull Daily Mail (11 April 1887)
Less than a week after the Good Friday debacle, the Grimsby team’s agent wrote to the secretary of a club in Batley (Yorkshire) asking if a ground could be procured in the neighbourhood for a women’s football match. Thornes F.C. near Wakefield agreed to host the fixture, which was played on Saturday, 16 April. Because of its novelty, a large number of people went along ‘out of curiosity’. Yet the few ‘respectable’ individuals among them were soon shocked by the ‘disgusting’ and likely lewd remarks directed at the players. Unsurprisingly, this ‘pitiable’ exhibition prompted disapproval in the press with one commentator bemoaning that it served only to disgust ‘right thinking people’. Another strongly condemned the sight of women publicly ‘unsexing themselves’ by dressing in male garb. Coupled with the unseemly manner in which the female players had sought to make money from the affair, he opposed anything that had ‘a tendency to lessen or destroy the innate delicacy of the female character’. As for the match result, it barely merited a mention: the ‘so-called Scotch team’ won 1-0.
By the time of their next known contest, Grimsby rather than Edinburgh were reportedly the holders of the ‘Ladies’ Silver Cup’. So it is likely that there had been at least one intervening fixture before what appears to have been their final game. This ‘Grand ladies’ football match’ was played on Saturday, 14 May 1887 at Soothill Wood Gardens near Batley. There are differing accounts, however, of the proceedings. Hence one report indicated that the attendance was much smaller than expected. Alternatively, there was a large body of spectators, come to witness something perhaps unprecedented in their district. Shortly after 3.30 the players began to arrive. Dressed in old skirts they presented a ‘wretched appearance’. When all had assembled they commenced, ‘amid great laughter’, to remove their outer garments revealing underneath the usual attire worn by footballers generally. The Dewsbury Chronicle derided this exhibition of association football as being of the ‘most meagre description’, with no rule observed, careless play and aimless kicking. Batley News, on the other hand, thought it had gone well; the ladies playing an ‘interesting and plucky’ game. Indeed, the spectators seemed to thoroughly ‘enjoy the fun’. All the same, neither newspaper recorded the result. Nor, at present, can anything more be said about these particular lady footballers. But in the penultimate instalment of this series I will cover the period from 1888 to 1894. That is, from the formation of the Football League until just prior to the establishment of the British Ladies Football Club.
[1] The three most prominent Glasgow clubs on the south side of the River Clyde were Queen’s Park, 3rd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers and Rangers. All three strenuously denied the allegation.
[2] Players named in the report: Lucy Carmont, Milly Carmont, Lucy Coombes, Maggie Green, Mary Hackett, Polly Hubbard, Kate Jackson, Helen Montgomery, Jane Rodgers (captain), Sarah Thoms (captain), Jenny White and Jane Wyatt.