Member of the England Squad in the 1970s
I was grateful for the establishment of a governing body for women’s football when I was playing for Southampton, one of the most successful teams at that time. Until the WFA organised a national Women’s FA Cup competition there was no event for teams to challenge each other until the annual WFA Cup competition which was sponsored initially by Mitre Sports and then Pony. Furthermore, the WFA club meetings were one of the first major opportunities to meet other teams and the London Meetings provided a chance to meet the officials of the other women’s clubs.
The only other competition was the Deal international tournament in Kent. This allowed us to discover how many women’s teams were seriously involved in playing football, mainly in this country and mostly in friendly games with local teams. Southampton evolved from some local teams playing on spare land called The Common which was used for fair grounds. The football pitches had no nets and the turf was hardly visible. Most of the teams had got together (having been inspired by the England men winning the World Cup) to play charity games e.g. The Mayor’s Charity. Fortunately for Southampton and other teams who were interested in playing more challenging opposition and competition we discovered the Deal International tournament which was organised by Arthur Hobbs, who also ran the Deal women’s team. Another significant person was Patricia Gregory, who played for the White Ribbon team from North London. Both spent a lot of time developing the women’s game and crucially creating a governing body. Arthur became honorary secretary of the Women’s FA with Patricia as assistant and doing much of the negotiations with The FA. Thanks to other helpful people involved in the sport a group emerged to lead the game and take on the key posts in the Association and to do the hard work, such as Membership Secretary. In this respect two women worked hard to support the fledgling WFA – Flo Bilton who ran the Reckitt’s Hull women’s team and June Jaycocks from the Brighton GPO team. I remember Flo bringing her team all the way to Southampton to ensure her girls had a challenging friendly game. We did go to Hull afterwards as it was such a pleasure to meet such a dedicated woman to the game. It was people like Flo, Patricia and June who ensured the WFA became a vital part in the growth of the women’s game in England. Gradually others emerged to take on some of the voluntary administrative roles in the WFA.
As the game grew in England so The FA recognised that the WFA alone would not be able to deal with the game’s growth and demands. However some players and clubs may not have realised how much voluntary work was going on to provide us with the exciting opportunity to play competitive football. I remember going to some of the WFA meetings in London, which initially seemed a chore on a Saturday when we might usually go and watch our local men’s team but attendees could meet and discuss the women’s game, arrange committees to take responsibility for certain parts of the organisation and to the delight of English women players in 1972 the WFA set up an international team committee However it wasn’t too long before The FA realised that other countries had developed their women’s game to a high standard with their men’s federations supporting the women’s game and in particular ensuring there was an infrastructure to support them on and off the pitch. This meant that the organisation of internationals was in place which enabled the matches to be run to a high standard. It became plain to see that international women’s matches needed similar support to organise appropriate facilities, accommodation and training etc. It also needed a qualified FA staff coach to select and organise the first official England team. The English players in Southampton team eagerly awaited the trials, The FA appointed an FA staff coach – Eric Worthington an ex-professional player. I missed the initial trials and matches through injury but later, when I regained fitness, I was selected by the second manager, John Adams. I was thrilled when he selected me to join the forthcoming squad for the international against Scotland at Nuneaton, Warwickshire on a baking hot day in June 1973. Flo Bilton took on the role of International Officer. Most of the squad was pleased to experience training and match preparation by The FA staff coaches and the voluntary people like Flo, June and Patricia were very organised and helpful and made our experience off the pitch a pleasure. We were learning a lot from The FA coaches and playing on good pitches as well as enjoying accommodation of a better standard than we had been used to when we travelled with our club teams. All the players seemed to bond well and we also had some amusing characters to raise the occasional laughs. They were special times for football and camaraderie.
August 2017.
History of the Women's Football Association 