Rutherglen Ladies F.C.

Last updated

Rutherglen Ladies
Rutherglen Ladies FC ex Derry Library.jpg
Rutherglen Ladies FC on an Irish tour
Full nameRutherglen Ladies Football Club
Founded1921
Dissolved1939

Rutherglen Ladies Football Club was one of the earliest known women's association football teams in Scotland. English teams faced strong opposition by the Football Association (FA), who banned the women from using fields and stadiums controlled by FA-affiliated clubs in 1921. [1] Scottish teams did not have this impediment between the wars and they played before thousands in matches that raised money for charities.

Contents

Origins

British teams could attract crowds of over 50,000. [2]

FA ban (1921) and Scottish FA position

The popularity of women's team matches led the Football Association (FA) to ban women's football at its members' grounds on 5 December 1921. [1] This ban applied only in England and the Scottish FA did not make a similar bar until 20 years later. [3] However the Scottish FA refused requests by Scottish clubs Raith Rovers (Kirkcaldy), Aberdeen and Queen of the South (Dumfries) to host women's football matches in 1924 and 1925. [4]

The resolution passed by the FA's Consultative Committee in England said that after complaints they had decided that the game was "unsuitable for females and should not be encouraged", that they believed that charity matches gave little to charity, and instructed that: "Clubs belonging to the Association refuse the use of their grounds for such matches". [5]

Because of the ban, women's games in England were relegated to smaller capacity fields with less resources and exposure. [5]

"World Champions"

Rutherglen Ladies was a team led by founder and manager James H. Kelly and based in Rutherglen near Glasgow. [3] [6] They played at grounds that were outside the remit of the FA's ban and they generally played matches in aid of charities. They were still able to appear at Scottish grounds and they attracted crowds of thousands. [3]

In 1923 they were playing matches close to home at Lanark, Kilsyth, Linlithgow, Bellshill and Carluke against a team called the "Cinema Girls". They had a captain named Sadie Smith who was a skilful footballer. [7]

In September 1923 Rutherglen played a match against the leading English side Dick, Kerr Ladies at Shawfield Park in Rutherglen. [7] Unusually the Dick, Kerr team was beaten by the Scottish team 2–0. Kelly declared his team "World Champions" following the match. [7] It is speculated that the defeat prevented any rematch as Kerr's team were expected to win their matches. The title of "World Champions" was still used in Dick Kerr's advertising and in 1925 Kerr's team was claiming to be World Champions from 1917 to 1925. [7]

Rutherglen played at Dundee United's Tannadice Park in 1924 before a crowd of 4,000 spectators, demonstrating the SFA ban was not absolute. The account in the Dundee Courier singled out the performances of captain Sadie Smith and Ms. Crozier. [8]

In 1927 Rutherglen went on a tour to Ireland. The team's captain was still Sadie Smith (who researchers later found was the grandmother of musician Eddi Reader) [9] who led the team against an Irish select team whose star was Molly Seaton. The teams had already played four games against each other in Scotland (the fourth match was just over the border into England at Berwick) when the Irish team had been billed as being from Edinburgh. [7]

The Rutherglen team was disbanded in 1939. [3]

Following research into their history, in 2021 the Scottish Football Museum opened an exhibition dedicated to the Rutherglen club and celebrating how the team had defied the ban 100 years before. [9] [6] The exhibition was opened by leading footballer Rose Reilly, Vivienne McLaren of the Scottish Women's Football and Eddi Reader. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's association football</span> Association football when played by women

Women's association football, more commonly known as women's football or women's soccer, is the team sport of association football played by women. It is played at the professional level in multiple countries, and 187 national teams participate internationally. The same rules, known as the Laws of the Game, are used for both women's and men's football.

Dick, Kerr Ladies Football Club was one of the earliest known women's association football teams in England. The team remained in existence for over 48 years, from 1917 to 1965, playing 755 games, winning 682, drawing 39, and losing 34.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's football in England</span> Historical summary of womens football in England

Women's football has been played in England for over a century, sharing a common history with the men's game in the country in which the Laws of the Game were codified.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish Football Museum</span> Museum in Glasgow City, Scotland

The Scottish Football Museum is Scotland’s national museum of association football, located in Hampden Park in Glasgow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shawfield Stadium</span> Stadium in Glasgow City, Scotland, UK

Shawfield Stadium is a venue in the Shawfield district of the town of Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located close to the boundary with Glasgow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lily Parr</span> English footballer

Lilian Parr was an English professional women's association football player who played as a winger. She is best known for playing for the Dick, Kerr's Ladies team, which was founded in 1917 and based in Preston, Lancashire.

Scottish Women's Football (SWF), formerly known as the Scottish Women’s Football Association (SWFA) between 1972 and 2001, is the governing body for women's association football in Scotland. It is an affiliated national association of the Scottish Football Association (SFA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jen Beattie</span> Scottish association football player

Jennifer Patricia Beattie is a Scottish professional footballer who plays for Bay FC of the NWSL and formerly the Scotland national team. Her previous clubs include Celtic, Arsenal, Montpellier and Manchester City. Beattie is a tall, strong, right-footed player. Although typically a defender or midfielder, she is also an accomplished goalscorer. She is the daughter of former Scotland and British Lions rugby union player John Beattie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stoke City F.C. Women</span> Football club

Stoke City Football Club Women are an English women's association football club affiliated with Stoke City. They are currently members of the FA Women's National League North the third tier of women's football in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's football in Scotland</span> Historical summary of womens football in Scotland

Women's association football in Scotland has an organised history including the first international women's match in 1881, the president of the British Ladies' Football Club in 1895, Lady Florence Dixie, the Edinburgh–Preston "World Championship" in 1937 and 1939, and the Scottish Women's Cup founded in 1970. The sport is jointly overseen by Scottish Women's Football, the Scottish Football Association, and Scottish Professional Football League.

Women's football in Wales is overseen by the Football Association of Wales and is affiliated with both the world (FIFA) and European (UEFA) football governing bodies. As such the national team are eligible to compete in the World Cup and the European Championship. The winners of the top tier league is invited to join the qualifying stage of the Champions League.

Kilmarnock FC Women is a women's football team based in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire that plays in the SWPL 2. Founded as Stewarton Thistle, the club is the oldest women's football team in Scotland and celebrated its 50th anniversary in July 2011.

Brogan Yvonne Hay is a Scottish footballer who plays for Rangers in the Scottish Women's Premier League (SWPL) as a right winger or forward.

Rachel McLauchlan is a Scottish footballer, who plays as a winger and defender for Brighton & Hove Albion and for the Scotland women's national football team. She previously played for Inverness CTS, Aberdeen, Hibernian, Yeovil Town in England's Women's Super League, Glasgow City and Rangers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florrie Redford</span> English footballer and nurse

Florrie Redford was an English footballer and nurse. She played for Dick, Kerr Ladies, one of England's earliest professional women's association football teams. She was a leading goal scorer for the club in 1921, when she scored a total of 170 goals. In later life she worked as a nurse in Canada, returning to the team briefly in 1938.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1970–71 WFA Cup</span> Football tournament season

The 1970–71 Women's Football Association Cup was the first edition of the WFA Cup, the national women's football knockout competition in England, which at the time was open to clubs from the rest of Great Britain. It was organised by the Women's Football Association (WFA).

Women have played association football since the beginnings of the sport. In a number of countries, however, women's football has historically been subjected to severe restrictions, including outright bans during most of the 20th century. These bans have had a significant impact on the development of the sport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dick, Kerr Ladies 4–0 St Helens Ladies</span> Football match

On 27 December 1920, Dick, Kerr Ladies beat St Helens Ladies 4–0 at Goodison Park in front of 53,000 spectators, an attendance figure for a women's club football match that would not be exceeded for 99 years, and for a women's club football match in the United Kingdom that would not be exceeded for 103 years.

References

  1. 1 2 "WW1: Why was women's football banned in 1921?". BBC News. 12 December 2014. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  2. ↑ Smale, Simon (24 December 2020). "Dick, Kerr Ladies attracted 53,000 fans on Boxing Day 100 years ago. A year later, they were banned". ABC News. Australia.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Graham Falk (3 December 2021). "Rutherglen Ladies FC: The trailblazing women who defied the ban on football 100 years ago". The Scotsman. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  4. ↑ "The Honeyballers: Women who fought to play football". BBC News. 25 September 2013. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  5. 1 2 Williamson, David J. (1991). Belles of the Ball. Devon, England: R&D Associates. ISBN   0951751204.
  6. 1 2 New exhibition to pay tribute to Rutherglen's trailblazing female footballers, Jonathan Geddes, Daily Record, 5 December 2021
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Fiona Skillen; Steve Bolton (11 February 2021). "Women's Football in Interwar Scotland:Sadie Smith and the Legendary Rutherglen Ladies FC | Part 1". Playing Pasts. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  8. ↑ Fiona Skillen; Steve Bolton (18 February 2021). "Women's Football in Interwar Scotland:Sadie Smith and the Legendary Rutherglen Ladies FC | Part 2". Playing Pasts. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  9. 1 2 Glasgow's Scottish Football Museum celebrates women's team, Sarah Campbell, Glasgow Times, 5 December 2021

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.