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The other WW1 Christmas Football Matches

Lou Butler

Monday, December 30th, 2013

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Nettie Honeyball: what a name for a pioneer of women’s football.
Kitted out in orthodox attire with personal touches of white embroidered cuffs and flowing sleeves as fashion dictated.
Scotland had its own rituals of singles women v married women.
Single men choosing potential brides by their footballing prowess
And then came the war; the Great War; the War to end Wars.
It’ll be over by Christmas they said
Not so
A Christmas truce 1914 saw soldiers from both sides join in a game of football forever famous in history
But what of the other less well know Christmas day matches?
As men left the factories for the trenches their places taken by women
Lunchtime football became the norm,
teams were formed,
matches played raised money for good causes.
Dick Kerrs of Preston produced 30,00 shells a week,
whilst at lunchtime women challenged boys
at shooting practice
to put through square windows in the cloakroom walls:
boys would win Woodbines;
women Fire Boys chocolate bars.
Christmas Day 1916 another wartime football match
Ulverton Munitions Girls v a local women’s Team
Munitionettes won 11-5 other games followed
Christmas day 1917 Preston North Ends, Deepdale ground
saw its first game since the Football League
cancelled its programme at the outbreak of war
Dick Kerr Ladies beat the Arundel Courthard Foundry, 4-0
10,000 turned out to watch and raise £200
for the local hospital for wounded soldiers
War ended
Women lost their jobs as men returned,
their interest in football remained
Some men returning found it hard to view the change in the country in their absence
History records the memory of the Christmas day truce and football matches
Research determines that other equally moral boosting matches took place were much less remembered.

Notes

Listening to start the week today 30/12/13 re History in school a fleeting mention of women’s football in WW1 caused me to research for more information….hence. Think of all the suitors I could have had if I was Scottish in the 19th century!

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/the-other-ww1-christmas-football-matches/