The FA banned women from playing football so we started our own club & went abroad
IN 1949, ladies’ football had been outlawed by the FA for almost 30 years. But this did not deter the Manchester Corinthians. The defiant sportswomen went from a muddy Fog Lane Park to the global stage – beating the likes of Juventus and Germany.
Now, 75 years on, the women are telling their story for the first time, to raise funds for a film commemorating their achievements.
“They didn’t want women to play football – it wasn’t ladylike,” recalls right-back Jan Lyons, 70.
“Well, I had one word for that … ‘b ***** ks!’ Football was everything to me. I couldn’t wait to kick a football whatever place or time.”
Goalie Anne Grimes, 86, says: “We never seemed to get beaten. But the FA thought women were still stood at the kitchen sink and washing men’s underpants!”
The Corinthian Ladies Football Club was launched by Bolton Wanderers scout Percy Ashley, whose daughter Doris, born profoundly deaf and with a cleft palate, was a brilliant footballer.
But the women’s game was so frowned upon, players had to buy boots from catalogues or pretend they were for their brothers.
Their training ground had no running water, so post-match baths were taken in a duck pond.
Still, Percy trained his team of schoolgirls and office clerks from Oldham, Stockport and Newton Heath to become an elite force – beating any club they encountered and winning over 50 trophies.
Anne, from Droylsden, joined the team in 1956, aged 17, after seeing an advert in the evening paper. She says: “I had a twin brother and I used to play football with him and his pals.
“I saw this advert looking for girls to join a team to go and play football abroad.
“I’d only ever been to Blackpool or Southport before, so I thought this sounded fantastic. My father took me and my schoolfriend on the bus for trials and we got in.” Because they were banned from playing on UK football league grounds, Percy arranged matches for his girls across Europe and South America.
They won an unofficial European Cup against Germany, then played in front of 60,000 fans to win an unofficial World Cup in Venezuela in 1960.
“I don’t know how he managed it, but the Red Cross sponsored it and laid on the expenses of air flights and hotels,” says Anne. On that South American tour we did 29
They didn’t want women to play, they said it wasn’t ladylike... we said, b ***** ks!
flights. We were playing in proper stadiums in front of thousands of people. Everywhere we went, we were mobbed, it was phenomenal.
“We beat everyone because Mr Ashley was a technician and he knew his stuff.”
Off the pitch, the women had a blast. Anne recalls: “We were playing on a Caribbean island and there was a limbo party on the beach at midnight, so of course we’d be there.
“Mr Ashley was strict. We had to put pillows in our beds so it looked like we were asleep and snuck out. We were rebels against the system, but we still won our match the next day.”
Despite their global success, the women were still not recognised by the FA. Anne says: “I worked as a shorthand typist and wages clerk.
“When I went on that foreign tour for three months, my bosses Mr Goodwin and Mr Wright sent my mother my wage packet every week, even though I wasn’t at work.
“She saved them all up for me. My bosses thought it was marvellous that I was playing football.
“My dad and my brother loved me playing football, too. Some people asked ‘why are you playing football? It’s a man’s game.’
“But really it was the hierarchy who acted like we didn’t exist.”
The team was finally recognised with a blue plaque at their old training ground, Fog Lane Park in Didsbury, last year.
Jean Wilson, 74, who joined the Corinthians in 1963, aged 14, says: “I grew up in Burnage and used to feed the ducks in Fog Lane Park.
“I saw the women playing and thought it looked amazing. So, when I saw an advert for players, I applied.”
Soon, as a fierce left-winger, Jean made headlines in Scotland when she scored five goals in one of her first matches. She adds: “I was really proud of that. The headline said ‘Wee Jean routs the mighty Scots’,” she laughs.
“People in those days thought it was farcical, women playing football. But you had to watch us to realise how good we were.
“People seeing us train in Fog Lane Park couldn’t believe the standard. We used to love travelling around the country playing all these charity matches.
“It kept us off the streets and gave us something to look forward to.”
Thanks to the success of the Corinthians and around 40 other unofficial ladies’ clubs across the country, the FA finally lifted its ban in 1970 – something Percy Ashley, who died in 1967, did not get to see.
Jean was selected for the first official women’s England team, but only recently received her England cap.
She had never told anyone about her sporting success until then – even when her great niece was selected to play for Manchester United.
“I had to go to trials and I was selected as one of the 15 players for the first official England match,” she recalls. “Over the years, I used to watch international players getting their caps, and thought, ‘What did we get? Nothing.’ It only took us 50 years to get our caps!”
Now a crowdfunder launched to finance the first ever film of their story is getting the backing of Manchester United and Lionesses forward Ella Toone. Ella, 24, says: “The history of the women’s game is hardly ever seen on TV. Growing up, I had no idea there had been such a pioneering team from Manchester playing all over the world.
“It is great that this documentary is going to give them the glory they deserve, so young girls can be inspired.”
The film’s director, Helen Tither, who won a BAFTA in 2012 for My Life: Me, My Dad & His Kidney, agrees. She
says: “Young girls playing football today would struggle to name the heroes of women’s football from the 50s, 60s & 70s, unlike the boys who could reel off the likes of Bobby Moore, George Best and Bobby Charlton. It is a crying shame.
“Far too often, women are silenced or written out of history. This film is a chance for us to right that historical wrong and give these players a platform to tell us how it really was.”
Defender Margaret “Tiny” Shepherd, who helped Corinthians beat Juventus in an unofficial European Cup in 1970, says: “I think anyone taking up any sport, not only football, should be educated in its history.
“They should be aware just what the pioneers went through to play a game they loved.”
■ To watch the film’s trailer and donate to the crowdfund, visit www.indiegogo.com/projects/thecorinthians-we-were-the-champions
JAN LYONS, 70, RIGHT-BACK FOR MANCHESTER CORINTHIANS