Rutherglen Ladies F.C.

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.

Rutherglen Ladies
Rutherglen Ladies FC on an Irish tour
Full nameRutherglen Ladies Football Club
Founded1921
Dissolved1939

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

References
  1. "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. 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. Williamson, David J. (1991). Belles of the Ball. Devon, England: R&D Associates. ISBN 0951751204.
  6. New exhibition to pay tribute to Rutherglen's trailblazing female footballers, Jonathan Geddes, Daily Record, 5 December 2021
  7. 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. Glasgow's Scottish Football Museum celebrates women's team, Sarah Campbell, Glasgow Times, 5 December 2021

Further reading
  • Williams, Jean (2007), A Beautiful Game: International Perspectives on Women's Football', Berg, ISBN 1-84520-674-6
  • Williamson, David J. (1991), Belles of the Ball: Early History of Women's Football, R&D Associates, ISBN 978-0951751206
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