Breaking the Grass Ceiling

2

Czech Adventure

After leaving school in 1964 I began my first job (secretarial trainee at the head office of Imperial Chemical Industries) and set about saving to travel to Mexico for the 1968 Olympic Games. This involved the challenge of saving over the intervening four years at the rate of 10s a week (50p when converted to decimal currency). That sounds today like a minimal sum but out of a total annual salary of £600 (in 1964) it was a stretch. By 1967 I had moved to a new job as the secretary in the sports department of the Sunday Telegraph. The sports diarist, Michael Williams, proved to be sufficiently intrigued by my out-of-work activities. Coupled with my footballing endeavours plus the planned holiday, he felt this merited inclusion in his weekly column.

A trip to a park close to Fleet Street in the company of a staff photographer resulted in a not-so-good action shot to illustrate the article. My moment of fleeting fame had arrived and disappeared just as quickly.

I thought no more of it but a letter arrived in October 1968 from Essex businessman Leon Black, who had contacts in Czechoslovakia. He sought interest in arranging an exchange visit between my team and primarily a Prague side, Lokomotiva Praha. It has to be the recklessness of youth that accounts for even a second thought being given to such an enterprise. I have always felt that I was a cautious person and fifty years later I don't recall exactly when I realised that it should have been inconceivable for us to be countenancing such a costly arrangement. I recall meetings of our new league, some at my parents' home and some at the Beechams company, which involved one of our Home Counties teams travelling back from Maidenhead to London late at night. There was support from the league as a whole in hosting Lokomotiva Praha for two matches and then to making a return trip to the Iron Curtain country later, in July 1969. Fundraising was a priority and a Derby draw was held among the league's clubs. Blakeney won the race that June, much to the delight, I have no doubt, of the draw winner, Mrs Irene Thompson, whose windfall was £50. In order to create a League representative side, trials were organised in January 1969, with Harry Batt of the Chiltern Valley Ladies appointed manager and David Hunt of Golden Limited the coach.

Michael Williams' Sports Diary piece from the Sunday Telegraph. (Sunday Telegraph)

In due course it was eventually agreed that Lokomotiva Praha would visit the south-east of England in early July, initially to compete in the Deal International Tournament as well as playing the League representative side. While in Deal the Czechs were accommodated at Mrs Libby's bed and breakfast establishment in Beach Street, having travelled across Europe on the train and across the Channel to Dover. Their first day in England was spent in and around Deal and concluded with hospitality provided for them and the other visiting overseas teams by the Betteshanger Sports Club. The tournament venue was that of the Betteshanger Colliery at their sports ground in Deal. The Deal tournament had proudly added the word 'International' to its title in 1969 by virtue of entries from Czechoslovakia, Austria and Scotland. That year White Ribbon entered a combined team alongside players from Orient in east London but didn't make it through to the finals day on 6 July. The Czechs didn't win the tournament, that honour going to the girls of Southampton, who would go on to dominate English women's football in the early years of the Women's FA.

I had to travel to Deal to bring our visitors back to London on the Sunday evening, 6 July. The M2 did not exist in those days and our journey by road took several hours in heavy traffic, culminating with the necessity to drop individuals off with the families who were to host them during their visit. My ever-supportive parents were to accommodate five of the female complement. Every day began collecting each of our visitors from their accommodation across north London. Two of our intrepid Czech guests who were staying in Southgate, north London, even managed a night out in London and got back to their accommodation by following the Underground line on foot. We also did our best to secure various treats for the visitors for them to enjoy between the planned matches. Monday gave them the opportunity of a London sightseeing outing followed by a cinema trip to see Oliver!. Their evening meal that day was prepared by my mother, who managed to serve up a roast pork dinner with all the trimmings. We were able to borrow trestle tables from the local church in order to seat all twenty in the party. My mother always believed that it was important to feed your guests well, but was left speechless when our visitors chose to smother their roast pork with tomato ketchup. We did not realise until then the special nature of ketchup. It was to prove an essential for the gifts we were to take with us on our return visit. A special treat, particularly for the players, was an expedition to London's Oxford Street so that each member of the party could spend the £5 pocket money that we had agreed to provide. Coming as they did from a communist state, it was the first time that our visitors found shops with the range of goods we had long become accustomed to seeing. Converting £5 to today's money, each visitor was given £70 to spend as they chose and most of the girls headed straight for the cosmetic counters.

The first match against the S.E. of England League squad was played at the Chestnuts Recreation Ground in Tottenham on 8 July, the pitch having been secured with the support of the Mayor of Haringey, Cllr Ernest Jones - no mean feat when we were still classed as unaffiliated football. We were even able to secure a qualified referee, Jack Wilson, who was prepared to officiate and run the risk of his association's wrath. Proceeds from that match were donated to the Mayor's chosen charity, the Mentally Handicapped Centre in Muswell Hill. As was common practice in those days, a celebrity was invited to perform a ceremonial kick-off. On this occasion the honour fell to the wife of local MP Hugh Rossi.

The programme from S.E. of England League v the Czech side. (Author's own)

The travelling Czech team.

The final score was a 3-2 victory for our League and was followed by a trip to the visiting funfair - another unique occasion for the Czechs.

Through the good offices of David Hunt, Golden Limited (a few years later to be taken over by L'Oreal) offered a visit to their factory followed by a buffet after a visit to Whipsnade Zoological park. The next day we were able to give our guests a tour of a brewery and welcome lunch ahead of the second game, which was to be played at Golden Limited. It was perhaps because of this tour that our Czech hosts opted to reciprocate in Ceské Budejovice later in July with a visit to the home of Budweiser. The result of that match has disappeared in the last fifty years. On the Friday we delivered our visitors back to Dover to catch their return ferry but the group's security official became agitated when the players demanded a stop at a Kent service station - did he envisage some last-minute defections? All was well and they all caught their ferry.

The planned return trip was to be made by road, with an outlay for the vehicle and two drivers agreed at £420. Everyone making the trip had to pay something and the League agreed that each of the fourteen players should contribute £20, the six officials £25 each and any other traveller £45. To these costs there was an extra charge of 12s (60p) per person towards the group visa. One serving military player was unable to make the trip as she was not given clearance to do so.

Earlier in 1969 there had been trials to select a representative league side and the first outing for the squad was against Patstone United (they would become the all-powerful Southampton) on 9 March on Hackney Marshes. With four matches arranged for the ten-day visit, we would cover many miles on this expedition. We left the UK on Thursday, 17 July, travelling from Dover and arriving at Zeebrugge at 5 a.m. Driving across Europe brought us to Prague late on the Friday evening. As we left Western Europe through Austria we were aware that the Americans were planning their attempt to land on the Moon, but with the news blackout in Czechoslovakia it was not until we returned to Austria on Sunday, the 27th, that we learned of their success. Bear in mind that the Football Association did not lift its 1921 ban preventing women playing football on their grounds until May 1971, having first mooted this at Council in January 1970. So man's greatest scientific achievement came to pass on 21 July 1969, which was before women in England were legally entitled to play football.

Entering Czechoslovakia was a slow process, particularly as one of our party was the holder of an Irish passport. At the request of our hosts, we brought with us supplies of goods that were not readily available in Czechoslovakia - notably, I recall, cornflakes and the aforementioned tomato ketchup. Happily none were removed from the coach by the border guards. As we headed towards Prague it was prudent to remind everyone to be very careful of the photographs they took - the Russian army was still present in Prague and it was not sensible to take any pictures of their troops or weaponry. Our accommodation in Prague was to be at the university and the outstanding memory of breakfast was warm prune juice! With our first match on the Saturday, we had a...