WOMEN FOOTBALLERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 September 1921, Page 11

WOMEN FOOTBALLERS.

MATCH IN MELBOURNE.

GIGGLING BUT UNABASHED.

Sydney, August 10. The “Chorleys” and the “Fleetwoods,” two teams of women footballers, displayed a good deal of their charms but very real football at a match played on Saturday afternoon on the St. Kilda Ground, Melbourne, in aid of the St. Kilda Club. This event had been freely advertised a-s the women’s first football match, and a huge and smiling crowd had gathered.

The girls, clad in ordinary football clothes—jerseys, short pants, and boots, with a cap added to keep the hair in order —received a noisy welcome as they filed out. They were a well-built athletic lot. The “Fleetwoods” comprised girl clerks -from the Defence Department, and the “Chorleys” were St. Kilda girls. Most of them, as they made their first public appearance, were consumed with giggles, but their numbers gave them courage, and they were not abashed. The male spectators were very humorous at their expense, but they went boldly out into the field and took their places. As football, the game was not worth talking about. Play was quite unconventional. and free kicks were regarded as out of the question. But the spectators appeared to get great entertainment from the game. “Barracking” was fierce and to the point. The umpire was a man, and, to give the thing a still more carnival appearance, he was in female attire.

The players got very muddy, very hot, and very tired. The interval was unduly prolonged, and the resumption of play was obviously not welcomed by the players. At three-quarter time, in response to urgent appeals, it was decided “to call it a day,” and the game ended. The boys who waited outside the dressing sheds to escort the players home gave the place the appearance of a stage-door at 11.15 p.m.