The Blyth Spartans team that won the Munitionettes' Cup in 1918. Photo: no credit
While men's soccer followers of a certain age and type can sometimes struggle to grasp the fact that the sport existed before Italia 90, recent women's soccer aficionados can be quite blank on its history before Canada 2015.
Even those who are aware that women's football was banned by the English Football Association for fifty years until 1971 are often shocked to learn that it flourished during and immediately after the First World War. And their eyes will certainly be opened Wor Bella a play being performed this month at Clapham's The Bread & Roses Theater and Newcastle's Theater Royal.
Ed Waugh's play tells the story of a cohort of more than a million courageous young women who have all but disappeared from history. The heroic Munitionettes of World War I combined serving the war effort by working in munitions factories with playing football for charity.
Anyone who believes that British women had barely kicked a ball before England's Jill Scott, Lucy Bronze, Steph Houghton and company crossed the Atlantic to take a bronze medal at the 2015 World Cup may be surprised to know that at national level level, hundreds of Munitionette teams have been formed, including dozens in the Northeast.
As tens of thousands of fans began attending matches, female football superstars were born, perhaps most notably Bella Reay of Blyth Spartans Ladies. Scoring 133 goals in 30 games - including a hat-trick in her team's 1918 Munitionettes Cup final - the then 18-year-old 'Wor Bella' possessed an eye for goal that Alan Shearer would have envied.
With matches at St James' Park and Ayresome Park regularly attracting crowds of 18,000 to 25,000, Bella and co were part of a now almost forgotten sporting wave that would not be repeated for almost a century.
"Today's lionesses stand on the shoulders of those incredible women of 100 years ago," says Waugh, who is from South Shields and has written a series of plays that often highlight little-known working-class heroes from the North East. "The Munitionettes and their exploits are something that doesn't seem to be taught in schools, so we try to keep their memory alive."
The story continues
Shearer has a cameo role in Wor Bella, a ... Play Match of the Day expert. "The story of the Munitionettes who worked 60 hours a week in dangerous and physically demanding conditions and still found time to play football for wartime charities is both incredible and inspiring," said the former Newcastle and England centre-forward.
It's a message endorsed by Dan Burn. The Blyth born and bred Newcastle defender has received more than 36,000 hits on social media after promoting the Theater Royal production by urging Tynesiders to buy tickets via a short video address 'Howay the Lasses'.
Bella is played by Vera actor Catherine Dryden and she expertly takes the audience back to 1916 when Blyth's working-age male population left the Northumberland town en masse to fight in the Battle of the Somme and Ypres.
While the Munitionettes worked as stevedores, loading ammunition going to the front and unloading spent cartridges from ships moored at Blyth Harbour, they received informal coaching portside from visiting sailors. In 1917 Blyth Spartans Ladies were alive and well and increasingly formidable.
Not that this is purely a play for football fans. "Before the war, around 50% of young, unmarried, working-class women in the North East entered poorly paid domestic service," says Waugh. "But once they were drafted into the factories, they suddenly had money in their pockets. For the first time, young women went to bars unaccompanied and often drank dry. There are stories that the remaining men arrived to find that the liquor had run out.
" Wor Bella is about a time of revolutionary social change, when for the first time a cohort of young working-class women had money and freedom. They could afford to cut their hair fashionably short and play what had always been a man's game."
By 1921 the men were back at work at the factory, but the women's teams continued to draw large crowds. A turning point was reached in the North West on Boxing Day 1920 when 53,000 fans - with a further 15,000 left out - packed Goodison Park to see the famous Dick, Kerr Ladies against St Helens.
In December 1921, the FA banned women from playing on affiliated pitches on the false 'medical' grounds that the game was 'unsuitable for women'. The ban not only forced women's football underground for five decades, but also helped reimpose socially conservative ideas about women's place in wider society. "There are some very funny moments in it Wor Bella but it's not just a laugh, it should also make people angry," Waugh said. "Really angry."
Dryden describes the 1921 FA ban as "scandalous" and is pleased to bring Bella, who died of dementia in 1979, back to life. "The play is a tribute to the more than a million women who stepped into grueling and dangerous industrial work when men were drafted in 1916," she says. "In addition to serving the war effort, they raised money to support wounded soldiers, widows and orphans. They were selfless."
Discussion points
The European qualifiers start: Qualifying for Euro 2025 opened on Friday. Many eyes were on the 'Group of Death' in League A, where England were defeated by Sweden and France narrowly defeated the stubborn Republic of Ireland. Italy's victory over the Netherlands was the surprise of the day, while Germany came from 2-0 behind to beat Austria 3-2. In League B there was disappointment for Scotland and Northern Ireland, who were held to a goalless draw. Rhian Wilkinson started her time as Wales manager in style, guiding her team to a comfortable victory over Croatia. Sophie Downey
New Zealand says goodbye to legend: After amassing 166 caps and representing her country at five World Cups and four Olympic Games, Ria Percival is hanging up her international football boots. The 34-year-old defender has made more appearances than any female or male player in New Zealand football history. "It has been one of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make, and it is not a decision I have taken lightly, but I think this is the right time for me," Percival said. "I have proudly represented New Zealand for the past eighteen years and it has been an absolute honor." SD
European Under-19 Championship line-up is taking shape: England have booked their place at this summer's European Under-19 Championship with a game to spare. Wins over Switzerland and Portugal mean John Griffiths' side cannot be placed at the top of their group in the second qualifying round, despite still having to play Italy. They join hosts Lithuania, the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland, with the remaining four spots yet to be decided. David Connell's Irish team will take part in the European Under-19 Championship for the first time since 2014. SD
Quote of the day
I think for me, for the team moving forward, this is the right time to pass on the captaincy. I've learned so much. It probably made me the character I am today because when I first received it at the age of 23, I was a shy, young girl who didn't really talk to the team. That really empowered me to have to talk to the girls and develop those relationships. We have been doing that for many years" - Sophie Ingle on stepping down as Wales captain after nine years.
Recommended viewing
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Join hosts Faye Carruthers and Suzanne Wrack from Women's Football Weekly as they invite guests from around the world to guide you through the biggest stories.
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