To mark Women’s History Month, we’re proud to share alumna Mary Mahon’s inspiring story of the pioneering Churchill students who helped shape women’s sport at Cambridge – beginning with the founding of the College’s first women’s football team.
When I came up to Churchill in 1983, I knew I wanted to play sports. I signed up for a novice boat and for the recently formed Churchill Ladies hockey team, but had time and energy for more. One evening after dinner my new friends and I were hanging out in the buttery over our halves of orange and lemonade (our usual weeknight tipple) and shooting Smartie tops across the room when the conversation turned to women’s sports. Heather McKinlay, an avid Charlton fan, wanted to start a ladies football team. I wanted to start a ladies rugby team. (I’d played rugby – alongside the boys – for my school First XV in 6th form.) We compromised and made a notice asking interested girls to sign up to play football or rugby. We figured if we got over 15 players we could try rugby; if we got 11, we could play football. We managed enough for a football team. Our friend David Schofield (U83) volunteered to coach us. We chose Heather as our first captain, and the Churchill Ladies Association Football Club was born.
We started by playing informal mixed games involving the boys from Churchill. Then a chance encounter with a player from Jesus College led Heather to organise our first official match. A few days later Churchill and Jesus played out a 0-0 draw: women’s football had kicked off in earnest at Cambridge. Newnham College had also just started a team and the three team captains made and distributed flyers to other colleges encouraging them to start women’s teams too. By the Lent term, five or six colleges were up and running and Heather became the secretary of the newly formed Cambridge University Women’s Association Football League. We realised we had to register as players with the Football Association in order to take part in organised competitions. When we filled out our registration forms we were shocked to discover that our earlier kickabouts with the boys could have resulted in us all being sanctioned – it stated in no uncertain terms that adults must not play in mixed matches. I don’t think we realised at the time just how pioneering we were nor that the FA had banned women outright from playing football until 1971.
For our first year when just playing friendlies we bought ourselves pink sweatshirts printed with chocolate brown Churchill crests. By our second year more teams had started up. We had an official league competition in the Michaelmas term and Cuppers in the Lent term. It felt like the time to get proper team shirts. We were looking forward to showing our college pride in pink and chocolate kit, but first we had to secure funding. We went to see the bursar, Hywel George, to ask for money for shirts. The ladies hockey team did the same. Being a practical man the bursar agreed to the purchase of the shirts on two conditions – the women’s hockey and football teams had to share them, and they had to be blue and white quartered. This was apparently the design of the men’s Thirds. The bursar reasoned that if both women’s teams folded then the shirts could go to the men’s team. We were a bit miffed at the assumption that our teams wouldn’t go the distance, but happy to have some real kit. Sharing the shirts wasn’t as big an obstacle as it might seem: the ladies hockey and football teams never played at the same time because about half of the players were on both teams! As it turned out the Thirds never got the shirts as both the hockey and football teams thrived and grew.
Two years later we applied again for new shirts and this time both teams were allowed to have their own. We chose pink and chocolate quarters for the football team and pink and chocolate halves for the hockey team. Before then the rowers were the only Churchill teams to sport our College colours, but I’m happy to say we sparked a trend. Soon the men’s football, hockey and rugby teams were all proudly wearing pink and chocolate strips.
As a vet student I was at Churchill for longer than most of my friends, and played football for Churchill Ladies all six years. In those early days Churchill was one of the top teams, alongside St. John’s and Girton. We were runners up in the inaugural Cuppers, losing on penalties in the final. We went on to win Cuppers 1986-7 and 1987-8. Despite losing only one league game from 1986-1989 we never won the league title during my time, regularly being runners up (usually to St John’s.)
Once we had an inter-college women’s football league and cup established, it was time for a University team. After trials in Michaelmas term 1985 Churchill’s goalkeeper Alison Sweeney (U84) and I were among those chosen to represent the Light Blues. The highlight of that first year was the inaugural Ladies Football Varsity match. Although the men’s varsity match was played at Wembley, ours graced a college playing field in Oxford. Getting there presented a slight problem as none of us had a car. After trying many places I found a small local firm willing to rent us a 12-seater minibus for the day – on the strict condition that I was the sole driver. So I undertook dual duty as player and team driver for the match. Unfortunately, we lost 4-3 in a tightly fought battle. Hardly a surprise when our team tired towards the end on a hot day: we only had one substitute as we couldn’t fit any more players in the minibus!
Like the Churchill team, the Varsity team had no budget that first year, but by luck I managed to find our first sponsor. Alison McBean, Tim Evison, Paul McCunn, Paul Brittain and I made up one of two Churchill teams that made it to the final of the British Oxygen Company (BOC) Undergraduate Challenge in our third year. We spent the weekend at the Heathrow Penta Hotel battling it out with the other finalists. The winners were to be announced at a celebration dinner that evening. On the way to dinner we got stuck for a while in a lift between floors. A BOC executive was trapped with us. I took the opportunity to tell him about the women’s Varsity football team and how we were looking for a sponsor. He told me to ‘talk to me again if you win’. We did indeed win – gaining travel grants for ourselves, glory and a cash prize for Churchill. True to their word, BOC became the first sponsors of CUWAFC. A few weeks’ later we received a bunch of BOC goodies including kit bags and polo shirts and a £500 cheque which covered the van rental for the varsity match and purchase of the team’s first real strip. And no, we didn’t have to share that one with the varsity hockey team!
U83 team reunion photo: back row (left to right) David Schofield (coach), Gwenda Jones Wedge,Joanne Warner (nee Sleeman), Alison Evison (nee McBean) front row: Judith Tyrer, Lesley Whitfield, Heather McKinlay
Team photo: Top (L-R):D.Schofield (coach), W Edwards, P Troll, R.Stratford, H.James, C.Gough, A.Sweeney, Middle: G. Jones, G. Schofield, M. Mahon, H. McKinlay (Captain), L. Henry, H. Reid, J.Tyrer, Bottom: J.Sleeman, A. McBean, S.A. Bennett, K. Turfrey, M. Mackay.
