Away the lassies!

You may have seen the film "A League of Their Own" which tells the story of women playing professional baseball in the US during the last war to fill in for the men who were away in the military.  But did you know that during WW I there was an unofficial but very organised women's football league in and around Northumberland?  This was an area full of munitions factories and indeed these women's teams were known as "Munitionettes".  They had a cup competition called the Munitionettes Cup with no less than 30 teams competing.  As there was no professional football going on because of the war, they attracted sizable crowds. After the war of course, the munitions factories closed and that was the end of that - indeed in 1921 the FA banned women's football at their grounds.  In fact the ban was only lifted in 1971, and women's football has struggled since to make any real impact as anything other than a "niche" attraction.