In February 1921, Sydney Boultwood, owner of picture palaces in Plymouth and Torquay, and his wife Jessie, a champion long distance swimmer, created the first Plymouth Women’s Football Team which played France at Home Park in May 1921 and again in Paris and Le Havre later that year.
These unpaid girls, tailoresses, waitresses, domestic servants, school teachers, raised hundreds of pounds for local charities and their matches around the South-West attracted crowds of thousands. But they had their critics who viewed such female activity as physically and morally damaging to the gentler sex and their reproductive ability! So, on December 5th 1921 the F.A. issued their edict - football was “unsuitable for females” and hence, put a stranglehold on all the women’s teams nationwide until 1970.
Script-in-Hand Theatre have created an original play based on research and centred around the Boultwoods and Frank Zanazzi, the team’s amazing trainer, who trained the women o Whitsand Bay not just to kick a ball, but to be as skilful as “Grecian dancers.”
Join us in celebrating this important piece of our city’s history and these pioneering young women who laid the foundations for our Argyle Women of today.
Performances are free with donations for TREVI and HER GAME TOO.
If you are are unable to make this performance there will be other perfomrances around the city. Head to www.scriptinhandtheatre.uk
