TEAM HIGHLIGHTS
Team Highlights
Team Highlights
In 1918, Molly Walker was the first player to be transferred from another team to play for the Dick, Kerr Ladies. Having impressed the manager in the two games she had played against them with Lancaster Ladies, she made the move to Preston for the start of the new season and scored the only goal on her debut for the team in a 1-0 victory over Barrow Ladies. Mr Frankland would often be on the look out for good players, and brought in many from other teams to play for the Preston side.
They were one of the first ladies teams to play an international match against an overseas side when they played against a team from Paris in the spring of 1920. They played a series of matches in the north west of England, and at Stamford Bridge, London. The opening match of the tour was played at Deepdale, the home of Preston North End, in front of 25,000 spectators, a record for the ground at that time. During the four games played, they raised over £3000 for the National Association of Dishcharged and Disabled Soldiers and Sailors.
They became the first British women's team to embark on an overseas football tour when they made the reciprocal tour to France in the autumn of 1920. They travelled over 2000 miles playing matches in Paris, Roubaix, Le Havre and Rouen in front of over 62,000 spectators. They returned home unbeaten and received a rapturous welcome from cheering crowds who lined the streets all along their victory route.
In 1920, the Dick, Kerr Ladies were the first women's team to play a match at night and use a white football. They approached the War Office for the loan of two anti aircraft searchlights to illuminate the pitch, and permission for their use was granted by Winston Churchill. The game was played at Deepdale against a representative side made up of the best players from the rest of England. But even they couldn't dent the might of the Dick, Kerr Ladies who won the game by 4-0. The £600 proceeds of the match was in aid of the local distress fund for Unemployed Ex Servicemen in the town.
One of the biggest crowds ever recorded for a women's club match, was played on Boxing Day 1920 at Goodison Park, Everton, when 53,000 spectators accessed the stadium to see Dick, Kerr Ladies take on St Helens Ladies. The ground was literally packed to the rafters, so much so that between 10-14,000 other people who wanted to watch the match, had to be turned away at the turnstiles. That's a potential crowd of a possible 67,000! The Dick, Kerr Ladies recorded a 4-0 victory and an unprecidented amount of £3115 was raised for charity. That would have a value today of over £147k.
In February 1921, music hall comedian Harry Weldon invited the Dick, Kerr Ladies to play a representative side made up of the best players from the rest of Britain, in a match for The Harry Weldon Cup to be played at Anfield. The rep team was made up of the best individual players from ladies teams throughout the whole of the UK, with one player even travelling from the island of Unst in the Shetland Isles. The result was an emphatic 9-1 victory for the Dick, Kerr Ladies in front of 25,000 spectators.
Throughout 1921 the Dick, Kerr Ladies played an amazing total of sixty seven games of football for charity, all over the UK, while still working full time at the factory, and a staggering number of almost 900,000 people had come to watch them that year. But they were to become victims of their own success when on 5 December 1921, the FA banned ladies football and effectively changed the course of the women's game forever. A short lived English Ladies Football Association was set up in an effort to keep their house in order, but many teams did fall by the wayside. The Dick, Kerr Ladies however, were in the fortunate position of having their own pitch to play due to the Company having bought Ashton Park at the end of 1919.
Florrie Redford who played centre forward for the team, scored a phenomenal number of 170 goals in 1921. What price could be put on that kind of talent today?
In 1922 they crossed the Atlantic to take part in another football tour. They arrived in Quebec on 22 September 1922, only to be told that the Dominion FA had refused permission for them to play in Canada, and also there were in fact, no women's teams for them to play against. They also learned that during the tour they would have to play against men's teams in the USA. They were devastated and left with no option but to agree to play, and decided to regard the experience as an experiment. The tour lasted for nine weeks. They played 9 games, won 3, drew 3 and lost 3.
In 1923 they took part in the first ever match played at night under electric lights. The game took place at Turf Moor, Burnley against Heys Bradford Ladies.
In 1926, they changed their name to Preston Ladies but would continue to be known as the world famous Dick, Kerr Ladies right up to the present day.
In 1937 they were challenged by Edinburgh Ladies to play in a Championship of the World match. The Scottish lassies regarded themselves the best team in Scotland and wanted to put the record straight. The Preston side immediately accepted the challenge and the match took place at Squires Gate, Blackpool in September of that year and Edinburgh were beaten by 5-1. In November they held a celebration World Championship Victory Dinner which also commemorated the 20th anniversary of their formation.
Following the death of their long serving manager, Alfred Frankland in 1957, the team was taken over by Kath Latham who remained at the helm until 1965 when team regretably disbanded due to a lack of players.
During their incredible forty eight years, they raised somewhere in the region of £180,000 for charity, but today that would be worth in excess of £10 million.
In August 1992, the Dick, Kerr Ladies were reunited for the first time in almost forty years, as part of the Preston Guild Celebrations, at The Lancashire Trophy, International Women's Football Tournament.
In 1996, at seventy four years of age, Joan Whalley, outside right for the Dick, Kerr Ladies, became the first British female football player to feature in a national advertising campaign by sportswear giant Nike.
The Dick, Kerr Ladies took to the field for the very first time since 1965, when they played in an exhibition match at the Lancashire Trophy in 1997 to mark the 80th anniversary of the formation of the team.
The Dick, Kerr Ladies became 21st Century girls when they took part in another exhibition match at The Lancashire Trophy in 2000. The oldest player on the field that day was Nancy Thomson who was a mere eighty four years young!
In 2002, Lily Parr became the first female football player to be inducted into the National Football Museum Hall of Fame.
In 2007, Joan Whalley became the second Dick, Kerr Ladies player to be posthumously inducted into the National Football Museum Hall of Fame.
To commemorate their Centenary Year in 2017, a Blue Plaque, the first in the World for Women's Football, was placed on the factory wall in Preston, where there they were formed one hundred years before. The plaque was unveiled by family members of the original pioneers, David Coulton and Valerie Conn, who are the grand children of Grace Sibbert and Alice Kell respectively.
In July of 2017, the First National Women's Walking Football Tournament for over 40s and over 50s women, The Dick, Kerr Ladies Cup, was staged at UCLan Sports Arena in Preston. Sixteen teams took part in the inaugural event and it has grown to be regarded as one of the best organised in the country.
In Septmeber of 2017, the Dick, Kerr Ladies were given a special award at The FA Women's Football Awards, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.
To commemorate the Centenary of the first match at Deepdale on Christmas Day 1917, a memorial to the Dick, Kerr Ladies was unveiled at Preston North End on 22 December 2017. Another first of its kind. The tribute, lists the names of all the women who ever played for the team and the huge and impressive memorial stands at 6 x 4 metres and is now a focal point for women's football history.
In 2018, the Royal British Legion recognised the Dick, Kerr Ladies for their fundraising contribution during the First World War and their memorial at Preston North End was one of the venues chosen in their ribbon campaign, recognising women to commemorate 100th anniversary of the end of the War.
2018 also saw the Dick, Kerr Ladies recognised at the North West Sports Awards, when they were described as 'probably one of the most important teams in the history of women's football', as they received a special reconition award for their achievements during World War 1.