Greyhound Gunners History

The Gunners' History

Two years ago, football widow Kath Hughes was talking to a lifeguard at Westhoughton

leisure centre, where she used to go swimming with Marg whilst Jess went football training. It

was during this conversation that the lifeguard suggested setting up a ladies football team - a

case of ‘if you can’t beat ‘em - join ‘em..!!’. Kath and Marg then approached Paul and myself

at the Greyhound to see if we could get anybody else interested. We ran a list for a ladies pool

team and a football team - to which, after collaring a gang of women returning from a drunken

hen weekend, we had more response. Once we had a list of roughly 20 names for the footy

team, we decided to go ahead with the idea.

Next problem. The population in the Greyhound were busy laughing at the idea of a group of girls actually playing football in the cold and rain, risking messing up their hair and make-up.
Secondly, we had to find someone who was prepared to take us on and actually teach us how to play football. After several hours (and drinks), Kath & Marg managed to wear down a very brave (or stupid) Nigel!!

Arrangements were then made that on the following Tuesday night - 21st November 1995 -
we would go to the all weather pitch for our very first insight into what to do with a football!!
A sober Nigel turned up, probably wondering why, when, the first thing he asked us to do
was jog around a third of the pitch. Ten minutes later he was looking at eleven girls, heaped on the floor, asking what time we could go for a pint and a fag!!

Out of the original eleven, five still play for us and I am still heavily involved with the running of the team. Nigel also braved allot of stick, especially during the first few months, with determination to prove a point to the ‘non-believers’. Comments regarding us not lasting in the cold and rain were soon disproved - we even wanted to train when the pitch had been closed due to the severity of the weather!!!

After roughly five months of training, we decided to try to join a local league as by then we
had 17 members (more girls turned up when they realised we were serious). As our
secretary, Andrea had the job of arranging this, only to be told there were no such leagues.
After giving a lot of bulls@*! (something which she is quite good at), she succeeded in
getting us into the N.W.W.R.F.L.
We played our very first match just one week before the beginning of the season - a friendly
against Bolton Ambassadors. During our first season, we were getting trounced by margins
as high as 16 goals, but we still managed to finish the season with four wins under our belt.
We also lost a few players during this time, but we were fortunate to gain a few new ones.
Overall we can be more than satisfied with how well we have done up to press, and we even
have a Granada T.V appearance under our belts. Not bad for a group of unfit, image
conscious WOMEN!!

by Sarah McKean. (Secretary).