Plaque Unveiling Now!

PIONEERING WOMEN’S FOOTBALL TEAM TO BE RECOGNISED WITH A BLUE PLAQUE

• Manchester Corinthian Ladies Football Club to be recognised with a blue plaque
• Unveiling will take place at Fog Lane Park, Didsbury, their home for over 20 years from formation in 1949
• The plaque, two murals of the team and other tributes will be unveiled at the park on Friday 6 October at noon
• The plaque and murals were funded by an appeal which included significant donations from the Football Association and Manchester City Council, alongside dozens of individual donations
• Over 20 players, including a 92 year old who joined the team at formation, will be in attendance

A Blue plaque and other tributes to the pioneering women’s football team Manchester Corinthians will be unveiled on Friday 6 October at noon at the site of their formation, Fog Lane Park, Didsbury, Manchester. In attendance will be over 20 women who played for the club between 1949 and 1983 and representatives from the Football Association, Manchester Football Association, Manchester City Council, football fans, members of the public and former England international Kerry Davis.

One of the former players in attendance will be 92 year old, Dorothy Alcock, who first joined the team at formation in 1949. Others present on the day participated in trophy winning tours across Europe and South America during the fifties, sixties and seventies.

The Corinthians raised significant amounts of money for charity during their existence while also promoting football and female endeavour at a time when participation in the sport was often frowned upon.

During the 1950s, playing as an unofficial England side, the Corinthians won a major European tournament in Germany and were supported on their travels by legendary Manchester City men’s goalkeeper Bert Trautmann.

In 1960 they found success in an unofficial ‘World Cup’ (officially the first ‘Torneo Internacional De Futbol Femenino’) in Venezuela as part of a significant tour of the West Indies and South America. Former player (outside right) Margaret Whitworth recalls: ‘We were treated like film stars. There were crowds everywhere we went. Playing in front of 56,000 was thrilling and the way women’s football was treated was so different to how it was back in England at the time. Here we had to play on park pitches or at other sports grounds, but there we played in major football stadiums.’

During the late 1960s the club’s management played a leading role in the creation of the Women’s Football Association. Both the Corinthians and their sister club the Nomads were founder members but their manager Gladys Aikin became a member of the governing body’s committee. By this time their determination was to see the growth of the game and lifting of all barriers.

The Corinthians continued to play and by the end of the 1970s they were frequently coached by the Manchester City 1956 FA Cup winner Dave Ewing at City’s Platt Lane training complex.

During the 1980s a ground move led to the club being renamed Woodley Ladies, and that club ceased to exist by the end of the decade. Many of the Corinthians from the late 1970s and 1980s became players with Manchester City’s women’s team during its inaugural season of 1988-89.

Today at least one former Corinthian, Lesley Wright, plays walking football at the highest level possible and continues to coach women’s football, continuing the Corinthian influence through to the modern day development of the sport.

The plaque and murals were funded by an appeal which included significant donations from the Football Association and Manchester City Council, alongside dozens of individual donations. The community group, the Friends of Fog Lane Park, have been instrumental in ensuring the Corinthians are remembered and that this aspect of the park’s life is properly recorded and acknowledged. The murals were designed and painted by artist Gavin Renshaw.

About Manchester Corinthian Ladies Football Club

Manchester Corinthian Ladies FC was an English football club founded in 1949 by Percy Ashley. He established the club because his daughter Doris wanted to play football but couldn’t find a team. At this time The FA ban on women’s football using FA affiliated grounds was in place (from 1921; lifted in 1970). During the inaugural seasons the Corinthians played friendlies and in small scale competitions in the UK, but during the mid to late 1950s they embarked on a series of European tours.

Their fame grew and they received invites to play across Europe, in Africa and in South America. Occasionally playing as an unofficial England side in tournaments (these were the days before there was an official England team), they found success often, becoming the most successful women’s team by some distance.

Under the management of Percy Ashley, followed by Gladys Aikin and then George Aikin, the Corinthians were important representatives of women’s football, both internationally and domestically, always contributing to the game’s growth and development.