On the afternoon of Saturday 4th November 1933, a football match was played on the Fairfield in Sherborne between the female employees of the Sherborne Laundry and a ladies’ football team from Yeovil.
The match was held as part of Sherborne Carnival’s fundraising week, which, after a lapse of ten years, saw a procession through the town, headed by Carnival Queen Miss Phyllis Richards. Of the £240 raised by the Carnival that year towards the aid of local unemployed funds, the football match raised £11.10, and it was proposed that there should be a return match in Yeovil to raise money for other charitable causes.
The Sherborne team comprised Mrs Brown, F. Catchpole, D. Redfern, V. Evans, Mrs Quirck, W. Roberts, D. Andrews, E. Peaty, E. Batten, B. Best, and G. Vincent. The Yeovil team were V. Davis, W. Claridge (captain), M. Cottle, J. De Beer, G. Hann, S. Rowlands, J. Fox, I. Olding, L. White, W. Hunt, and I. Tucker. The referee was Mr H. Bowles.
Under the headline ‘LADY FOOTBALLERS. AMUSING GAME IN FAIRFIELD’, the Western Gazette reported on 10 November 1933, that ‘a novelty was a ladies’ football match on Saturday afternoon. Sherborne Laundry employees were arranging to turn out a ladies’ football team for the procession, and they agreed to play a match against a team of ladies which was in existence in Yeovil. The attraction appealed to hundreds and benefited the Carnival funds considerably. Apart from that, it was as good an hour’s fun as the Carnival activities produced. The big gathering obtained plenty of amusement from an exhibition, if not of the finer arts of the game, of good humoured sporting play, with plenty of banter and chaffing from the onlookers. The Chairman of the Committee (Mr H.J. Seager) kicked off, and by half-time some nine or ten goals had been scored. Then the teams had refreshments, including port wine. In the second half there was much less scoring. Sherborne won the game by six goals to five and the winning team and their “trainer”, Miss Baker, were presented by Mr Seager with powder compact cases (the gift of tradesmen of the town). The ball, which was the prize in a competition, was won by Miss Sartin. Mr Tim Robbins, who brought the Yeovil team to Sherborne and was responsible, with a V.A.D. worker, for some amusing interludes in the treatment of casualties.’
Rachel Hassall