Title
Anne Rutland Oral History Recording
Subject
Anne Rutland
Description
An oral history interview with Anne Rutland
Creator
Michael Romyn
Publisher
Kent's Sporting Memories
Date
Interview recorded on 5 December, 2019
Contributor
Anne Rutland; Michael Romyn
Rights
Kent's Sporting Memories
Format
MP3 (1:13:18). Also available in WAV
Language
English
Type
Sound Recording
Identifier
Anne Rutland
Transcription
Kent’s Sporting Memories Oral History Summary
Interviewee: Anne Rutland
Interviewer: Michael Romyn
Date: 5 December, 2019
Location: Anne Rutland’s home in Hamstreet, Kent
0:00 Name, place and date of birth (Anne Rutland (Blythe), Ashford, 1954); Anne grew up in Ashford, where her parents were from; Anne describes how Ashford has changed since her youth, when it was much more rural; playing darts at the Market Hotel in Ashford with her football teammates; her Mum worked in the fields and her Dad was an electrician, in London, and later at the Dungeness power station, where her husband also worked.
3:55 Anne talks about her love of sport at school, particularly netball, a sport she is now involved in with as a coach and umpire; she explains how there was no football for girls at her school – ‘a lot of the sport you couldn’t do, it wasn’t intermixed’ – and describes her introduction to football while working at Woolworths; the sports Anne was able to play at school – hockey, tennis, netball and cross country – and her natural ability and interest in sport, including bowls, which she took up later in life; she went to the Duncan Bowen School in Ashford (now the John Wallis Academy), and left when she was sixteen to study typing at college in Ashford for a year or two; her first job was as a typist for a publication called ‘Dog World’; moving on, aged seventeen, to a receptionist job and then further typist roles; Anne was still living at home, in Cryol Road, during this period, and riding her bike to and from work.
15:15 Anne started playing football aged 16 (in 1970); at Ruckinge, the team (White Wanderers) would change in the village hall and drive down to the pitch in football gear and boots; Anne says she made her friend undress before getting in her car as she had slipped in sheep droppings – ‘they were good times, the girls were a good bunch’; being asked to play and playing for rival Ashford for two years after Hamstreet had wound down; getting married at 24 and deciding to give up football – ‘obviously we got older anyway, obviously we moved here, had to go to work, cook the Sunday dinner or whatever. It wasn’t the same as being at home – you could go home, dinner was on the table, you’d have a shower and change. It was a bit different from going home and having to do it yourself.’
18:10 Growing up as ‘a bit of a tomboy because I grew up with my two brothers…and I’d always kick about on the green where we were with them. I hadn’t really thought of a ladies’ team to be fair until my mate said she played’; appearing on Meridian (potentially Scene South East) in a feature on rubber sports bras; sneaking into the pub in Ruckinge while underage – ‘we had a crafty little half or something, nothing silly’; going ice-skating with Jean and the team; Anne says she knew nothing about organised football for women before starting at Hamstreet; she says Joyce, the manager, was the ‘only woman manager’.
23:00 Starting at Hamstreet, and the toughness and competitiveness of the team; the league they played in, which Ashford tended to dominate; Anne on her strengths in football and her proficiency in heading the ball, and on the strengths of her teammates; the importance of fair play and sportsmanship to Anne; the ‘primitive’ equipment that was by the team, and the logic behind the team names – White Wanderers and Yellow Star.
28:40 The reasons the team played in Ruckinge, rather than Hamstreet, and the basic facilities (including a haybarn) available to them; clearing sheep’s muck off the field before each game; Anne describes the support they received from the village as limited; nicknames for her teammates; staying in touch with her teammates and how Hamstreet has changed and developed over the years.
37:45 Anne explains how the team remained roughly the same throughout its duration, and that it rarely attracted new members; how Anne got involved with the Ashford team following Hamstreet’s demise; Anne’s love of darts and going with her friends to a weekly dance in Ashford when she was younger – ‘we’d all get together and we’d all put our money in and we’d buy perhaps a bottle of ruby wine or something – I couldn’t touch it now!’; taking up badminton with her husband, Dave; socialising with her Hamstreet teammates, including the yearly prizegiving at the village hall and trips to London to go ice-skating and watch Chelsea.
46:00 Anne describes particular games and tournaments that stand out to her, including Hamstreet’s rivalry with Ashford; how the team began to peter out as the players grew older and had more responsibilities; meeting her husband, Dave, through work (Houchin) and getting to know one another through playing badminton; Anne talks about her husband’s motorcycle and two road accidents they were involved in on the bike.
54:20 Moving to Hamstreet in 1978, once she got married (in Ashford); Anne describes the different sports she played after football had finished, such as darts, hockey, netball and, later, bowls; playing for a women’s five-a-side team attached to the power station in Dungeness, where Dave worked between 1986 and 1988; going for a trial and playing football for Kent in the mid-1970s, and how the Hamstreet team compared – ‘with the Hamstreet really you probably had two reserves, you know. It wasn’t a big squad but they were loyal, they’d turn up’; the facilities at Ashford in comparison to Hamstreet; playing netball for a team called Phoenix, in the Ashford league, at the Stour Centre (now based at Courtside in Ashford).
1:04:30 How bowls has replaced football and netball; Anne describes how, despite her reservations (and initial embarrassment) about playing, her mother convinced her to take up bowls for Ashford Rail; playing, and beating, the England bowls team in c.2010; playing bowls for Kent county ladies team, which has involved travelling far and wide (Portsmouth being the furthest); her preference for playing mixed teams in bowls.
1:08:50 Anne speaks about how easy it has been to access sport as a women – ‘It’s easier now than what it was obviously back in our youth really because it was - as I said, I happened to be in the right place at the right time so I probably wouldn’t have known about the ladies football to be fair’; coaching football at Hamstreet School; Anne’s competitive streak, which has extended into playing cards with her children!
1:12:00 Anne describes her fondest memories of playing sport over the years, including getting together with the Hamstreet ladies – ‘when we did meet up we had such fun’.
Interviewee: Anne Rutland
Interviewer: Michael Romyn
Date: 5 December, 2019
Location: Anne Rutland’s home in Hamstreet, Kent
0:00 Name, place and date of birth (Anne Rutland (Blythe), Ashford, 1954); Anne grew up in Ashford, where her parents were from; Anne describes how Ashford has changed since her youth, when it was much more rural; playing darts at the Market Hotel in Ashford with her football teammates; her Mum worked in the fields and her Dad was an electrician, in London, and later at the Dungeness power station, where her husband also worked.
3:55 Anne talks about her love of sport at school, particularly netball, a sport she is now involved in with as a coach and umpire; she explains how there was no football for girls at her school – ‘a lot of the sport you couldn’t do, it wasn’t intermixed’ – and describes her introduction to football while working at Woolworths; the sports Anne was able to play at school – hockey, tennis, netball and cross country – and her natural ability and interest in sport, including bowls, which she took up later in life; she went to the Duncan Bowen School in Ashford (now the John Wallis Academy), and left when she was sixteen to study typing at college in Ashford for a year or two; her first job was as a typist for a publication called ‘Dog World’; moving on, aged seventeen, to a receptionist job and then further typist roles; Anne was still living at home, in Cryol Road, during this period, and riding her bike to and from work.
15:15 Anne started playing football aged 16 (in 1970); at Ruckinge, the team (White Wanderers) would change in the village hall and drive down to the pitch in football gear and boots; Anne says she made her friend undress before getting in her car as she had slipped in sheep droppings – ‘they were good times, the girls were a good bunch’; being asked to play and playing for rival Ashford for two years after Hamstreet had wound down; getting married at 24 and deciding to give up football – ‘obviously we got older anyway, obviously we moved here, had to go to work, cook the Sunday dinner or whatever. It wasn’t the same as being at home – you could go home, dinner was on the table, you’d have a shower and change. It was a bit different from going home and having to do it yourself.’
18:10 Growing up as ‘a bit of a tomboy because I grew up with my two brothers…and I’d always kick about on the green where we were with them. I hadn’t really thought of a ladies’ team to be fair until my mate said she played’; appearing on Meridian (potentially Scene South East) in a feature on rubber sports bras; sneaking into the pub in Ruckinge while underage – ‘we had a crafty little half or something, nothing silly’; going ice-skating with Jean and the team; Anne says she knew nothing about organised football for women before starting at Hamstreet; she says Joyce, the manager, was the ‘only woman manager’.
23:00 Starting at Hamstreet, and the toughness and competitiveness of the team; the league they played in, which Ashford tended to dominate; Anne on her strengths in football and her proficiency in heading the ball, and on the strengths of her teammates; the importance of fair play and sportsmanship to Anne; the ‘primitive’ equipment that was by the team, and the logic behind the team names – White Wanderers and Yellow Star.
28:40 The reasons the team played in Ruckinge, rather than Hamstreet, and the basic facilities (including a haybarn) available to them; clearing sheep’s muck off the field before each game; Anne describes the support they received from the village as limited; nicknames for her teammates; staying in touch with her teammates and how Hamstreet has changed and developed over the years.
37:45 Anne explains how the team remained roughly the same throughout its duration, and that it rarely attracted new members; how Anne got involved with the Ashford team following Hamstreet’s demise; Anne’s love of darts and going with her friends to a weekly dance in Ashford when she was younger – ‘we’d all get together and we’d all put our money in and we’d buy perhaps a bottle of ruby wine or something – I couldn’t touch it now!’; taking up badminton with her husband, Dave; socialising with her Hamstreet teammates, including the yearly prizegiving at the village hall and trips to London to go ice-skating and watch Chelsea.
46:00 Anne describes particular games and tournaments that stand out to her, including Hamstreet’s rivalry with Ashford; how the team began to peter out as the players grew older and had more responsibilities; meeting her husband, Dave, through work (Houchin) and getting to know one another through playing badminton; Anne talks about her husband’s motorcycle and two road accidents they were involved in on the bike.
54:20 Moving to Hamstreet in 1978, once she got married (in Ashford); Anne describes the different sports she played after football had finished, such as darts, hockey, netball and, later, bowls; playing for a women’s five-a-side team attached to the power station in Dungeness, where Dave worked between 1986 and 1988; going for a trial and playing football for Kent in the mid-1970s, and how the Hamstreet team compared – ‘with the Hamstreet really you probably had two reserves, you know. It wasn’t a big squad but they were loyal, they’d turn up’; the facilities at Ashford in comparison to Hamstreet; playing netball for a team called Phoenix, in the Ashford league, at the Stour Centre (now based at Courtside in Ashford).
1:04:30 How bowls has replaced football and netball; Anne describes how, despite her reservations (and initial embarrassment) about playing, her mother convinced her to take up bowls for Ashford Rail; playing, and beating, the England bowls team in c.2010; playing bowls for Kent county ladies team, which has involved travelling far and wide (Portsmouth being the furthest); her preference for playing mixed teams in bowls.
1:08:50 Anne speaks about how easy it has been to access sport as a women – ‘It’s easier now than what it was obviously back in our youth really because it was - as I said, I happened to be in the right place at the right time so I probably wouldn’t have known about the ladies football to be fair’; coaching football at Hamstreet School; Anne’s competitive streak, which has extended into playing cards with her children!
1:12:00 Anne describes her fondest memories of playing sport over the years, including getting together with the Hamstreet ladies – ‘when we did meet up we had such fun’.