'They were good times. The girls were a good bunch': Anne Rutland on playing football for Hamstreet

Title

'They were good times. The girls were a good bunch': Anne Rutland on playing football for Hamstreet

Subject

Anne Rutland

Description

An excerpt of an oral history recording with Anne Rutland. Anne describes the 'primitive' conditions her and teammates dealt with - including playing in a sheep field - as members of White Wanderers Ladies Football Club. Transcript attached.

Creator

Michael Romyn

Source

Anne Rutland Oral History Recording

Publisher

Kent's Sporting Memories

Date

Interview recorded on 5 December, 2019

Contributor

Anne Rutland; Michael Romyn

Rights

Kent's Sporting Memories

Format

MP3 (1:55); Microsoft Word Document

Language

English

Type

Sound Recording; Typed Transcript

Identifier

Anne Rutland

Transcription

Kent’s Sporting Memories Oral History Transcript (Excerpt)
Interviewee: Anne Rutland
Interviewer: Michael Romyn
Date: 5 December, 2019
Location: Hamstreet, Kent.
Recording Time: 15:20 – 17:11

Anne Rutland: When I first started I think I was sixteen when I first started, yeah I was. And then I passed my driving test ‘cause as I said to you, we had to – when Debbie got us the place at Ruckinge, then we were White Wanderers, we used to have to change in the village hall at Ruckinge and then drive down in our football gear, so I’m driving along in football boots! I remember my friend, I was talking to her this morning because we were going to meet today but she can’t make it, I said ‘do you remember when you slid in the sheep’s muck?’ I said, ‘and you were covered in it, and I said “you’re not getting in my car like that!”’ So she literally stood there and had to take her shorts off, and into her underwear and wrap something around her because I wasn’t – no way was she getting in my car! Honestly she was covered because she slipped, but that’s how primitive us girls, I mean there was none of these wimps or whatever, yeah. And actually they were good times, they were good times. The girls were a good bunch.

Michael Romyn: So Hamstreet was the first team you played for?

AR: The only team really. Well I say the only team, no, I did go to Ashford because when obviously Hamstreet got and Yellow Star, White Wanderers got too thin really, people were not playing. And then, I remember he was Ashford manager, Dickie Stevens was his name, and he asked my friend and I – there was about, no, three or four of us to join, he sort of picked out the ones that he wanted, but there was only two of us that went. I mean I was living at Ashford then, just before I moved here, so that must have been, when did I get married? I was twenty-four when I got married so I was playing here for quite a while.


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