Title
'To me I feel as though I’ve helped': Joyce Thompson on playing football in a sheep field, and providing a sporting outlet for young women.
Subject
Joyce Thompson
Description
An excerpt of an oral history recording with Joyce Thompson. Here Joyce describes the problems - and the surprising benefits - of playing football in a sheep field, as well as the importance of her football league for many young women in Kent. (Transcript attached.)
Creator
Michael Romyn
Source
Joyce Thompson Oral History Recording
Publisher
Kent's Sporting Memories
Date
Interview recorded on 29 January, 2020
Contributor
Michael Romyn; Joyce Thompson
Rights
Kent's Sporting Memories
Relation
Joyce Thompson Oral History Recording
Format
MP3 (2:17); Microsoft Word Document
Language
English
Type
Sound recording; typed transcript
Identifier
Joyce Thompson
Transcription
Kent’s Sporting Memories Oral History Transcript (Excerpt 2)
Interviewee: Joyce Thompson
Interviewer: Michael Romyn
Date: 29 January, 2020
Location: Lydd-on-Sea, Kent.
Recording Time: 33:29-35:55
Joyce Thompson: Of course we had to buy our own nets, our own goalposts, and I had to buy the footballs, and then the corner posts.
Michael Romyn: Anne mentioned one of the pitches you played on was full of sheep…
JT: Yeah, that was about the best pitch there was – we had to have fish nets, fishing nets, because if the ball went in the ditch you had to dig it out with one of the fish nets. You know, it’s not a park – I used to get some teams complain about sheep shit and I said ‘well it’s not as bad as dog shit’, which was in the parks, and it’s not so harmful. It’s more pure!
MR: Did you have to remove the sheep shit?
JT: Yeah, we used to go and rake off what we could. As I said at one meeting I can remember, ‘Yeah but you can slide better on it’ – didn’t go down to well. But I just thought, when I was in the chair – there were eleven football teams, and I was keeping these girls off the streets, and also they were out in the – either getting wet through, or in all weathers, so to me I feel as though I’ve helped, if not much. It least it got them out in the fresh air and not stuck in a café somewhere, or getting up to mischief.
--Ends--
Interviewee: Joyce Thompson
Interviewer: Michael Romyn
Date: 29 January, 2020
Location: Lydd-on-Sea, Kent.
Recording Time: 33:29-35:55
Joyce Thompson: Of course we had to buy our own nets, our own goalposts, and I had to buy the footballs, and then the corner posts.
Michael Romyn: Anne mentioned one of the pitches you played on was full of sheep…
JT: Yeah, that was about the best pitch there was – we had to have fish nets, fishing nets, because if the ball went in the ditch you had to dig it out with one of the fish nets. You know, it’s not a park – I used to get some teams complain about sheep shit and I said ‘well it’s not as bad as dog shit’, which was in the parks, and it’s not so harmful. It’s more pure!
MR: Did you have to remove the sheep shit?
JT: Yeah, we used to go and rake off what we could. As I said at one meeting I can remember, ‘Yeah but you can slide better on it’ – didn’t go down to well. But I just thought, when I was in the chair – there were eleven football teams, and I was keeping these girls off the streets, and also they were out in the – either getting wet through, or in all weathers, so to me I feel as though I’ve helped, if not much. It least it got them out in the fresh air and not stuck in a café somewhere, or getting up to mischief.
--Ends--