Title
'That was the only time I’ve hit somebody': Playing football for Hamstreet Ladies
Subject
Jean Penfold
Description
An excerpt from a recording of an oral history interview with Jean Penfold. Jean recollects the team's home pitch at Ruckinge, and the preperation that went into it; the pitch's resident (and vicious) chicken; hitting an opposing (and vicious) player; and watching the first ever Women's FA Cup Final - then known as the Mitre Challenge Trophy - at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in 1971. Transcript attached.
Creator
Michael Romyn
Source
Jean Penfold Oral History Recording
Publisher
Kent's Sporting Memories
Date
Interview recorded on 25 April, 2019
Contributor
Jean Penfold; Michael Romyn
Rights
Kent's Sporting Memories
Relation
Jean Penfold Oral History Recording; Jean Penfold Oral History Recording Summary
Format
MP3
Language
English
Type
Sound Recording
Identifier
Jean Penfold
Transcription
Kent’s Sporting Memories Oral History Transcript (Excerpt)
Interviewee: Jean Penfold
Interviewer: Michael Romyn
Date: 25 April, 2019
Location: Jean Penfold’s home in Appledore, Kent
Recording Time: 1:03:00– 1:11:24
Michael Romyn: What was it like playing for Hamstreet?
Jean Penfold: Lovely. Great, yeah. I mean it was fun because we used to have a minibus and nine times out of ten if it’s a minibus my husband drove it and took us to wherever we were going and, oh yeah, we went right up to Thanet and Maidstone. Ashford ladies wasn’t formed then cause Dickie Richardson, who was trying to form a ladies team, was trying to pinch all our players and other than that he wanted us to be named Ashford ladies but we wouldn’t, we said ‘no, we’re who we are, you get your own team up’. But then when our team, you know, finished, I think two of the girls actually went and played for Ashford, Pat McSporran and Annie Blythe, they both went and played. I think Anne, Annie still lives in Hamstreet now, she’s married with children, she lives in Hamstreet, but I can’t remember her other name. I had her phone number at one time but she lives in Hamstreet and she’s shorter than me – and as I say we were the midfield!
MR: Were there practices?
JP: Oh yeah we had practices and that, yeah, yeah. We of course had to prepare the pitch quite often cause we ended up playing in a field in Ruckinge, and it was a farmer’s field, and there was holes and we spent ages there sort of levelling it out and filling holes in and trying to get it playable, yeah.
MR: So you had to do it all yourself?
JP: Yeah, and I didn’t like playing on that pitch cause the farmer had got a cock bantam and he’d torment the lot – he would have a go at you, yeah, it was quite scary playing there. You thought, ‘he’s coming this little bantam’, and he was quite vicious. Yeah, he wasn’t very nice! But I played there and I don’t know who we were playing, we got a male referee who quite often refereed for us, well, for the ladies’ football, and that was the only time I’ve hit somebody! And I did, I actually hit her.
MR: What happened?
JP: Well, we were playing and all through the first half, and she didn’t like it because I was beating her to the ball, this woman, and if she could she got up behind me, she’d get up behind me and sort of go, like knee me in the backside, and I sort of just ignored it, I carried on, and I got the ball anyway so I carried on. Anyway, after half time, after half time we were playing and she did it again, and I thought, ‘I’m not having this’, and I turned round, and I grabbed her round the neck and went phwop! And the referee blew for a free kick, obviously, and he said, ‘I’m only giving you a free kick’, he said, he said, ‘because you’ve been very, very patient.’ So you could see what was happening and he was obviously waiting for the explosion! And that’s the only time in my life I ever hit anybody and lost my temper on the field.
MR: It sounds justified…
JP: Oh I did, I felt really satisfied, cause she wasn’t expecting it because she was up behind me and I turned around and went [punching noises]!
MR: Do you remember what her reaction was?
HC: No. I didn’t wait to find out, I thought it was a sending off, well it should have been a sending off, but he said ‘you’ve been very patient’.
MR: Do you remember what team that was against?
JP: No, I can’t remember, I really can’t remember. I mean it’s a long time ago isn’t it?
MR: What about the lines? Did you have to do the lines yourself?
JP: We had to get everything marked out, yeah, yeah. Actually we did have some quite nice friends and supporters who would help, you know, and we had several men who would come to be linesmen for us and, you know, Hamstreet ladies was quite respected in those days, yeah.
MR: Was there no opportunity to play on the men’s pitch?
JP: We did play on, we did play at Hamstreet to start with, then I think there was trouble with flooding and one thing and another, and I think they thought we ought to have our own pitch, so we had one up in Ruckinge, so – which we had to prepare because it was a pretty rough old field to start with, but we did it. And we also played once – again we prepared the pitch – do you know this area at all?
MR: Not very well.
JP: Well if you go out of Hamstreet as if you’re going towards Ashford, do you know that?
MR: I think so.
JP: Under the railway bridge, and you come to a crossroads, you go straight on at the crossroads, it’s a crossroads and that’s called Sugarloaf – there’s a field on that corner, and we had to prepare, and we played on that a couple of times and we had to get that all levelled out, you know, divots filled in and we played on that a couple of times, and I think, you know, the club was starting to slow down then so, yeah.
MR: What was the name of the team?
JP: We were White Wanderers to start with and then we became Yellow Star, I think we then changed to yellow shirts, that’s, but we were all white to start with, that’s why we were White Wanderers – everything was white, you know, so, and then I think we ended up with black shorts and yellow shirts.
MR: Do you know where you got your kit from?
JP: The football kit shop!
MR: Why the switch from white to yellow?
JP: I don’t know, I can’t remember, I really can’t remember. I did have a Yellow Star; I did have a badge but I don’t know what I’ve done with that. And again it’s – the booklet for the cup final, I just don’t know where that is, you know, cause it’s got all the teams in it that took part, you know over the whole country. And I really can’t – but it was called the Mitre Trophy at the time. That was at - that was held at the Crystal Palace, and I mean at the Crystal Palace, not at Selhurst Park, but actually up in the grounds of the Crystal Palace, the cup final.
MR: Do you know what year that was?
JP: No.
MR: In the seventies?
JP: Must have been, yeah, I mean, and it was, it was between Southampton Ladies and a team from Scotland, Stewarton Thistle, and that’s all I can remember.
MR: That was the final?
JP: That was the cup final. Mitre cup it was called. And I also had to tell a little man in front of me, I had to tap him on the shoulder – he’s got his wife and family with him, and he’s saying ‘of course, they only do this, that ball is so much lighter, they don’t do…’, and I went, ‘excuse me’, he went [gestures], ‘that ball is the same weight as the men’, and I said ‘we play to exactly the same rules’, I said ‘except for in a league match,’ I said, ‘if you want to play thirty-five minutes instead of forty-five, so long as both teams agree, you can do that.’ And I said, ‘and also, the only other one was, we’re allowed two substitutes, not one’, because in those days the men were only allowed one substitute, I said ‘the ladies are allowed two substitutes’, I said ‘other than that the pitch is the same size, the ball’s the same size and weight,’ I said everything’s the same, the rules are the same! I had to put him right.
MR: Did you get much of a condescending attitude?
JP: Oh, yeah, yeah. You did, I mean quite often you got sort of – people weren’t, I mean you didn’t always get a good turnout for people to watch you, you know, because it was still quite young, you know – well comparatively young. Bit people were a bit, you know, but we didn’t take any notice. We just played on.
--Ends--
Interviewee: Jean Penfold
Interviewer: Michael Romyn
Date: 25 April, 2019
Location: Jean Penfold’s home in Appledore, Kent
Recording Time: 1:03:00– 1:11:24
Michael Romyn: What was it like playing for Hamstreet?
Jean Penfold: Lovely. Great, yeah. I mean it was fun because we used to have a minibus and nine times out of ten if it’s a minibus my husband drove it and took us to wherever we were going and, oh yeah, we went right up to Thanet and Maidstone. Ashford ladies wasn’t formed then cause Dickie Richardson, who was trying to form a ladies team, was trying to pinch all our players and other than that he wanted us to be named Ashford ladies but we wouldn’t, we said ‘no, we’re who we are, you get your own team up’. But then when our team, you know, finished, I think two of the girls actually went and played for Ashford, Pat McSporran and Annie Blythe, they both went and played. I think Anne, Annie still lives in Hamstreet now, she’s married with children, she lives in Hamstreet, but I can’t remember her other name. I had her phone number at one time but she lives in Hamstreet and she’s shorter than me – and as I say we were the midfield!
MR: Were there practices?
JP: Oh yeah we had practices and that, yeah, yeah. We of course had to prepare the pitch quite often cause we ended up playing in a field in Ruckinge, and it was a farmer’s field, and there was holes and we spent ages there sort of levelling it out and filling holes in and trying to get it playable, yeah.
MR: So you had to do it all yourself?
JP: Yeah, and I didn’t like playing on that pitch cause the farmer had got a cock bantam and he’d torment the lot – he would have a go at you, yeah, it was quite scary playing there. You thought, ‘he’s coming this little bantam’, and he was quite vicious. Yeah, he wasn’t very nice! But I played there and I don’t know who we were playing, we got a male referee who quite often refereed for us, well, for the ladies’ football, and that was the only time I’ve hit somebody! And I did, I actually hit her.
MR: What happened?
JP: Well, we were playing and all through the first half, and she didn’t like it because I was beating her to the ball, this woman, and if she could she got up behind me, she’d get up behind me and sort of go, like knee me in the backside, and I sort of just ignored it, I carried on, and I got the ball anyway so I carried on. Anyway, after half time, after half time we were playing and she did it again, and I thought, ‘I’m not having this’, and I turned round, and I grabbed her round the neck and went phwop! And the referee blew for a free kick, obviously, and he said, ‘I’m only giving you a free kick’, he said, he said, ‘because you’ve been very, very patient.’ So you could see what was happening and he was obviously waiting for the explosion! And that’s the only time in my life I ever hit anybody and lost my temper on the field.
MR: It sounds justified…
JP: Oh I did, I felt really satisfied, cause she wasn’t expecting it because she was up behind me and I turned around and went [punching noises]!
MR: Do you remember what her reaction was?
HC: No. I didn’t wait to find out, I thought it was a sending off, well it should have been a sending off, but he said ‘you’ve been very patient’.
MR: Do you remember what team that was against?
JP: No, I can’t remember, I really can’t remember. I mean it’s a long time ago isn’t it?
MR: What about the lines? Did you have to do the lines yourself?
JP: We had to get everything marked out, yeah, yeah. Actually we did have some quite nice friends and supporters who would help, you know, and we had several men who would come to be linesmen for us and, you know, Hamstreet ladies was quite respected in those days, yeah.
MR: Was there no opportunity to play on the men’s pitch?
JP: We did play on, we did play at Hamstreet to start with, then I think there was trouble with flooding and one thing and another, and I think they thought we ought to have our own pitch, so we had one up in Ruckinge, so – which we had to prepare because it was a pretty rough old field to start with, but we did it. And we also played once – again we prepared the pitch – do you know this area at all?
MR: Not very well.
JP: Well if you go out of Hamstreet as if you’re going towards Ashford, do you know that?
MR: I think so.
JP: Under the railway bridge, and you come to a crossroads, you go straight on at the crossroads, it’s a crossroads and that’s called Sugarloaf – there’s a field on that corner, and we had to prepare, and we played on that a couple of times and we had to get that all levelled out, you know, divots filled in and we played on that a couple of times, and I think, you know, the club was starting to slow down then so, yeah.
MR: What was the name of the team?
JP: We were White Wanderers to start with and then we became Yellow Star, I think we then changed to yellow shirts, that’s, but we were all white to start with, that’s why we were White Wanderers – everything was white, you know, so, and then I think we ended up with black shorts and yellow shirts.
MR: Do you know where you got your kit from?
JP: The football kit shop!
MR: Why the switch from white to yellow?
JP: I don’t know, I can’t remember, I really can’t remember. I did have a Yellow Star; I did have a badge but I don’t know what I’ve done with that. And again it’s – the booklet for the cup final, I just don’t know where that is, you know, cause it’s got all the teams in it that took part, you know over the whole country. And I really can’t – but it was called the Mitre Trophy at the time. That was at - that was held at the Crystal Palace, and I mean at the Crystal Palace, not at Selhurst Park, but actually up in the grounds of the Crystal Palace, the cup final.
MR: Do you know what year that was?
JP: No.
MR: In the seventies?
JP: Must have been, yeah, I mean, and it was, it was between Southampton Ladies and a team from Scotland, Stewarton Thistle, and that’s all I can remember.
MR: That was the final?
JP: That was the cup final. Mitre cup it was called. And I also had to tell a little man in front of me, I had to tap him on the shoulder – he’s got his wife and family with him, and he’s saying ‘of course, they only do this, that ball is so much lighter, they don’t do…’, and I went, ‘excuse me’, he went [gestures], ‘that ball is the same weight as the men’, and I said ‘we play to exactly the same rules’, I said ‘except for in a league match,’ I said, ‘if you want to play thirty-five minutes instead of forty-five, so long as both teams agree, you can do that.’ And I said, ‘and also, the only other one was, we’re allowed two substitutes, not one’, because in those days the men were only allowed one substitute, I said ‘the ladies are allowed two substitutes’, I said ‘other than that the pitch is the same size, the ball’s the same size and weight,’ I said everything’s the same, the rules are the same! I had to put him right.
MR: Did you get much of a condescending attitude?
JP: Oh, yeah, yeah. You did, I mean quite often you got sort of – people weren’t, I mean you didn’t always get a good turnout for people to watch you, you know, because it was still quite young, you know – well comparatively young. Bit people were a bit, you know, but we didn’t take any notice. We just played on.
--Ends--