This week’s roundup also features tennis shots round the net post, Dutch football memories and Sepp Blatter at the Oxford Union
1) It’s the Women’s FA Cup final on Saturday, with a competition-record crowd expected – topping the 32,912 at last year’s Arsenal win over Chelsea. It’s still not likely, though, to beat the 53,000 crowd at Goodison Park in 1920 for the Dick, Kerr and Co ammunitions factory women’s side versus St Helens Ladies. Some 14,000 more fans were shut out – evidence of the huge continued post-first world war popularity of the women’s game. Here’s some silent Dick, Kerr’s footage: the players posing with the mayor before facing Ellesmere Port Cement Works; film of the team departing on their 1922 Canadian tour; players boxing during training; and some more training footage, which left Pathé News impressed: “‘Weaker sex?’ said the captain of the famous Dick Kerr women’s football team. ‘Not much weakness about us.’ Watching their training, we agreed.” The FA responded to the Dick, Kerr’s phenomenon with a defining ruling: banning women’s football at all its members’ grounds because: “Football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged.” The tone of Pathé commentary in the years that followed matched that spirit, showing what female players were up against – “After you Maud, and nice work by Gertie the goalie.” The ban was lifted in 1971.
Related: England women’s long, historic journey to meet Germany at Wembley
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