I might sound like Victor Meldrew but I can’t believe it! The shameful decisions to end FA Cup replays and the exclusion by the ECB of Sussex Women from the top tier of English cricket

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 24th April 2024)

I’m told that I am rapidly turning into Victor Meldrew, grumbling and complaining at the smallest incident that annoys me. On Saturday, I was unable to find the stream for a rugby game from Cape Town that I had been looking forward to watching. Apparently, according to my wife and daughter, I kept muttering: “I don’t believe it”. The daughter’s boyfriend even called me Victor, thus making us two peas in a pod. I finally found the stream on BBC Wales but the commentary was in Welsh. My mood wasn’t helped by my beloved Stormers being beaten by the Ospreys from Cardiff.

In mainstream sport, there have been two decisions taken in recent weeks that have put me in Victoria-Meldrew-on-steroids mode. These decisions demonstrate that both football and cricket are run for the benefit of elite clubs rather than for all.

In football, the Football Association and the Premier League have decided that no longer will there be replays in the FA Cup.  There was no consultation with Football League, National League or grassroots clubs for whom the competition represents not only their best opportunity to create life-long memories for supporters but also a hugely important source of income. FA Council members were not consulted about the changes.  The decision, and the way it was taken, demonstrate a total lack of respect for the football pyramid and its fans. Football belongs to all of us and decisions should not be taken in back room deals in which only the very wealthiest clubs are allowed to participate.

Those behind this decision are the clubs that compete regularly in European football competitions. They complain that there are too many fixtures and, for them, the FA Cup is a minor irritation, especially in the early rounds when they run the risk of slumming it with the likes of Yeovil Town, Crawley and Stoke City. After all , what sums up the FA Cup better than a replay on a cold Tuesday night in Stoke?  Even worse, the foreign-owned clubs might get drawn away against a non-League side. My fantasy fixture would be either of the Manchester teams, City or United, being drawn away at The Dripping Pan to face the Mighty Rooks, Lewes FC. A replay could mean that their pristine grounds being contaminated by teams from the lower leagues and, worse still, plebs like me who support the likes of Lewes.

In cricket, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed last week the eight First Class Counties who have been successful in their bid to be awarded Tier 1 women’s team status from 2025: Durham, Essex, Hampshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Somerset, Surrey, and Warwickshire. Joining them, by 2027, will be Glamorgan and Yorkshire, who have been named as the first two Tier 1 expansion teams. Sussex and Kent, who have done so much to nurture women’s cricket in this country, have been excluded. As longstanding Sussex supporter Steve Hanson said, “Sussex were the forerunners for women’s cricket” and that “we staged matches when no-one was interested and now they don’t want us.”

The decision on who to include was not taken on cricketing performance. Had this been so, Sussex, led so well by Georgia Adams, would have definitely been included. They have won the Women’s County Championship six times since 2003 (twice as many championships than the Sussex men have ever achieved), and have won the Women’s Twenty20 Cup twice in the 15 years of that competition. Last year, playing as the Sussex Vipers, coached by the former England captain Charlotte Edwards, they won the Rachel Heyhoe Flint Trophy and retained the Charlotte Edwards Cup.

The ECB has announced that First Class Counties like Sussex, who were not awarded Tier 1 status, will now be involved in a process to determine the composition of Tier 2 and Tier 3 which will also involve National Counties (i.e. not First Class Counties) in the new-look women’s domestic competition structure.  But what is as egregious as the decision to exclude the likes of Sussex and Kent, is the decision that for the duration of the 2025-2028 seasons all three tiers will be ‘closed’, with no promotion or relegation.  How ridiculous and how protectionist it is that the favoured few will be guaranteed a spot in the elite Tier 1, no matter how poor their cricket and how deserving the winners of Tier 2 might be.

Clearly merit is not something the ECB cares about, and women’s cricket will be the poorer for this shameful decision.

Lewes Women: relegated from the Women’s Championship but the club continues to be a beacon of enlightenment in women’s sport and a challenge to the football hierarchy

Yesterday (21st April 2024), a record league crowd of 2,614, packed the Dripping Pan for the final home game of the 2023/24 season to watch Lewes Women against Crystal Palace. The Rooks needed a draw or a win to have any hope of avoiding relegation, and Palace a win to all but secure the championship and promotion to the Women’s Super League.

But it was not to be with Lewes losing 2-0. Congratulations to Crystal Palace and best wishes for next year in the best women’s league in the world. But for Lewes, next season will see us in the Southern Premier League, with trips to Plymouth, Cardiff and Oxford.

I can’t express the level of my disappointment and sadness, for the players and staff, and all the loyal supporters who stuck with the Rooks through a difficult season. It could have been so different. In at least least three games we conceded equalisers in the 90th minute or later, thus squandering six points. Worst came at league leaders Sunderland where we squandered a 3-2 lead to lose 4-3 with goals in the 94th and 95th minutes. 

Lewes signed a number of exciting players over the last year or so, not least our keeper, Sophie Whitehouse. But it says something that she was regularly named as our player of the match. There was also Maltese international, Maria Farrugia, who was named Barclays Player of the Championship for March, not a bad achievement for someone playing in a team struggling in the relegation zone.  I always enjoyed the combative approach taken by Hollie Olding and Lois Heuchan. I wonder how many of these players, and the squad as a whole, we will be able to retain for next season.

But there was something missing. The team didn’t always gel as a unit and seemed to lack some imagination in its football in a league where the standard of play improved faster than that of our team.

Lewes FC has brought something special to the Women’s Championship and to women’s football as a whole. Equality FC – the clubs commitment to equality between our women and men’s teams (equal pay, equal access to facilities, marketing, etc.) – continues to be a beacon of enlightenment in women’s sport and a challenge to the football hierarchy. It inspired me to become a co-owner and an enthusiast for everything the club stands for.

What will remain as we contemplate football in the third tier of the English game, is the spirit of the club personified by the enthusiastic support that the team gets week-in, week-out. For most of us, we have stuck with the team through thick and thin, and we will be there when the new season commences. And as an eternal optimist, back-to-back promotions to the Championship and then the Women’s Super League over the next two years is an exciting prospect …! COYR!

Level Playing Fields: Why transwomen, those born male, should not be allowed to participate in women’s sport

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 7th February 2024)

In the United States, today is National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Its purpose is to break the sex stereotypes built around the sports industry, to assert that women belong in every aspect of sport.

Regular readers will know of my support and enthusiasm for Lewes Football Club. I was so inspired by the club’s equality agenda that, along with over 2,500 others in more than 40 countries, I became a co-owner.  Lewes FC was the first and remains the only professional or semi-professional football club in the world to have equality between their men and women’s teams: equal playing budgets, access to facilities, marketing budgets, and so on. This is what has been called #EqualityFC.

This approach just seems fair. Advancement of women’s sport is happening in England thanks to football’s Lionesses, rugby’s Red Roses, and the women’s cricket team, to mention but a few.  In individual sports there have been some exceptional women athletes such as Denise Lewis, Jessica Ennis-Hill, and Brighton’s Sally Gunnell.

The former swimmer, Sharron Davies, in her excellent book Unfair Play (written with Craig Lord) catalogues the systematic doping of swimmers from the former East Germany. Because of their drug-fuelled enhanced performance Sharon was denied a gold medal in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. She lists others who were denied medals and thus the life-opportunities and financial rewards that would have followed Olympic success.

There is widespread acceptance that the East Germans cheated their way to swimming success. Some of their gold medalists have offered to return their medals so that clean athletes could receive them and get the belated recognition that they deserve. Yet the Olympic authorities have failed to act. Sharron says it is too late for some British swimmers like Ann Osgerby, June Croft and Jackie Wilmott who have all sadly passed on.

It is fairness which makes me opposed to the inclusion of trans women (those born male) in women’s sport. Women have fought long and hard to get their sport recognised, in media coverage and in rewards. But if trans women had been allowed to compete against Lewis, Ennis-Hill and Gunnell, they almost certainly would not have secured their Olympic gold medals.

Men and women’s sport is different because men and women have different physiologies. The former Olympic swimmer, Nancy Hogshead-Makar has compared the physiologies and performances of the US swimmers, Missy Franklin and Ryan Lockte. Both are multiple Olympic and world champions. Both have had first-class training, coaching and support. Both are 6’2” with 6’4” ‘wingspans’. Both hold world records in 200 meter backstroke. Ryan’s best time is 1:52:96 while Missy’s world record is 2:04:06. Missy’s best would have placed her 50th in the US men’s Olympic trials. This is similar in track and field, and in other sports.

When trans women who have been through male puberty are allowed to compete in women’s sport, in an echo of East German swimmers, they have an unfair advantage that is likely to rob women of their success, recognition and financial reward. And in contact sports it can be dangerous. For example, a male of equal weight and height to a female can punch 160% harder.

If a 6’6” trans woman was allowed to play rugby, even against the top women rugby players like Marlie Packer and Abby Dow, the risk of injury would be great. How long would it be before the wonderful Red Roses were dominated by players who have benefited from male puberty?

The developmental biologist, Dr Emma Hilton, and Dr Tommy Lindberg, an exercise physiologist, concluded in a joint peer-reviewed research paper: “The biological advantage, most notably in terms of muscle mass and strength, conferred by male puberty and thus enjoyed by most transgender women is only minimally reduced when testosterone is suppressed by current sporting guidelines for transgender athletes.”

Hilton and Lindberg reported that even after a year’s hormone-reduction therapy, the expected 5% drop in muscle mass in trans women resulted in a negligible loss of muscle strength and they remain much stronger than any of the women they wish to compete against.

For these and other reasons, I cannot support trans women competing in women’s support. There is an alternative, a third category in which trans women can compete against each other. However, it is notable that where this has been trialled, the event has been cancelled due to a lack of entrants. It is also notable that trans men (those born female) have never sought to compete in men’s sport where they would have a huge physiological disadvantage.

This is not about prejudice. It’s simply about fairness.

I have morphed from being a ‘fighter pilot’ at work to gently walking with penguins on deserted beaches

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 31st January 2024)

I recently read an account, apocryphal I suspect, about an Airbus 380 on its way across the Atlantic. Flying consistently at 800 km/h and at a steady altitude of 30,000 feet, a Eurofighter, capable of flying at twice the speed of sound, suddenly appeared. The pilot of the fighter jet slowed down and flew alongside the Airbus. The Eurofighter pilot greeted the pilot of the Airbus 380: “Airbus, boring flight isn’t it? Now have a look here!”

He rolled his jet on its back, accelerated, broke through the sound barrier, rose rapidly to a dizzying height, and then swooped down almost to sea level in a breathtaking dive. He looped back next to the Airbus and asked: “Well, how was that?” The Airbus pilot answered: “Very impressive, but watch this!”  The jet pilot watched the Airbus, but nothing happened. It continued to fly straight, at the same speed. 

After 15 minutes, the Airbus pilot radioed: “Well, how was that?” Confused, the jet pilot asked, “What did you do?”  The Airbus pilot laughed and said: “I got up, stretched my legs, walked to the back of the aircraft to use the toilet, then got a cup of coffee and a Danish pastry from the galley.”

The moral of this story, which I lifted from Facebook, is: when you’re young, speed and adrenaline seem to be great. But as you get older and wiser, you learn that comfort and peace are more important.

My last day of employment before I retired was a year ago today. Having worked long hours , including at weekends, for the better part of 40 years, few of my former colleagues at the housing and homeless charity, BHT Sussex, believed that I would simply stop. They thought I might join a board, do some voluntary work or mentoring, or take on some consultancy work. But I had no desire to do anything other than stop. Yes, I have this weekly column and most weeks I visit an old acquaintance who is now in a care home, but I have no other commitments. And it is great.

Walking on deserted beaches has been a highlight of my retirement

Over the last 12 months I have read many more books than I have ever read in a year. Molly the dog has been walked to the point of exhaustion, and I have caught up with old friends. I went to South Africa where I spent time with family, walked with penguins around my ankles, and explored deserted beaches up the barren west coast of that beautiful country. I sorted out some long term health issues including having a cataract operation and a hernia repaired. I have stopped eating bread and reduced my carbs intake, meaning my diabetes is better controlled.

My wife can’t believe that there has been so much sport that I really had to watch on television, including South Africa winning the Rugby World Cup for a record fourth time, the Cricket World Cup, and the Lionesses in the Football World Cup. With my friend and former colleague, Kim, I have been to watch the Albion on a few occasions, and with another friend, Robert, I’ve watch the Mighty Rooks, mainly Lewes FC’s women’s team. My leaving present from BHT Sussex was membership of Sussex County Cricket Club, a thoughtful gift which was much appreciated and fully utilised. Only Stoke City’s poor form has been a source of perpetual disappointment.

The contrast between my former life and these last 365 days could not have been greater. I loved almost every day of my 37 years working for BHT Sussex. I was younger, worked at pace, and adrenaline saw me through periods of extreme exhaustion. I was fortunate to have worked with many inspiring, principled colleagues, both on the staff and on the BHT Board. Most of all, the work that we did, changing lives for the better, was so rewarding. This work included supporting people to get into recovery from addiction and those with mental health problems to gain greater control over their own lives. Each year we prevented hundreds of households from becoming homeless and helped rough sleepers into accommodation.

While I loved my time at BHT Sussex, I am no longer a ‘fighter pilot’. I gave it my all and am proud of the contribution I made. Others are continuing the great work of that organisation. I have kept my distance, not wanting to cast a shadow over the work of my successor, David Chaffey.

For me the Third Age is full of promise and excitement, with so many things to do and so much to explore.  

EqualityFC 2.0 makes the case for paying women footballers at Lewes FC more than their men

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 4th October 2023)

In 2017 Lewes Football Club shook the football world by deciding that their men’s and women’s teams would receive equal resources – equal playing budgets, access to facilities, marketing, and so on. It was the first professional or semi-professional club in the world to do so, and it remains the only club to do so. It was a bold and clear, even revolutionary, statement saying that sex equality in football is possible.

EqualityFC, as this approach is known, was the vision of Ed Ramsden and his friend, Charlie Dobres, who are both former directors of the club.  Since then, Lewes Women have gone up a league and now play in the Women’s Championship, the second tier in English football. The men’s team has also been promoted to the seventh tier of the men’s game. Attendance has greatly increased, as has sponsorship and gate receipts. As Charlie Dobres says: “EqualityFC has indisputably worked.”

But Charlie says that EqualityFC has reached “a fork in the road”. What it does next is important because what Lewes FC does really matters in the world of football. “It boils down to if you think that the club’s move to equal playing budgets was a destination or instead a starting point along the way?” Given that the women play at an elite level – it is one of the top 24 teams in the country – why are the women not paid more?

Charlie argues powerfully that “female footballers are unfairly disadvantaged by their sex irrespective of ability or achievement, and we want to end that disadvantage.”

EqualityFC made a practical and emotional difference throughout the club, not least to the women players. It inspired hundreds of people, myself included, to become co-owners. There are now 2,500 owners in over 40 countries around the world. Many people are shocked when they learn that in 1921 women’s football was banned in England and in many other countries. That ban was not lifted until 1971. This historic inequality, and the sexism that persists in the game today (and throughout society, of course), means that the men’s game has been allowed to reap all the benefits and rewards that it enjoys to this day.

In 2016 Ed Ramsden said that men’s football dominance was “more a function of it having been systematically given nearly all the money and attention for many decades than any innate human preference for men’s sport.”

Charlie explains that “EqualityFC was affirmative action designed to help female footballers redress as fast as possible that gaping inequality.”

As for that ‘fork in the road’, Lewes FC has the opportunity provided by better TV deals, sponsorship and external investment to “take the road untraveled by any club in the world,” as Charlie describes it, “to enable its women’s team to now receive a bigger playing budget that its men’s. This would enable the team to compete and progress in an ever-stronger league.  To not  do so would restrict the team and its players’ progression. It would mean that EqualityFC be interpreted to act as a block on the female players” which was never the intention. Quite the opposite.

That is why we need what Charlie Dobres calls EqualityFC 2.0. The shared benefits for the men and women might not come at the same time. Investment in the women’s team will, in due course, result in further revenues which will benefit the men.

EqualityFC has done no harm to the men’s team. In fact, they have benefited from the increased revenues enjoyed by the club including the increased sponsorship generated by the club’s ethos. Both the men’s and women’s team have benefited from the new playing surface thanks to a £750,000 grant from the Premier League for which the club was eligible because the women play at an elite level.  As an advertising board at the club’s ground, The Dripping Pan, proudly states: “Equality is a rising tide that lifts all boats.” When women benefit, so do men.

The club is now considering if and how the women’s team can benefit from external investment. As a consequence, the men’s team will also benefit. While there are some who are wary of this external investment, I and many other owners see it as an exciting opportunity for the club to achieve its aspirations. 

There are still some who refuse to recognise the historic disadvantage experienced by women footballers.  In response Charlie Dobres quotes Simone de Beauvoir: “…her wings are cut and then she is blamed for not knowing how to fly.” He says that EqualityFC 2.0 will allow Lewes FC to soar.

The Lionesses were wonderful, not so much the media, FIFA, the Royal Family, Nike, and that oaf Gianni Infantino

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 23rd August 2023)

Sunday was a day that started with such high expectations. By midday reality had closed in. England’s brave Lionesses had lost 1-0 to Spain in the final of football’s World Cup. We are to have no new tales, to be recalled in years to come, of the ultimate achievements of Lauren Hemp, Alessia Russo, Ella Toone or Chloe Kelly. However, that penalty save by goalkeeper Mary Earps – Mary Queen of Stops – will live long in the memory but even that will not dull the disappointment of the defeat.

The Lionesses have nothing to be ashamed of. They delighted and inspired, just as they did last summer when new generations of people, particularly young girls, were won over to the Beautiful Game. Many of the current players are young enough to be there for the next World Cup, the one after that, and even the one after that! They will come back even more determined, to borrow from that awful song, to bring football home.

The legacy of 2022 and 2023 will last long, and increased crowds can be expected at games played in the Women’s Super League and in the Women’s Championship. In Sussex we have Brighton and Hove Albion in the WSL and Lewes Women in the Championship. Last season Lewes broke all records in its home FA Cup tie against Manchester United Women.

But all is not well in football, with the women’s game continuing to play second fiddle to the over-paid and underperforming players in the men’s game. Even at the World Cup there were some glaring shortcomings in how the women’s game is treated, by the world game, kit manufacturers, royalty and broadcasters.

The disparity in prize money between the two World Cups, men and women, remains a scandal, yet the entertainment, to full houses and to huge television audiences, has been, arguably, better.

The head of FIFA, that oaf Gianni Infantino, patronised women in the game, telling them that they needed to “pick the right fights”. He said that “with Fifa, you will find open doors. Just push the doors.” As Charlie Dobres, one of those behind the #EqualityFootball initiative at Lewes FC, said, Infantino is “out of touch” and “FIFA put the doors on and FIFA needs to remove the f…ing doors.” Charlie continued that “massively backing the women’s game is not only not a threat to the men’s game, it will help build and heal it.”

Nike has not covered itself in glory, refusing to make replica kits of Mary Earps’ England shirt. Can you imagine Nike or any other maker of England kit not making replicas for the men’s side? So popular is Mary Earps that her Manchester United keeper’s jersey with her name on it has sold out in many sizes, even at the ridiculous price of £105. 

There was some unhappiness that no member of the Royal Family went to Sydney for the final, while the Spanish team had the support of Queen Letizia and her 16 year-old daughter, Infanta Sofia.  Even the good luck message from Prince William was disappointing, sitting alongside his daughter but neither of his sons, giving the unintended message that the women’s World Cup was for girls not boys.

The argument might be made that the cost and environmental impact of travelling half way around the world for a football match could not be justified, but that didn’t seem to apply when it came to other, male, sporting events such as the men’s football World Cup in South Africa in 2010.

There was some uncertainty until a couple of months back whether we would even be able to watch the games live as no television broadcasting rights had been agreed with several western European countries including the U.K.  In the event a deal was struck and we were able to watch this wonderful spectacle of sport, the dramas, the highs, the lows, and our wonderful Lionesses.

Can you imagine broadcasters going to wire had it been the men’s World Cup? Of course not. And even now, the broadcasters didn’t send full presenting teams to Australia and New Zealand until the Final itself. The commentaries for several games were clearly not coming from the stadia but from commentators back in the U.K. 

But when all is said and done, it was a fantastic World Cup. Congratulations to Spain. The Lionesses were marvellous, Sarina Wiegman should become prime minister, and my love for the women’s game has been enhanced.

If you want more women’s football, Lewes Women take on Southampton at The Dripping Pan in Lewes this coming Sunday (27th August 2023) at 4.00pm.

Mary Clarke: The Forgotten Suffragette

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 22nd March 2023)

Women’s History Month is celebrated in March each year. Over recent times there have been moves to recognise the achievements Brighton and Hove women, from the earliest suffragettes, early women physicians like Louisa Martindale (after whom the new wing at the Royal Sussex County Hospital has been named), women involved in sport such as Clare Connor, Sally Gunnell, and the magnificent women at Lewes FC.

Maquette of Mary Clarke by Denise Dutton (photo credit: Andrew Hasson)

There is one woman in particular who should be recognised and lauded by the City. She is Mary Clarke, the Brighton organiser of the Women’s Political and Social Union. She was a quiet, modest woman who never sought the limelight, but who was fearless in the face of male aggression.

She was assaulted and arrested on Black Friday in 1910 when police officers physically and sexually assaulted suffragettes outside Parliament. She was imprisoned in Holloway, went on hunger strike and was force-fed. She was released from prison two days before Christmas 1910 and died at the home of her brother on Christmas Day from a brain haemorrhage, probably caused by her treatment at the hands of the authorities.

There is a local campaign to have the life of Mary Clarke recognised by a statue, ideally in the grounds of the Royal Pavilion Estate where she and her fellow suffragettes held their meetings. Brighton and Hove has two statues of named women. Both of them are Queen Victoria. Now must be the time for a statue for Mary.

The Chair of the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal, Jean Calder, explains why recognising the ‘forgotten suffragette’ is so important: “Mary was the first suffragette to die for women’s right to vote, yet there is no public memorial for her anywhere in the country. 

“Despite her sacrifice – and the fact she was Emmeline Pankhurst’s sister and close companion – she is not even one of the fifty-nine suffrage campaigners commemorated on the plinth of the 2018 statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square. The names of her sister and her three Pankhurst nieces, Christabel, Sylvia and Adela, are there. There are even three named men. But Mary’s name is absent.

“Though Mary was known for her gentleness and was not physically strong, she was extraordinarily brave. At a time when domestic violence was condoned and divorce a matter of shame, she had escaped an abusive marriage during which she experienced  destitution and homelessness. Thereafter she dedicated her life to the struggle for women’s suffrage.”

Fast-forward to 2023 and another group of pioneering women have made a comeback. In the late 1970s and early 1980s it was rare to find all-women music groups. This was the era of punk, New Wave, and Two Tone music. In Brighton a group of lesbians called, at different times, the Devil’s Dykes, Bright Girls and, latterly, Siren, rehearsed at the old Resource Centre, performed at The Richmond, The Marlborough, and at venues in London and Amsterdam.

Their presence proved to be a threat to many men, and they were frequently the target of male violence, sometimes after gigs while packing their equipment into their van. Some men, it seems, had a problem with all-women groups and, particularly, an all-lesbian one.

After many years, Siren have reformed and now perform regularly. The story of Siren, as pioneering women, musicians and lesbians, has been told in a documentary that can be seen on Latest TV. Siren have just released a new album, Under the Bridge, which is being formally launched on Friday 31st March at The Brunswick in Hove. 

Their music is unashamedly political: pro-women, pro-lesbian, anti-pornography, pro-environment, anti-war, and anti-capitalism.

One track on the album is The Ballad of Mary Clarke, commemorating the life of Mary. 12.5% of the proceeds from the sale of the album is being donated to the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal.

At this point I should declare multiple interests: I am a trustee of the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal, and am married to the Chair of the Appeal. My sister, Jude, is the keyboard player in Siren and her wife, Debs, is the drummer. As for the magnificent women at Lewes FC, I am a proud co-owner of the Club (along with 2,300 others in 40 countries).

As for the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal, we are making slow but steady progress. We have raised about a third of what we need. We have commissioned the sculptor, Denise Dutton, to produce a maquette which can be seen until the end of the month in the foyer of the Jubilee Library.

The eventual site for the statue is still a matter for discussion but one day Mary will be honoured and will no longer be the forgotten suffragette. For more information please see our website: https://maryclarkestatue.com

Jean Calder will be giving a talk about Mary Clarke tomorrow (Thursday) at 1.00pm in The Dome.

Can Brighton and Hove Albion do it on a cold rainy Tuesday night in Stoke?

(This item was first published in the Brighton Argus on 22nd February 2023)

Next Tuesday evening Brighton and Hove Albion will hope to make it through to the quarterfinals of the FA Cup when they take on Stoke City in the Potteries.  The Albion should win. After all, they are the form team hoping to secure a place in Europe next season. Meanwhile, Stoke City are in a relegation battle near the foot of the Championship.

A cold rainy night in Stoke

But can the Albion “do it on a cold rainy Tuesday night in Stoke?” This question was originally asked of Lionel Messi amid speculation as to whether he could shine in English conditions. 

For a Premier League club, this is the worst of all draws, away to a lower league team. And over the years the Potters have been a bit of a bogey team for the Seagulls.

The clubs have played each other 41 times since their first meeting in 1958 (a 3-0 win for Stoke). Stoke City have won 16 times and the Albion have emerged victorious in just nine games. The remaining 16 ties ended in draws. The last time Brighton won was 11 games ago, in September 2001. 

Since then, Stoke have won eight times and two games, in the 2017/18 Premier League season, ended in draws with an aggregate score of 23 goals for Stoke and six to the Albion.  The clubs have met just once before in the FA Cup, in February 2011, when Stoke City won 3-0 in the 4th Round.

So, you might ask, why am I such an anorak regarding this particular rivalry? I have been a lifelong supporter of the once Mighty Potters. When growing up in South Africa, when all my friends began supporting Manchester United, Chelsea or Liverpool, the only two places in England I had heard of were London and Stoke-on-Trent (where my dad was born). Since there was no London United or London City, I opted for Stoke City who were, at the time, flying high near the top of the table.

Loyalty to a football club runs deep. Yet there is so much I dislike about Stoke City – the use of the song ‘Delilah’ as one of the club anthems, its ownership by a betting company, and the misery its results have caused me for these past 50 years or more (with fixtures against Brighton being the exception).

So, how will it go next Tuesday evening? Filled with all the optimism that characterises your average Stoke City supporter, I predict a 2-0 win for Brighton. I just hope that the result won’t be worse than that.

A defeat for Stoke is an unhappily familiar experience, but I won’t be too disappointed given that it means Brighton progressing as I have a soft spot for the Albion. I enjoy my occasional visits to the Amex with my friends Kim or Robert. I watch the Albion whenever they are on television, and I am loving their style of football and the spirit within the team.

This coming Sunday, I will be at a different FA Cup 5th Round clash, between Lewes Women and Cardiff City Ladies at The Dripping Pan in Lewes. The Rooks have never made it this far in the competition and, unlike Stoke City, should progress to the quarterfinals where we would hope the draw will see one of the Women Super League teams, perhaps Manchester United or Manchester City, coming to the Pan, their equivalent of ‘a cold rainy Tuesday night in Stoke’.

If you have never watched a game at The Dripping Pan, there are two games this weekend.  Come along. On Saturday Lewes Men take on Billericay Town (kickoff 3.00pm) and on Sunday it is the Lewes Women’s FA Cup game (kickoff at 2.00pm).

Lewes FC has been in the forefront of a campaign to get equal recognition, and prize money, for the men and women’s FA Cup. In the next week, the winner of the Brighton v Stoke game will receive £225,000, while the winner of the Lewes v Cardiff City Ladies game, or the Cup games between Chelsea and Arsenal, Manchester United and Durham, or the Albion Women against Coventry United Ladies, will receive just £20,000.

The overall winners of the men’s FA Cup will receive £2 million, while the women’s FA Cup winners will receive just £100,000. 

And before anyone begins to talk about entertainment and value, anyone who attended the Women’s Euro games at the Amex last year, or who watches the imperious England Lionesses as they extend their unbeaten run, will know all about quality entertainment and value. Women’s football is far superior to the moaning, overpaid rich boys who make up many Premier League clubs.

You won’t find me at Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford, or the Emirates. Give me the Dripping Pan or a cold rainy Tuesday night in Stoke any day.

(Update 27/02/23: Lewes Women beat Cardiff City Ladies 6-1)

(Update 28/02/23: Brighton beat Stoke City 1-0)

 

Football At Its Best: Women Leading the Way

The goals. The atmosphere. The result! What a wonderful evening at the Brighton Community Stadium as the Lionesses of England mauled the Grasshoppers from Norway.

My view as the seventh goal goes in against Norway

Nobody had forecast the 8-0 result. The Norwegian women were expected to provide a far greater challenge to the tournament hosts, England. For the home side, this was football at its best.

Please note, I didn’t say ‘women’s football’. I said football. Women don’t play a different form of the game. The pitch, ball and goals are the same size as when men play.

But there are differences. It is not that the England women are just more successful than their male counterparts. There are less histrionics from the women. The crowd is as passionate, yet less aggressive. The game itself is as exciting, just more goals! And why do we want to watch our teams play? To see goals and to win. The England women do this, and in abundance.

But on the downside, the women’s game continues to receive less investment, has a lower profile, and is undervalued in many quarters. 

Few women outside the top tier can afford to play as full-time professionals. All players in the top four tiers of the men’s game are fully professional. Some male players are paid obscene amounts, more than enough in a month to bankroll for a year the entire women’s team at some clubs.

The Euros are showing that, when women are allowed to play on the biggest stage, they attract capacity, passionate crowds, be it at Old Trafford or in Brighton. From a simple commercial perspective, they bring in a new cohort of fans who spend their money to get into the ground, who buy replica shirts and other merchandise, and who patronise refreshment concessions.

How short-sighted it is of those who run our biggest clubs that they are blind to such commercial opportunities offered by widening the support base for their teams.

Brighton and Hove Albion has invested in training facilities for its women’s team, and the team is now competing at the highest level in the Women’s Super League. Yet the club has exiled it to play its home games in Crawley, thereby reducing its potential support base. With some pride it recently announced that “at least two fixtures” will be played at the Amex next season. What do they want? A medal? A brass-band parade?

If you want to see an example of where equality between the women’s and men’s games exists, you have to look no further than Lewes FC.

Action at The Dripping Pan

12 years ago the club, on the verge of financial collapse, became 100% fan-owned. Five years ago it launched its #EqualityFC initiative, committing to split all resources equally amongst its women’s and men’s teams. The squads have equal playing budgets, same training facilities, same pitch, same marketing.

It was the first and is currently the only professional or semi-professional club in the world to have equality between their women’s and men’s teams.

How has this gone down with supporters? Since 2017, average women’s attendances have risen by 367%. Over the same period, the club increased the price of women’s ticket to the same level as for men’s matches, and still the supporters come in ever-increasing numbers.

This has had a positive impact throughout the club. Since 2017, average attendances at the men’s games have also risen, by 82%, and last season a men’s league match sold out for the first time in 70 years and a women’s game, against champions Liverpool, for the first time ever. Lewes won that game 2-1.

This summer, the Premier League Stadium Fund awarded the Lewes women’s team a brand new, state-of-the-art grass hybrid pitch with a grant of £750,000. Because the women’s and men’s teams share the same stadium, both teams benefit. A sign at the club’s Dripping Pan ground says: “Equality is a rising tide that lifts all boats.”

Women’s football was banned by the Football Association for 50 years, until 1971. It has taken time to recover but it is now in rude health. Even though I am South African, I am cheering on the Mighty Lionesses in the Euros. I was also delighted to see that Rebecca McKenna became the first Lewes player, the first Rook ever, to represent her country, Northern Ireland, at a major championship.

I am a proud co-owner at Lewes FC. There are over 2,300 of us, in 38 countries. Why not join us? And if you remain unconvinced, come to a game at the Dripping Pan this coming season? If you live in Brighton and Hove, it’s easier to get to Lewes than to Crawley!

Meanwhile, good luck to the Lionesses in tonight’s quarter-final against Spain at the Amex.

(This item first appeared in my ‘Brighton and `beyond’ column in the Brighton Argus on 20th July 2022)

Football is gambling with lives and it must stop

(This item first appeared in my ‘Brighton and Beyond’ column in the Brighton Argus on 8th June 2022)

When I was about eleven or twelve, while travelling home from school one Friday evening, I came across the ‘shell game’ for the first time. The shell game is an old conjuring trick where a pea is hidden under one of three identical shells, and they are then shuffled by the operator in plain view of the audience who have to guess which shell the pea is under. It can also be played with balls and cups.

On that Friday evening in central Cape Town, rather than shells, it was bottle tops. And it was not a magician entertaining.  It was a gang of conmen. The ringleader ‘allowed’ his accomplices to win a few rounds more than they lost, ‘winning’ for themselves a reasonable return.

What followed has haunted me for over 50 years. A labourer from the nearby docks, having just received his weekly wage, was on his way back to his hostel. He would have been a migrant worker, forced by the apartheid regime to leave his family hundreds of miles away, to work for 50 weeks at a time, often on the gold mines of the Transvaal or, in this instance, the docks in Cape Town.

Within five minutes he had been cleaned out by the gang. He didn’t stand a chance as he was conned out of his meagre wages. Once his last Rand was gone, he pleaded, in tears, with the ringleader to return some of the money as he had nothing to send home to his family. The conman just laughed in his face and disappeared into the curious crowd that had gathered, leaving the victim, a grown man in his thirties, sobbing on the pavement, totally humiliated, broken and broke.

Since that day the idea of losing one’s money through gambling has made me feel sick in the pit of my stomach. I suppose I react like that because I am attracted by, and could have been susceptible to, the false seduction of a quick win. I do buy a lottery ticket most weeks and, like many others, I fantasised about what I would have done had I won the recent £186 million on the EuroMillions.

Gambling is a major cancer in our society, destroying lives, breaking families and impoverishing communities. 

A recent YouGov survey said that 1.4 million people in Britain are being harmed by gambling with a further 1.5 million at risk. Gambling advertising is in your face just about everywhere, not least in sport.

Half of all Premier League football teams have gambling companies advertised on their shirts. Meanwhile, the English Football League, the Championship and Divisions 1 and 2, are sponsored by Sky Bet, benefiting the clubs by £40m a year. Just about all sport on television is accompanied by saturation advertisements for gambling companies.

With my brother, Simon, his son-in-law, Nellis Myburgh, and grandson, Daniel Myburgh, at Newlands Cricket Ground, wearing our Stoke City shirts with their gambling adverts

The two football teams I support have contrasting relationships with the gambling industry. Stoke City, who I have supported all my life and who currently play in the Championship, is not only sponsored by a gambling company, but the company owns a majority stake in the club. The Chairman of Stoke City is a director of that company while his daughter is its founder, majority shareholder and joint chief executive. In October 2019, Forbes magazine estimated her net worth at $12.2 billion.  In 2020, she received a salary of £422 million with dividends of a further £48 million.

There certainly are a few winners from gambling.

Lewes Football Club, on the other hand, has led calls to “kick gambling advertising out of football.”  It points out that 450,000 11 to 16-year-olds gamble and that at least 55,000 are already addicted. It has refused gambling sponsorship money and, in 2019, was the first football club to sign up to ‘Gambling with Lives’, a pioneering gambling education programme. ‘Gambling with Lives’ was set up by families bereaved by gambling-related suicide and points out that “every day someone takes their life in the UK because of gambling.”

The Lewes FC men’s shirt with its ‘Gambling with Lives’ logo

The club put the ‘Gambling with Lives’ logo on the front of their men’s first team shirt as a statement against the saturation of gambling sponsorship in the game.

As part of the programme, the men’s first-team goalkeeper, Lewis Carey, shared his own experience of gambling harm. He became addicted to gambling as an 18-year-old shortly after signing his first professional contract.  He said that it took a severe toll on his mental, physical and financial wellbeing for several years.

The government is reviewing the Gambling Act 2005 to ensure gambling regulation is fit for the digital age. Banning advertising on football shirts is one measure it is considering.  My message to government is: “Just do it”.

For more information about ‘Gambling with Lives’ see their website http://www.gamblingwithlives.org