Mary Blake, 69, won a bronze medal for an England Ladies team in 1969.
It was then ruled the sport was ‘quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged’.The records are yet to officially recognise Mary’s team, but she still sees the squad and their success as ‘part of the history’ of the Lionesses.
‘Although we’re not recognised, we’re still part of the history and our results are there for people to look at on Google… so that’s something I suppose.’Recalling her time at the first women’s European Championship, Mary continued: ‘When we were playing… we played in the biggest stadium in Italy at the time, Juventus’ stadium, and it was incredible.
‘I was only 16 years of age – we had big crowds then and it was on television, and we did get publicity when we came back – it was in the newspapers. ‘But it was all unofficial and our team still is unofficial – they’ve given caps to those from, I think, 1972 onwards – so for 69, 70 and 71, we’re the ‘unofficials’, so we’ve still not been recognised properly really.Mary, who now volunteers for the Women’s Royal Army Corps in her home town of Luton, continued: ‘My parents were so proud, my grandparents – it was in the newspapers so they thought it was wonderful and they encouraged me so much.
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