A blue plaque has been unveiled in Luton to honour the role that two trailblazing women’s football teams played in the history of the women’s game in England.
Despite a Football Association-enforced ban since 1921 on women’s football being played after professional grounds, Luton bus driver Harry Batt and his wide June set up Chiltern Valley Ladies FC, making Crawley Green Recreation Ground their home.
The ban would last for 50 years with the FA saying at the time: “the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged.”
But the Batts saw it differently. They were involved in forming the Women’s Football Association (WFA) in 1969 but there would not be an official England team until 1972.
Prior to this in 1967, the couple had formed the Chiltern Valley Ladies club in Luton and also put together an unofficial team of England players, largely from the Luton side.
Called the British Independents, to get around FA rules, the Batts took the team, now known as the Lost Lionesses, to the unofficial 1969 European Championships and the first-ever World Cup in 1970.
The following year, they travelled to the Mexico World Cup against the wishes of the newly-formed Women’s Football Association and so they were billed as Inglaterra (Spanish for England) and played against the hosts in front of a crowd of up 90,000 fans in the Azteca Stadium.
But upon their return, the players were handed six-month suspensions by the WFA while Batt was banned from football for life and his teams were disbanded.
Despite being airbrushed out of history until recently, the Lost Lionesses and Harry and June Batt set the blueprint of how women’s football could grow in England where the national team are revered as European champions, who heartbreakingly lost in the official FIFA Women’s World Cup final this summer.
To recognise the pioneering players of Harry Batt’s teams The FA, in collaboration with the Luton Heritage Forum at Luton Council, unveiled a plaque at Crawley Green Recreation Ground with members of the Chiltern Valley Ladies and British Independents teams in attendance. Harry’s son, Keith was also in attendance.
Former England international Kerry Davis, who herself played a pivotal role in the history of women’s football as one of the Lionesses’ top goalscorers and the team’s first Black player, was on-hand to unveil the plaque and meet with the honoured generation.
Baroness Sue Campbell, the FA’s director of women’s football, said: “The growth we are seeing across the game today wouldn’t be possible without the pioneers who laid the path to get here.
“This plaque honours the dedication of Harry and June Batt and all those who played for Chiltern Valley Ladies FC and the British Independents for blazing a trail for women’s football.
“Without their efforts to break down barriers all those years ago, the women’s game wouldn’t be where it is today and we are truly grateful for the passion and endeavours they showed.”
