Lowestoft Ladies Football Club was a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the List of extreme points of the United Kingdom, most easterly UK se ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. One of the top clubs in the country during the late 1970s and early 1980s, they won the

WFA Cup The Women's FA Challenge Cup is the top annual cup tournament for women's clubs in English football. Founded in 1970, it has been named the WFA Cup, FA Women's Cup, and now Women's FA Cup (currently known as the Adobe Women's FA Cup for sponsor ...

in 1981–82, but folded less than a year later after the league they played in was discontinued. Nicknamed 'The Waves', the club played at Lowestoft Town's Crown Meadow ground.

History

During Lowestoft's participation in ''

It's a Knockout ''It's a Knockout!'' is a British game show first broadcast in 1966. It was adapted from the French show ''Intervilles'', and was part of the international ''Jeux sans frontières'' franchise. History The series was broadcast on BBC1 from 7 Au ...

'' in 1970, competitors from the town's team began playing football together."Taking the Lowe road", ''

When Saturday Comes ''When Saturday Comes'' (''WSC'') is a monthly magazine about football, first published in London, England in 1986. "It aims to provide a voice for intelligent football supporters, offering both a serious and humorous view of the sport, covering ...

'', November 2021, pp28–29 The female players asked the team's organiser Geoff Frost to form a women's football team, which was established the following year. Under Frost and later Joe Annis, the club won the East Anglian League three seasons in a row, before moving up to the South East of England League. Julia Manning became the club's first player to be called up to the England squad in 1972.''Football She Wrote'', pp83–94 Lowestoft became one of the top teams in the country, featuring several current or future England internationals, including Debbie Bampton,

Linda Curl Linda Curl is an English former footballer who played as a midfielder or forward for the England women's national football team winning 62 caps and scoring 27 goals. At club level she won the WFA Cup with Lowestoft Ladies in 1982 and also with ...

, Vicky Johnson, Maureen Martin (captain from 1976 and 1981),

Angela Poppy Angela Poppy (born 19 November 1953) is a former England women's international footballer and Women's FA Cup winner. Club career Poppy's greatest achievement in her club career was scoring the winning goal in the 1982 Women's FA Cup final wit ...

and Jackie Slack.Lowestoft Ladies' incredible FA Cup final triumph remembered in new book
''The Lowestoft Journal'', 6 October 2021 A September 1976 match saw Lowestoft beat

West Ham West Ham is a district in East London, England and is in the London Borough of Newham. It is an inner-city suburb located east of Charing Cross. The area was originally an ancient parish formed to serve parts of the older Manor of Ham, a ...

27–0, with 14-year old Curl scoring 14 goals. They won the South East of England league title in three consecutive seasons, and in 1978–79 reached the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

of the WFA Cup, losing 1–0 to

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

. Three years later they reached the

again under manager Stewart Reynolds, this time beating Cleveland Spartans 2–0 at

Loftus Road Loftus Road, currently known as MATRADE Loftus Road Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Shepherd's Bush, West London, Greater London, England, which is home to Queens Park Rangers F.C., Queens Park Rangers Football Club, w ...

with goals from Curl and Poppy. However, shortly after the club won the cup, the South East Regional League folded. After the club were rejected by five other leagues due to Lowestoft's location as the most easterly point of England, they were offered a place back in the East Anglian League but turned it down due to the difference in standard with their potential opposition. Most of the first team players subsequently left the club and in their first competitive match in the

1982–83 WFA Cup The 1982–83 WFA Cup was an association football knockout tournament for women's teams, held between 10 October 1982 and 8 May 1983. It was the 13th season of the WFA Cup and was won by Doncaster Belles, who defeated St Helens in the final F ...

, fielded reserves and youth players as young as 12, losing 7–0. The club soon folded, less than twelve months after winning the cup. Five of the club's former players would go on to feature in Norwich Ladies' 1985–86 WFA Cup winning side, which was managed by former Lowestoft player Maureen Martin. They were Curl, Johnson, Slack, Kate Purdom and Sallie Jackson. A new Lowestoft Ladies club was established in 1995 but ceased to exist the following year. Another reincarnation as Lowestoft Town Ladies was founded in 2005, but folded in 2017 due to lack of players.Chris Slegg, Patricia Gregory (2021
''A History of the Women's FA Cup Final''
p71

Honours

*WFA Cup **Winners 1981–82 *East Anglian League **Champions 1972–73, 1973–74, 1974–75 *South East of England League **Champions 1975–76, 1976–77, 1977–78, 1978–79

References

{{reflist Defunct women's football clubs in England 1971 establishments in England Association football clubs established in 1971 1983 disestablishments in England Association football clubs disestablished in 1983 Defunct football clubs in Suffolk Sport in Lowestoft

History

Honours

See also

References