One-Two Magazine January 2014 | Page 15

LAUNTON LADIES & GIRLS F.C.

Launton Ladies FC is one of the oldest clubs in the country, having been established in 1968 by our founder Shirley Johnson.

The womens club has been playing within the Southern Region Womens Premier League for the last few years, the senior club for 2013/14 has had to take a year out due to a lack of local players. But we are building for 2014/15. In the meantime we have started Girls training for ages 8 to 14 years. The girls section is going from strength to strength and we want to build on more age groups

Children play for fun and we endeavour to provide a fun and friendly atmosphere for them at Launton Girls Football Club.

The incentive for us is seeing the children out playing sport and having fun. We charge a training fee of £2 and this is so we can cover pitch costs and obtain equipment when necessary. We do not make any profit on the girls football or take any expenses, all money goes back into the girls football.

The Girls

The girls football training has been a massive success and it has been the girls who have driven this. We started training in June and numbers are steadily increasing, with training sessions attracting upwards of 20 plus girls from ages 8 to 15 with the main age group being U12s. We only intended to start with U6s to U11s but how can you turn children away when they want to participate in sport?

We certainly look forward to training and the enthusiasm that the girls have shown at every training session and their enjoyment to play sport has been fantastic.

The turnout for training has been excellent and it was the girls who strongly requested that training continues over winter, and we have been very impressed with the commitment that they all have shown.

History

Shirley was a finalist in the MacDonalds Contribution to football Awards where she received an award from Sir Geoff Hurst at the Community Shield Match in 2012. Recently she was at the 150th FA Anniversary receiving an award from Prince William for her amazing achievement.

The girls enjoying the training sessions