UNITED'S SUCESSFULL LADIES ARE RIDING HIGH

Answer quickly: Which Oxford team today ranks highest in the football pyramid? Oxford United - yes, Oxford United Ladies, writes MARCOS ALVITO.

While the U's struggle in non-League and Oxford City compete in the eighth tier, United Ladies play in the fourth level of women's national football.

Formed in 2005/6, they were crowned champions in their first season, winning all 25 matches, in addition to the Thames Valley Cup and OxfordShire Cup.

The following year they were promoted again. Today they play in the Regional Southern Premier Division.

“I don't understand how people cannot play football. It doesn't make sense to me,” says Captain Kim Leslie Pringle, 24.

A tough and skilled defender, Kim had already played in the first division with Readind Ladies before joining Oxford United Ladies in the midst of their first season. She would love to play professionally.

“If you love football you would do anything to play all day, everyday.”, said Pringle, who graduated in Sports Science from Abingdon College and works for Oxford City Council.

The other players also work or study. They all come together to practice two nights a week, near Horspath Road Athletic Track.

Some travel one hour by train to be there.

Such dedication is also shown during matches, some playing with injuries.

They wash their kits, clean their own boots and reach into their own pockets to maintain the club.

Sometimes they drive themselves to away matches, leaving early in the morning and arriving home late at night.

Their manager, Paul Davis, has a UEFA B license, the same held by Chelsea's manager, Avram Grant.

He runs the club in a professional manner. The girls must arrive two hours before the match.

As they play on Sunday afternoons (kick-off at 2 pm), he has asked them not to go out on Saturday nights, a severe demand for a team composed mainly of under 25-year-olds.

Co-Captain and defender Katherine Boardman, 24, wears the yellow shirt proudly, not only as a player, but also a Oxford United diehard fan and season-ticket holder.
She learned to be a tough player practicing with her brothers and other boys, believes there is still prejudice against women's football but having the World Cup being shown on BBC has helped curb that.

Pringle is not so optimistic, though, as she said some men still ask if the girls play on a smaller pitch and are surprised by the fact that they play for the same ninety minutes!

However, Pringle is passionate about the game.

Why? As Kim puts it, in her straightforward manner: “It just gets you away from everything, you have to play, you just forget about everything.

For the 90 minutes that you play football, it is just football, there’s nothing else there.”

Marcos Alvito is a Brazilian anthropologist currently living in Oxford and writing a book on English Football Culture called The Queen in Boots: 200 days of English Football.

For more information about Oxford Ladies, visit http://www.oulfc.co.uk/.

P.S: This article was published on the Oxford Mail, October 26, 2007. I would like to thank Jon Murray for the invitation to publish.