When women got too big for their boots

Lily Parr. Remember the name, particularly because she should never have been forgotten in the first place, writes Liam Mackey.

There was a time, during and after the first World War, when this “tall lass” from Lancashire was one of the best-known footballers in England, a prolific striker with such a rocket of shot that she once broke a crossbar and, on another occasion, responded to the taunting of a professional male goalkeeper by taking a penalty against him – and breaking his arm.

When Lily wasn’t breaking wood and bone she was breaking taboos – she liked a Woodbine and a brown ale and lived openly for most of her life with her partner Mary.