Around the Counties: The Only Way Is Essex

Essex County FA reports a thriving female game built on a Girls Centre of Excellence licence, one of only a limited number in England, accommodating nearly 80 players aged seven to seventeen in four hours of training a week plus weekly fixtures against some of the country’s top sides, with FA national scouts observing many games. A new girls’ section at Dunmow Rhodes in Uttlesford was started by Sarah Smith after taking her Level One, who argues that girls-only sessions leave players far more comfortable and that their confidence grows quickly once they realise they can play as well as the boys. The county also runs an open-age women’s representative team in the East Anglian Counties Championship, drawing players from the FAWPL down to the county league.