Granny and the Golden Suitcase

Steve Bolton tells the story of his grandmother Lizzy Ashcroft, who lined up for St Helens Ladies at 16 years and three months in front of 30,000. He first learned the scale of her career from Gail Newsham’s 1994 book In a League of Their Own, then in 2016 found a suitcase in a garage rafter holding some 200 photographs, and later two more containing her medals. He sets her eight games of the 1920-21 season, watched by a combined 85,000, against the FA ban formalised in December 1921, then the 5-1 win over Dick Kerr Ladies at Queens Park in 1923, her move to the DKL, Herne Hill in 1925, and the captaincy inherited from Lily Parr.