It was back at April’s Committee meeting that Ken Masters informed us that a new Rovers Women’s football club was being set up and it would come under the auspices of the Community Trust. They were looking for sponsorship of £5,000 and would we be interested in coming on board. The response was a unanimous yes; it would complement our existing sponsorship of the Development Squad and the Academy perfectly.
The “Gas Girls” as they have always been known were initially formed in 1998, starting out in the South West League and in 2005 Bristol Rovers Women’s FC became known as Bristol Academy WFC under a new partnership agreement with South Gloucestershire and South Stroud College. In 2011 the club changed its name to Bristol Academy WFC and finally became Bristol City Women’s Football Club in 2015.
A successful application was made to enter two sides (a first team and a Development side) into the Gloucestershire County Women’s League, the seventh and lowest tier of the women’s Pyramid. Our first team were placed into Division One and our Development side were placed into Division Two as the league expanded from two divisions to three.
A very busy summer of recruitment followed. Firstly Nathan Hallet Young was appointed coach to the first team and Abbie Jones as coach to the Development side. A series of trials were held at their home, Lockleaze Sports Centre, as over 100 girls were put through their paces before two squads were finally put together.
We were determined that we would not be the type of sponsor that hands over a cheque and then disappears into the background. Our secretary lives locally and has been a regular visitor at training sessions and games and our website and social media accounts are full of items promoting the girls. Working closely with Mavis and his team at the Community Trust has been an absolute pleasure. The girls too are a pleasure to work with always happy to help in any way that they can and sent four teams to our recent Quiz Night.
On the pitch they have certainly hit the ground running. Both sides have won all five of the games they have played so far and sit proudly at the top of their respective leagues. The honour of scoring that historic first goal fell to Hannah Thompson who managed to better that feat by scoring the first hat-trick a week later beating Jen Atherton to it by a matter of minutes. Two hat-tricks in the same game, a feat our men’s side have achieved once in 136 years of history.