OLD girls play too® is here!

CREATING A “MOVEMENT” FOR “OLD GIRLS” TO GET ACTIVE AND PARTICIPATE IN RECREATIONAL SPORT.

Today, was a special day for me.  I received confirmation of the Intellectual Property for an idea that’s been nagging at me from 5 years ago, when I bought the website domain www.oldgirlsplaytoo.co.uk.  I’m actually quite proud that I did it all by myself!

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Since then, while I’ve been working on my real job and building up the Crawley Old Girls, I’ve been thinking about this campaign/project virtually non-stop.  I kid you not, it’s like an obsession.  I have a major passion for getting older women into recreational sport (especially football) and lived experience is why I’m now taking this campaign and running with it.  I have so much I want to do with it but I know it's going to take time.

Hence, OLD GIRLS PLAY TOO, my now registered trade mark!

When I founded the Crawley Old Girls (COGS) in 2015 and got it up and running, along with Amy Fazackerley, it was all about getting older women into playing football for the first time and coaching them to learn to play, without the competitiveness of league football.  That first session will live with me forever with how fun, engaging and just how joyful it was to be able to actually learn to play football having not been able to play as a girl, or woman for that matter, due to the FA ban. The following 7 days after that first session I really couldn't move properly after using muscles I hadn't used for decades but I couldn't wait to get back the following week! The last time I had participated in any kind of activity was a step class when I was 19, in the mid 80s.  Giving opportunities to play in a safe, non-judgemental, fun environment enabled us to engage with many women, inspire others and create the 6 sessions a week we now offer, for all abilities.  Three of those sessions are still led by the Crawley Town Community Foundation, where we set up the first of the sessions on 16^th April 2015, after funding from the Football League Trust, as it was known then. In the last 10 years, COGS has grown exponentially and has provided fun, non-competitive football opportunities for over 850 women, through sessions and festivals, as well as inspiring many others throughout the country.

The inaugural National Women's 30+ Recreational Football Festival held in Crawley, in 2018.

In 2024, I saw a graphic from a study conducted by Vitality, in partnership with the Well HQ and Women in Sport, which stated that only 4% of women engage in team sports.  I looked at the Sport England Active Lives Data Report and the figure is even lower for women aged 55-64, with only 2.7% of women active in team sports. With this in mind, it pushed me a little harder to think about how this could be improved upon and it confirmed, to me, that this campaign is needed.  It’s now becoming a reality, with the help of some special women whom I met at the wonderful SOOO London, in July 2025. They loved the concept and immediately said “Let’s do it!”

To have women like that, who bearing in mind I had only just met, was exactly what I needed.  They gave me valuable advice that I had no idea about, invested their own time in me and made me believe that this campaign was a believable one.  I will forever be grateful to them.  Thank you Lin & Kelly!  I’d also like to thank Charlotte Thompson and Faz for their time and advice, too.  Women really do support women.

It’s been a long time coming and although I never imagined starting up something new, in the year I turn 60, something in my head kept nagging at me to just do it and also, why not?! It definitely has a place in the recreational sport space.  We need more older women 40+ to know that they belong in sport and that getting active is so important for mental and physical wellbeing for life longevity and to reduce social isolation.  We all know the importance of being active and scientific evidence from the brilliant Professor Peter Krustrup, from the South Denmark University, proves that getting active playing recreational football leads to proven bone regeneration to improve osteoporosis. This is just one of the many benefits alongside those that help you navigate your way through peri-menopause and menopause.

We want to get the message out there to every women 40+ that getting active, in recreational sport, is for EVERYONE.   Recreational sport is not what you see on TV and women need to know that they can flourish at their own pace, whether they have been active before or not.

There are so many things I want to do with this campaign alongside my full-time work, which will hopefully end up with me doing this full-time!

I’ve written a blueprint for Old Girls Play Too “Play & Stay Clubs” and I really want to implement these around the country, although we will start locally first. I hope this will lead to the creation of a community of women 40+ who can believe that they belong in sport.

I’m just getting started and am finding my way around but if anyone wants to get involved with helping us to get more older women into recreational sport, please get in touch.  At the end of the day, I’m just your average woman in the street who knows just how much joy and all the incredible benefits playing recreational football has given me for over 10 years, as well as many other women. I want to share that lived experience, knowledge and enthusiasm and use it to get more women active. I also want to pass on the education re. the benefits of recreational sport, so please let me know if you can share proven snippets!

Old Girls Play Too CIC is now a “thing”, where I’m ready to navigate my way through it and tackle it head on.

I'm delighted that the following wonderful women are going to join me on the Board as Directors:

Vivien Moore

Sandra Rees

Jo Treharne

Lin Wilson

Here's to the first year of learning and building Old Girls Play Too! Let's go!

Concentrating on what on earth I'm going to do next! Credit: Simon Roe Photography.