What a fascinating article, NS.
You might find the following story interesting.
In 1969, after an education reorganization in Hull, I became a teacher at a Junior High School. As a keen sportsperson I was one of the teachers who coached a football team(this was when the Sunday League played second fiddle to school football). I was always interested in other games, especially badminton. So I and another teacher started our school badminton team. We used to practise every lunchtime, and one particular 14 year girl was so good(because of the reorganization, all the 14 year olds were ataying on an extra year before moving to their senior school) that I regularly played her at singles and had to really work hard to beat her. She was a lovely, pleasant, unassuming girl who was also good at all types of sporting activities, especially football. Unfortunately, in those days, girls' football teams were not allowed, and girls were not allowed to play in boys' teams so we could not make use of her undoubted talents.
I kept in touch with her off and on for sometime after she left(sometimes she would visit our school to see how we were all getting on) and I was really pleased at the progress she had made. In fact her progress was outstanding. Her name((unmarried) was Carol McCune,(later Thomas) and she became a fixture as England Womens' Football Captain.
This article outlines her illustrious career:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Thomas
