March 11, 2013 8.01 am
This story is over 111 months old
Lincoln Ladies general manager hails watershed moment for women’s football
In the spotlight: Lincoln Ladies midfielder and general manager Megan Harris hopes March 8 will go down in history as a watershed moment for women’s football.
Lincoln Ladies midfielder and general manager Megan Harris hopes March 8 will go down in history as a watershed moment for women’s football.
The date may be universally recognised as International Women’s Day, but for the city’s Women’s Super League club, Friday provided a double boost that could see the sport attain newer heights.
The Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) have announced they will be admitting female players to its ranks from next season, but the celebrations do not stop there.
Lincoln will be leading from the front in showcasing their skills to a nationwide audience as the FAWSL, which kicks off with Lincoln taking on Bristol Academy on March 23, will be broadcast by the BBC in what is seen as a major step towards bringing in a more mainstream audience.
The broadcaster, following on from its survey that found four out of five British elite sportswomen believing they are underpaid, announced a bumper coverage package for the women’s game, with the FAWSL among a host of high-profile competitions on its schedule.
And midfielder Harris, who bagged the FAWSL’s goal of the season award for a thunder strike against Arsenal Ladies in June last year, felt it was about time the women’s game got its due rewards.
She said: “Today is a landmark day for women’s football, with both the BBC and PFA announcements. With the success of the Olympics, 2012 left the women’s game simmering, crying out for some sustained media commitment to catapult it into the mainstream. Today’s announcement does just that.”
Next season will be the first time in history that the all-male PFA will permit their female counterparts entry. It means all players who are registered with the Women’s Super League will become eligible to join the PFA.
They will also get a chance to mix in with the stars from the men’s game at the traditionally all-male annual PFA awards dinner, but Harris believes it is the principle of recognition that is of paramount importance.
Harris, whose five-member family are all involved in the game within Lincoln, added: “I know the PFA have been working very hard to get female footballers on board, and it is fantastic that we will finally be recognised by such a well established union.
“The recognition and support is what elite female players deserve and will allow the professionalism of the game to grow even more,” she added.
TV puts spotlight on women’s football
Meanwhile, the BBC will screen the women’s FA Cup final live on Sunday, May 26 and provide full coverage of the women’s European Championship in July, with many of Harris’ Lincoln team mates sure to be involved.
Following that, BBC Two will have four FA Women’s Super League programmes providing goals round-ups, highlights and features as well as looking ahead to England’s World Cup qualifiers, which will also be shown live on BBC.
BBC Two will also have two preview shows, fronted by Jacqui Oatley, on May 20 ahead of the women’s FA Cup final and then on July 8 ahead of the European tournament.
“The platform has been built over the last few years, and the potential growth bandied around by those in the know,” Harris said.
“The BBC agreement can now be the catalyst to take it to the next step and give it the commercial exposure it has been longing for.”
Following Friday’s announcement by the BBC, the Football Association’s Kelly Simmons hailed it as “a watershed moment for the game in England,” and Harris was in full agreement.
The midfielder, whose association with Lincoln Ladies goes back to its very inception, said: “8th March, 2013 will be talked about in years to come as a turning point in women’s football. Now it’s down for us to deliver on the pitch and I’m convinced it will go from strength to strength!”
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A 38-year-old man from a North Lincolnshire village charged with murder will face an eight-day trial later this year.
Emergency services were called at 4.23am on Saturday, July 2 to reports that a man was seriously injured on South Parade in central Doncaster.
The 28-year-old victim was taken to hospital but was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.
A post-mortem examination found that he died of injuries to his head, chest and abdomen.
Formal identification of the victim is yet to take place, South Yorkshire Police said earlier this week.
Steven Ling, 38, of Park Drain, Westwoodside in North Lincolnshire, has been charged with murder and was remanded in custody to appear at Doncaster Magistrates Court on Monday, July 4.
Ling later appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, July 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
No pleas were entered during the hearing, but an eight-day trial was set for November 28, 2022. Ling has now been remanded into custody until the next hearing.
The Lincolnite went on a ride-along with a Lincolnshire Police officer from the force’s Roads Policing Unit (RPU), which aims to disrupt criminals’ use of the roads and reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents.
The team will support the county response including local policing, neighbourhood policing and criminal investigation too.
Operations first began in Grantham in January this year and started in Louth earlier this week with a sergeant and nine PCs based in both locations.
The Lincolnite went out on a ride-along with PC Rich Precious from Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
PC Rich Precious has been a police officer for 22 years after joining the force in 2000 and he recently rejoined the Roads Policing Unit, working out of Louth.
PC Precious, who also previously worked as a family liaison officer for road deaths for 16 years, took The Lincolnite out in his police car to the A1 up to Colsteworth and then back to Grantham. He described that particular area as “one of the main arterial routes that goes through Lincolnshire”.
PC Rich Precious driving down the A1 up to Colsterworth. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Speaking about the new Roads Policing Unit, he said: “It’s intelligence led policing, it’s targeted policing in areas that have been underrepresented in terms of police presence, on the roads certainly, over a number of years.
“We’re hoping that the development of this unit will help address that balance, and look towards using the ANPR system to prevent criminals’ use of the road, and to identify key areas or routes where there’s a high percentage of people killed or seriously injured on the road, what we commonly refer to as KSI.
PC Precious is helping to keep the roads safer in Lincolnshire. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
When asked if he thinks the new team will help reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents in the county, he added: “That’s what the the unit designed for. Sadly, in Lincolnshire our road network does seem to incur a number of those KSI accidents year on year, and we need to reduce that.
“I’ve worked additionally in my roles as a family liaison officer on road death for 16 years, so I’ve seen first hand the impact that road death has on families and victims families.
“I know it’s important that we try and reduce those because, it’s very sad to see how a fatal road traffic collision can affect a family and the victims of that family.”
Marc Gee, Inspector for Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Marc Gee, Inspector for the Roads Policing Unit, told The Lincolnite: “Every day there will be officers on duty from both teams and they’ll cover the whole county or the county’s roads.
“Eventually, we’ll have nine police cars and we’ve got six motorbikes. We’ll be utilising them with as many officers as we can every day basically to make our roads safer and enforce against the criminals who feel like it’s okay to come into the county and use our road for criminal purposes.”
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones at the launch of the force’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
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