Hawick United Ladies

Around 2016/17 a young lady called Gemma Fletcher put an advert on Facebook saying that she was keen to set up a lady’s football team in Hawick.

Ever enterprising and forward thinking, I spoke to the United committee of the time and suggested that the club should get involved. It would be good for the town and good for the club. I met with Gemma to try and get an understanding of what it was she was trying to achieve. Gemma said she knew of quite a few girls who were interested in playing but she didn’t know how to go about setting it up.

The club agreed that it would be good to get involved so I started to meet regularly with Gemma to get things started. We had meetings with Club Sport Roxburgh, a representative from the ladies S.F.A., radio Borders and a few others who were already running lady’s teams. To get things off the ground and acquire strips etc. we had to fundraise. Initially, Coopers Bar, United’s’ sponsor at the time, agreed to help. We held various fund-raising activities, the ladies were excellent at it, and eventually we had enough to get them started. To begin with it was difficult to get games for the ladies to play in. Apart from Gala Fairydean Rovers, who had run a lady’s team for a while, there were no local teams to play against. Initially the ladies just wanted to play for fun but after one or two friendly outings against teams from the Edinburgh area and northeast England, they wanted to join a league.

Gemma had heard that a gentleman called Wullie Frew, was interested in helping to coach them. We met with Wullie, and he was fantastic. Although they never won any of their friendly games, the difference once Wullie started coaching was almost immediate. I wrote to the ladies S.F.A. and told them that we had started a team in Hawick, and they were interested in playing league football. There is no league in the Borders and the ladies had to join an Edinburgh and district league. Although called Edinburgh and district, the district bit was a bit misleading, and the ladies travelled the length and breadth of the Lothians and the west of Scotland to play their football. Around about this time, late 2017, it was becoming too much for me to handle administratively on my own. Wullie said he knew of someone who had helped at Hawick Youth and was up on all the relevant paperwork requirements etc. And so, Laura Delaney came on board. She was fantastic and took over from me seamlessly. The travelling was taking its toll on finances. The ladies contributed weekly, but another fundraiser was needed. Laura suggested a friendly against one of the Scottish professional teams and too our delight she arranged a game with Celtic Ladies. This took place in December 2017 at the 3G in Hawick where the ladies played their home games. The crowd that day was fantastic and lots of money was raised to help fill the coffers of the ladies. Hawick United had been helping significantly but we started to take more of a back seat and the ladies started to run themselves. It was difficult to begin with as the standard of football at league level was way above anything they were capable of.

However, as their first season progressed, the performances improved, and they even managed a couple of draws. Might not seem much but the ladies celebrated those draws like they had won the league. United’s involvement was becoming less and less, and the ladies decided that they wanted full control, and, by mutual agreement, we went our separate ways.

The club does not for one minute regret being involved with the ladies. In fact, the opposite is so. I/we are very proud of the part we played in setting up the first ladies’ team in the borders to play league football, albeit at a lower level. Gala Fairydean Ladies have run a lady’s team for a while but never at league level. The Hawick girls played a couple of friendlies against Gala, and such was the improvement they had made, the Hawick girls won them comfortably. After the split, the ladies changed their name to Border Ladies A.F.C. They had by this time quite a few girls from outside Hawick playing with them and they wanted the teams name to reflect this. Sadly, the travelling and financial implications eventually took their toll and ultimately led to their demise. It’s a real pity as they had some talent in their side and a couple of the girls went continue to play in the Edinburgh league. They have had a couple of clubs along the way but Chloe Hislop form Hawick and Katie McKinnon from Selkirk, now play for Musselburgh Ladies.

Hawick United Ladies by Douglas Leithead - October 2023