"Two weeks ago we had to have the air ambulance for Grace. Somebody fell onto her." So says Michelle Hilbourne, first aider for Reading Girls rugby team, in a matter-of-fact tone. Grace, her daughter, plays at fly half but might move to the wing this season. "She was given morphine on the pitch and taken off in the ambulance, but she was fine. She's here now." And indeed when I catch up with Grace, she laughs off the "ambulance thing".
 | | Mum and first aider Michelle Hilbourne |
"That was playing touch rugby, not even full contact. Someone's knee went into my back. I couldn't move for about two hours. "I had a fit on the pitch because I'm scared of needles." Tough Grace found rugby by accident while throwing a rugby ball for her dog. Someone spotted her and asked if she'd considered playing - her family found the Reading Girls team and she's been playing for nearly two years. Her family all hold season tickets for London Irish, but did mum Michelle realise what she was letting herself - and Grace - in for? "We'd just paid a fortune for Grace's teeth to be done," she admits. "Then we turned up and thought, 'Oh my word, this is tough!' But they really love it." Grace says she never misses a session. Some of the team even turned up for six weeks of voluntary fitness training through the heights of this summer's heatwave.
 | | Reading Girls: ready for their brand new league. |
This season is a big deal for Reading Girls - for the very first time, they've got a league to play in. Granted, it's a small league, pitting Reading against representative teams from Oxfordshire, Bucks and Middlesex. But it's a huge step forward. Feeder clubs The team's assistant coach, Dave Edwards, told me it had been hard work. "We were quite involved on the touchline discussing a league with other clubs.
 | | Girls' assistant coach Dave Edwards |
"We've clubbed together with other teams across Berkshire to make a pool of players. Reading has now got more than half of the players in the Berkshire side. "Ideally what we want is for the four feeder clubs - Newbury, Reading, Bracknell and Slough - to become independent. Reading are just about there but the other clubs are not quite. "The idea is to work together to keep players interested and develop them,
then when clubs reach a critical mass - great, off they go." So there's room for the league to expand but, for now, the emphasis is on training before the season starts in October. Grace's team-mate Vicky says the team can't wait.
 | | Reading Girls players Grace (left) and Vicky |
"All of our team are looking forward to the league. Instead of having a game where it doesn't matter if you win or lose, this time we're working towards something. "We've played most of the teams before and won against them, so we're hoping to win our league." 'Not so many babies' As the girls finish their training session the adult ladies' team begin to arrive. Many of them are old hands since the ladies have had a team for 15 years. Luan Ferguson, 32, is in her eighth season with the team. She pointed out one of the more unexpected problems in fielding a ladies' side. "Over the years we've had various people leave through being pregnant. Now there's not so many babies on the horizon, so that's good!"
 | | The Reading Ladies team in training. |
At one stage the club lost eight players to pregnancy. But Luan, the only one of those eight to return to the team, says rugby is ideal for regaining fitness. "It's a good way of getting fit. Your body feels a bit different so you see it as a challenge, a need to get fit, it's for yourself. "Baby stays at home with dad and you come back to get yourself sorted out." Choice Meanwhile for Kate, fresh from university, this is her very first training session with her new club. "It's so hard finding a team," she tells me. "There are so many men's teams around here, but I didn't really have a choice who to play for. "You just have to be lucky enough to have a club near you."
 | | The Reading Ladies team. |
And luckily for Kate, in the absence of a Berkshire representative side, Reading Ladies are the top side in the county. It's a mentality already filtering through to the Girls. "I'm always running on the pitch looking after them," says mum and first aider Michelle. "They're mad, they really go for it. Sometimes you want to tell them to back off a bit, but it's commitment. They want to win."
To find out more about the club visit the Reading Ladies RFC website:
Reading Ladies RFC >
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