‘Soccer by Searchlight’: A century-old charity match
In 1920 the Dick, Kerr Ladies played one of the first floodlit games in the sport’s history raising money for ex-servicemen, writes ASIF BURHAN
The Dick Kerr Ladies team in 1921
ONE hundred years ago today, one of the earliest floodlit matches recorded on film was played on a Thursday night at Deepdale, Preston.
Two years after the Armistice ended the Great War, over 10,000 paying spectators raised over £600 for unemployed servicemen — and they came to watch two teams of women play football.
Titled “Soccer by Searchlight,” British Pathe described the occasion as a “novel game played for ex-service unemployed fund won by Dick Kerrs Ladies’ (sic) Football Team.”
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