Leah Caleb

Leah became interested in football at infants school where she joined in games with the boys before joining a girls team when she was 11 years old.  The ladies team won the league in 1970/71.  The team was run by Harry Batt who was also involved in national football and at 13 Leah played in Sicily and Mexico representing England.  The national team trained at RAF Henlow and were called the British Independents because there was no affiliated national team at the time.

On arriving in Mexico for the World Cup tournament the team were treated as celebrities.  They had two weeks preparation before the tournament.  The first game was against Argentina in the Azteca stadium holding 114,000 people.  The game against Mexico resulted in some injuries to the team because of the physical nature of the Latin game.

Leah’s idol was George Best.  The Women’s Football Association in England banned the team from playing and Leah was banned for 3 months.  Harry was banned from running a women’s football team for life but he predicted that one day Arsenal would have a ladies team.   Leah continued her career, finishing at Biggleswade.  She played for 22 years and appeared on The One Show.