Old story gets new ending

Silly sausages get cooked

The post that sparked the story of the week on the women’s sport internet

If you’re anything like me, you have successfully trained the algorithm to serve you up women’s sports. Every now and then, when I find a new code, it might get a bit confused and try and show me men playing but my engagement soon puts it right.

That is to say, yes, I have probably seen the internet story of the week. Which this time headlined some silly sausages at Thornaby FC. Not to be confused with Thornbury FC, who had to put out a statement once things went viral.

These sausages at Thornaby had got together and in their infinite wisdom, decided that the only way to save their club from financial strife was to kick out women and girls. The sausage to really burst it’s casing, was Trevor Wing. Who I know nothing about but in my head looks like this.

Trevor and da booooiz.

So Trevor got a pack of the other sausages sizzling on the board, to go against the wishes of chair, Gary Morris. Who by all accounts is not a sausage but an actual, reasonable, man. These sausages thought they were cooking as they voted for the women’s and five junior girls teams to be removed. But it was out of the pan and into the fire for the lot of them.

That sausages sit in boardrooms being sexist is the least surprising thing in the world to me. I’m still having to wade my way through a sausage fest at every turn. Ask a women you know who is involved in sports and she’ll tell you a story about the sausages she’s been served up in her time. Chances are she will have endured a whole buffet.

No, the sausage isn’t the story, the sizzle is. It’s how about hot the grilling is that they now face. This is where the new ending to this old story is written.

The internet, for all it’s downside, has been a key factor in the growth of women’s sport. Users find their community and content finds it’s audience. All of this activity has visible metrics attached which makes the famous line from of the old story “nobody cares” a tired joke.

The Thornaby Women’s section knew this when they made their post in the wake of the decision. Sharing with their community, ensuring the content found it’s audience. From here, virality was all but assured. Just look at those little girls faces in the post at the top, how dare anyone crush their dreams. Optics are bad, feelings are big. Outraged is guaranteed.

So the internet did it’s thing and then another plot twist followed.

Sausages might not know much about anything but pork, beef and guts but there’s been a series of events that even I, sitting here at the bottom of the world, have noticed. That of course is the roar of the England Lionesses. Who were very unlike English football when they actually won something, the Euros, in front of a record crowd.

They have then built this success into movement at home, bolstered by an appearance in a World Cup final. They’ve sold out club memberships, packed out stadiums and most importantly for this story, made certain players household names. So when Beth Mead, MBE, adds her two cents to the conversation, it ensures the story is carried from social media across to the mainstream.

At that point, the sausages are eaten alive. Thornaby FC now only have one move left, withdraw and apologise. Which they do, dropping the sausages from the board and walking back their decision. One that would never have been tabled had the boardroom been built with a window, to shed some light or perhaps provide just a glimpse of the outside world.

One thing women in sports have been skilled at for years is making the most of a crisis-tunity. So the happily ever after of this story is the women are now fundraising off the back of this palaver. No, it’s not a sausage sizzle, they are instead selling t-shirts. You can buy one here, all the proceeds go to the women and girls the club didn’t want.

What’s the beat that ends up bringing in more cash than Thornaby FC could have ever dreamed of? Silly sausages.

With you,
Alice