Kicking the balls around

About 60 lesbian football players descended upon the Hunter Valley vineyards last weekend for a holiday of pure football love.
As if playing competitive football (a.k.a. soccer) and training together one night a week wasn’t sufficient team bonding, the women organised a trip away for the whole club.
And therein lies the success of The Flying Bats football club, which for 21 years has provided a safe and professional environment for lesbians to socialise and play football in.
And you don’t have to be a lesbian to join, according to one of the few heterosexual members of The Flying Bats, vice-president Tina King.
I was attracted to the club because it was so inclusive, she said.
I have always had a real sense of pride being here because it is such a caring group of women whose main focus is to simply play sport.
But it’s a great social network as well.
The Flying Bats club currently has four women’s teams playing within the North West Sydney Women’s Football Association league.
The women range in age from 18 to about 50, and are graded from beginners to advanced.
The club originated in Adelaide more than two decades ago and became The Flying Bats when some of the founding members relocated to Sydney.
The women, according to spokeswoman Anna Flynn, did experience some hostility at first, but over the years the success and popularity of the club have grown.
In the beginning it was very hard -“ they really came up against a lot of stick, she said.
These days we might get the odd comment from someone’s boyfriend on the side of the pitch, but it is very rare.
The soccer philosophy, according to the Flying Bats, is to play football, have fun, support your team-mates and display good sportswomanship.
The season runs from April through to August and teams play every Sunday for five months.
For more information go to www.theflyingbats.com or www.myspace.com/theflyingbats.