Fri 19 April 2024, 09:00
Tottenham HotspurToday (19 April) marks the 30th anniversary of the sad passing of Sue Sharples, one of the founder members of our Women’s Team - and it feels significantly poignant that we’re playing the biggest game in the team’s history just a few days before.
Had it not been for the foresight, dedication and commitment of Sue, a lifelong Spurs fan and employee of the Club for 11 years, it’s likely that we wouldn’t have watched Tottenham Hotspur Women beat Leicester City in the semi-finals of the FA Cup and seeing us progress to the final of the competition for the first time.
Along with her good friend Kay Brough – who has worked at the Club for 33 years now – Sue started Broxbourne Ladies in 1985 after the team they previously played for, East Herts College, folded. Keen footballers and advocates of the women’s game, the pair created the new team and played in local regional leagues while enjoying the social aspect of running a team.
By 1991/92, with both of them working at Spurs and playing in a kit kindly donated by our then-kitman Johnny Wallis, they managed to help persuade the Club to let them take on the name and so permission was granted. Sue and Kay played for Tottenham Hotspur Ladies – as it was then – in their first-ever season of 1991/92, Sue a midfielder while Kay donned the goalkeeper’s gloves.
While continuing to run the Women’s Team from top to bottom, they played for the reserve side when it was established the following season, but tragedy struck on the evening of 19 April 1994. While playing in a club staff kickabout at the indoor ball court at White Hart Lane, Sue collapsed and died during the game. She was just 32 years of age.
Sue had been our Membership Secretary since December 1991 when she left the Ticket Office where she was secretary to the Manager, having started there as a clerical assistant in September 1983. A dedicated, loyal employee and an integral part of the Spurs family, her passing sent shockwaves through the Club.
“It took a long time to get over Sue’s death and even now, I’ll see or hear something that will bring back memories of her,” explained Kay. “It was such a huge shock at the time. She was always fit, always running around the pitch. No-one could believe it when it happened.”
Another string to Sue’s bow was her attention to detail and she was a huge fan of Pat Jennings, to such an extent that she meticulously compiled all the statistical information for his autobiography he released in 1982 and the match programme for his testimonial benefit at Windsor Park, Belfast, in 1986.
“She was just a young girl when I first met her, she would be there waiting after matches and after training as she was such a big fan of mine,” Pat revealed. “She had an incredible collection of memorabilia and information on my career, documenting all my games for my clubs and Northern Ireland, it was amazing.”
In the lead up to Pat’s testimonial, Sue wrote to hundreds of his former team-mates and famous names within the game, receiving an incredible collection of letters in reply all praising Pat, which he still has to this day.
“Sue was such a down-to-earth person, I couldn’t believe that she took the time and effort to write to all those people and for them to all reply to her, it was amazing really.
“I’ll never forget her funeral, it was incredible. Thousands of people turned up to pay their respects to Sue and it just showed the number of people’s lives that she touched.”
Following Sue’s death, Kay continued to push on with Tottenham Hotspur Ladies. New people came on board including Glenn Weaver, who became Chairman in 2000, along with his sister Val Weaver and June Clarke, and he continued to develop and grow the teams during this time with enthusiasm and passion.
The Women’s Team continued to climb the football pyramid, eventually winning promotion to the Women’s Super League in 2019 and now, we are set to feature in our first-ever FA Cup final next month and an appearance at Wembley Stadium. All stemming from the efforts of Sue and Kay all those years ago.
“Sue would be so proud, as am I,” added Kay. “I can still picture us in her front room discussing how we would start up a new team and what we needed to do to get it up and running. Yet, here we are, having played in the semi-finals of the FA Cup at one of the best stadiums in the world.”
“Sue was such a driving force behind it all and it will be such an emotional day. It’s lovely that the Club are honouring her today and it’s great that her family was there to see what has been achieved from where we started."
