Manchester Bees
The Bees won promotion for the first time in 1954
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Arena: King's Hall, Belle Vue {3,000}
Colours: Olive, Cream & Burgundy
Coach: Thelma Blackman {1953-}
Honours: Promoted 1954
Most Appearance: 1 Oonagh Newman, Renée Hart,
Irene Elwet, Winnie Winters, Diana Green, Pat Entwhistle,
Geraldine Montahners {Cup tie 1954}
Most Goals: 1 Diana Green & Geraldine Montahners
{Cup 1954}
In a Season: 1 Diana Green & Geraldine Montahners
{Cup 1954}
In a Match:
1 Diana Green & Geraldine Montahners
vs Liverpool {15th May 1954 Cup tie}
Oldest player: Pat Entwhistle 40 {cup tie 1954}
Youngest player: Diana Green 17 {Cup tie 1954}
Record Victory: No Senior Wins
Record Defeat: 2-3 vs Liverpool {Cup tie 15th May 1954}
Record Attendance: TBA
Seasons:
1954 - Promoted from Minors
Diana Green
Centre
{Rated 1} Average
Age 18 {08/08/36}
Born: Manchester
Apps: 1
Goals: 1
Diana Green took up Gridball at school and joined her hometown Bees while training as a nurse. She has a good singing voice and is usually the first to be asked for a song at a hospital social.
For now, she fits training around her shifts and is preparing for Manchester’s first senior season at Kings Hall, Belle Vue.
Still only 17 when Manchester faced Liverpool in the Cup on 15 May 1954, Green scored one of the Bees’ two goals in a 3–2 defeat.
She and Geraldine Montahners share the club’s Cup scoring record as Manchester step up to the seniors.
Carol Barton
Sweeper
{Rated 1} Average
Age 28 {23/09/26}
Born: Saint-Omer, Pas Des Calais, France
New Signing
Previous Club
Thames
Apps: 14
Goals: 0 {1954}
Born to British parents in France, Carol Lilian Barton returned to England at the outbreak of war. Brought up bilingual, she read modern languages at Cambridge and joined Lloyds Bank after graduating in 1951.
That same year she began playing amateur Gridball for the Thames Lionesses, fitting training around her work at the bank.
Calm and observant on court, Barton made 14 senior appearances for Thames in 1954. Audrey Pertwee’s arrival from Middlesex prompted her move to Manchester, where she brings senior experience to a young Bees side preparing for its first season at that level.
January 1955
A new challenge for Barton, as Carol is departing Thames to join new team mates this season at Manchester
Geraldine Montahners
Attacker
{Rated 0} Squad
Age 29 {08/08/25}
Born: Huddersfield
Apps: 1 {Cup 1954}
Goals: 1
Geraldine Rosemary Montahners. Evacuated to Bognor Regis during the war, Geraldine moved to Manchester with her family in 1941. She went to work as a shorthand typist at her father’s telephone company.
Geraldine and Diana Green scored Manchester’s two goals in the 3–2 Cup defeat to Liverpool on 15 May 1954.
The Bees went on to finish third in the British Minor League and earn promotion.
Ruth Williams
Attacker
{Rated 0} Squad
Age 16 {12/01/39}
Born: Manchester
Ruth Williams joined the Bees from school and is one of three local teenagers in Thelma Blackman’s 1955 side, alongside Ann Blake and Jane Barrie.
With no recorded Cup appearances in 1954, Ruth goes into Manchester’s first senior season looking to establish herself at position 6 at Kings Hall, Belle Vue.
Jane Barrie
Right Guard
{Rated 0} Squad
Age 15 {16/06/39}
Born: Manchester
Jane joined her hometown Bees from school and goes into their first senior season as one of Thelma Blackman’s youngest players, alongside fellow school recruits Ann Blake and Ruth Williams.
Ann Blake
Left Guard
{Rated 0} Squad
Age 14 {01/06/40}
Born: Manchester
The daughter of a tennis coach, Ann Blake joined her hometown Bees while still at school. She’s the youngest of the three school recruits in Thelma Blackman’s 1955 side, alongside Jane Barrie and Ruth Williams, as Manchester prepare for their first senior season at Kings Hall, Belle Vue.
Oonagh Newman
Netminder
{Rated 0} Squad
Age 25 {05/08/29}
Born: Waterford, Ireland
Apps: 1
Raised in a convent after her family could no longer care for her, Oonagh came to England in 1945 after winning a Dublin beauty contest. She hoped to act, but when those plans fell through she took a job at Manchester Infirmary.
There she met Dr John Newman, whom she married. The couple are currently divorcing.
Oonagh kept goal for the Bees during their 1954 promotion campaign and played in the 3–2 Cup defeat to Liverpool. She goes into 1955 as Manchester’s goalkeeper for their first senior season at Kings Hall, Belle Vue.
Thelma Blackman
Coach
{Rated 0} Basic
Age 30 {13/01/25}
Born: Sydney, Australia
Playing career
Leeds
Apps: 1 {1952}
Played Right Guard
A child radio star in Australia, Thelma came to Britain in 1946 and spent three years on British radio before marrying a comedian in 1949. She made her Gridball debut for Leeds on 8 March 1952, then took maternity leave that month. Her son Robert was born later that year.
Blackman took charge of Manchester as player-coach in February 1953. The club backed her after the Bees missed promotion in her first season, and she took them up at the second attempt: third out of 30 in the 1954 British Minor League.
She now leads Manchester into their first senior season at Kings Hall, Belle Vue.
