FOOTBALL odds were stacked Himalayan-high against Bishopthorpe housewives Jacky Featherstone and Lyn Gordon.

Perhaps even more ill than that proverbial parrot, they were heartily sick at their youngsters shivering on the sidelines unable to get the chance to play the game.

So the doughty duo decided they would do it themselves. Jacky and Lyn opted to team up to form their own junior football club.

Resistance was robust. From damning verdicts that they would never reach their goal when previous attempts had failed, to encountering opposition from other clubs, an uphill slog was the prospect for the up-front pair.

The duo remain undaunted, however. They refused to be discouraged, not even by the fact that both confessed to not even liking football.

They made tea and baked buns which they sold to raise club funds. They organised a variety of raffles. They chivvied local businesses for cash backing.

And the two-woman whirlwind succeeded by amassing close on £3,500 for the fledgling club's coffers.

A mere two and a half years later the White Rose junior football club is not solely up and running, it has attracted more than 85 youngsters from the age of six to under-13 to its burgeoning set-up with several teams featuring in the York and District Minor League.

The phrase "we'll show 'em" could have been specifically penned for Jacky and Lyn, whose motivation always had been to provide a team in which their offspring could play.

Said club secretary Jacky: "We were both sick of having to take our sons to Copmanthorpe to play only then to find them sometimes not getting a game.

"So we thought let's form our own team and, even though I don't care that much for football, I was inspired by my grandfather, J H Tate, who ran a club in the village in the 1950s."

There was opposition to the women's plan. "Various people in the village said we would never do it," added Jacky.

That hostile theme was echoed by treasurer Lyn, herself far from a fan of football. "A lot of people were very negative," she recalled.

"But we were determined to see it through."

Of the assistance they got, the village's Ebor pub was particularly helpful, while a mutually-beneficial relationship was established with Archbishop of York's CofE junior school.

The White Rose teams play some of their matches at the school, while the school uses the equipment which has been acquired by the duo's fund-raising heroics.

Said headmaster Dean Beecham: "It's worked well both ways and the set-up has proved good for the youngsters both in the school and the community."

Next on the agenda for the White Rose club is a further pitch on which to play as the club's growing strength cannot be accommodated entirely at the school.

Given the organisers' track record it may not be so long before their wish is granted. So far they have consistently triumphed over adversity in what Jacky described as a victory for "housewives' power".

The posse of Bishopthorpe youngsters now getting their kicks proudly playing under the White Rose banner would whole-heartedly agree.

Updated: 11:13 Saturday, February 23, 2002