SEASON RSVP: Red Lionesses pub launch

Hands up if you’ve heard this one before…

The Lionesses are playing and you want to watch the game but the man working behind the bar tells you Stoke v Blackburn Rovers is more important. You stroll back to your table, irritated but too embarrassed to complain and you resort to using up all your data to stream it on your phone.

Well, to try and rewrite this tale as old as time, BT Sport, which holds rights to the Women’s Super League and is a sponsor of the FA, has teamed up with Greene King and created the Red Lionesses pub.

The temporary pop-up in Moorgate is playing host to women’s football for 10 days and comes as part of a pledge from Greene King to show women’s football in 700 of its pubs.

To kick things off ahead of England’s game against Germany, BT Sport hosted a classic pub quiz in the Red Lioness on Thursday night (7 Nov).

It had the all the quintessential features of a pub quiz pints, soggy fish and chips and disgruntled quiz participants who try and question the quiz master.

Hosted by Reshmin Chowdry and Rachel Brown-Finnis, the evening was light-hearted and fun, something which has been missing from some of the recent ‘dawn of women’s football’ events since the World Cup.

Revellers were joined by WSL stars Claire Rafferty, Fara Williams and Dan Carter who all joined in the quizzing. Williams took the competition pretty seriously and kept accusing rival teams of cheating.....

To complete the pub football look, guests could customise their own Red Lioness T-Shirt and pick up some free pens and notebooks.

Let’s hope Thursday’s quiz night signals the start of a new pub culture that includes women’s football.

Words FLO LLOYD-HUGHES

Images courtesy of PITCH PR