Blyth Spartans, an amateur team from south Northumberland, may have stunned the world of professional football in 1978 when they reached the 5th round of the FA Cup, but a lesser documented success happened 60 years earlier when Blyth Spartans Ladies won The Munitionettes' Cup in 1918.

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That prestigious victory took place on 18 May 1918, at Ayresome Park, the then home of Middlesbrough FC, when 22,000 spectators watched the plucky lasses from Northumberland run out 5-0 winners against the Middlesbrough-based munitions factory team of Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., Ltd.

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When men were called up to go to the front after the bloodbaths of Somme and Ypres in 1916, women filled the gaps at home by entering workplaces. At the former Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, London, for example, it is reported only 10 women were employed before 1914; by 1918 there were over 24,000 (at its height during WWI, the works employed an estimated 80,000 people!). Munition factories were all over the North East, especially in the industrial areas, and by 1917, 80% of munitions workers were female. 

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Hundreds of women's football teams were created nationally. This included dozens in the North East, based on munitions and war industries along the rivers Tyne, Wear and Tees, as well as in Darlington and the county of Northumberland. The teams played to raise money for charitable causes. There were no leagues, just matches arranged between individual sides for an agreed "good cause". 

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However, North East England was unique in that a tournament was launched called the Tyne, Wear & Tees Alfred Wood Munition Girls Cup, possibly named after Sunderland businessman Alfred Wood (glass manufacturing) who had died in 1916. The Munitionettes' Cup, as it became to be commonly known, would be played for by sides in the region. 

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To keep travel to a minimum and save cost and time, teams from north of the region - Northumberland, Tyneside and Wearside - played each other to find their "champion" while teams from south of the region - Middlesbrough, Hartlepool and Darlington - played a knock-out competition to find their top dog. The two best teams would play each other in the final.

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Blyth Spartans Ladies was started by the young munitionettes working on Blyth's South Harbour loading ships with fresh ammunition for the front. During breaks from their dangerous and back-breaking toil, the munitionettes kicked a football around on the beach. Sailors from a Royal Navy ship stationed in the harbour gave them coaching hints and, from informal kickabouts on the sands, the Blyth lasses progressed.