Cheshire
Cats
The Official Gridball Site
Cheshire Cats
Champions 1952 & 1958
Formed 1948
Colours: Mint, Red & Black
Feeder Teams: Shrewsbury Shrews, Hereford Heffers, La Roche Sur Yon Hearts {France}, Birkenhead Wanderers, Chester Seals
Champions 1952 & 1958
Cup last 16 1960
Record Appearances:
Jean Sloane 172 {1952-1961}
Record Scorer:
Carol Watson 71 {1958-1960}
Record Victory
11-0 vs Sheffield Steels 11th May 1953
Record Defeat
0-7 at Wuppertal Arrows {Cup} 18th June 1960 {Wuppertal were in Division Two}
Most Goals in a Game
{6} Jean Dudley 11-1 vs Newark Serpents 11th September 1956
Most Goals in a Season
Carol Watson 30 {1959}
Season History
1952 CHAMPIONS
1953 Quarterfinals
1954 Runner Up
1955 Quarterfinals
1956 Semi-Finals
1957 Semi-Finals
1958 CHAMPIONS
1959 Runner Up
1960 Quarterfinals {Cup last 16}
Players of the Year
Jean Sloane 1958
Gillian Preece 1954
Young Players of the Year
Sabrina Kaye 1952
Team of the Season
Gabrielle Braid 1959
Carol Watson 1959
Nancy Berlin 1958 & 1959
Jean Trend 1957
Sabrina Kaye 1952 & 1954
Gillian Preece 1954
Golden Bat
None
Silver Bat
None
Bronze Bat
Carol Watson {30} 1959
Susan Sutton {17} 1954
Nations Cup Champions
Nancy Berlin 1959 {United States}
Sabrina Kaye 1957 {England}
International Representatives
Nancy Berlin {United States 1959 -1961}
Gillian Preece {England 1960}
Sabrina Kaye {England 1959-1961}
Jean Sloane {England 1961}
Carol Watson {England 1959}
The Cheshire Story
The Cheshire Cats started life as the Birkenhead Seasiders in 1949, changing their name to represent the entire County in 1952 when they also adopted their Mint Green, Red and Black colours. The Cats caused something of a sensation by winning Supergrid at the first attempt in 1952 and boast a proud record of having reached the Quarter Finals of all nine Championships they've taken part in.
They missed the opportunity to become the first former Champion to win back the crown in 1954, going down in the Final before ultimately achieving the feat in 1958. Their defence of that crown ended with a defeat in what was, at the time, a record equalling fourth appearance in the showpiece.
Cheshire First Team 11th March 1961
Coach: Patricia Lucius: Age 41: Rated 7 {Star}
Netminder: Gillian Preece: Age 25: Rated 7 {World Class}
Second spell in Cheshire, rejoined from Manchester in 1960
Left Guard: Sabrina Kaye: Age 25: Rated 9 {Celebrity}
Young Player of the Year 1952, 2 time Supergrid Champ
Right Guard: Nancy Berlin: Age 28: Rated 7 {Star}
2 time ToTy and 2 time Supergrid Champion
Midcourt: Jean Sloane: Age 27: Rated 8 {Superstar}
Gridballer of the Year 1958 and 2 time Supergrid Champion
Midcourt: Gabrielle Braid: Age 31: Rated 7 {Star}
ToTY & Supergrid Runner up 1959
Attacker: Anne Thelwell: Age 21: Rated 3 {Good}
Came in when Susan Booth left for Plymouth
Shooter: Carol Watson: Age 25: Rated 5
Supergrid Champion, ToTY and 2 time Bronze Bat
1961 Squad Rating {6} World Class
1961 World Ranking {3}
Highest {2} 1957
Cheshire Legends
Nancy Berlin: Cheshire Career: 111 appearances, 9 goals {1955-61}
World Champion: 1958
Supergrid Silver Medallist: 1959
Team of the Year: 1958 & 1959
Nations Champion: United States 1959 {9 Appearances 1957-1960}
Career: Philadelphia: 8 Appearances {1954}
Sabrina Kaye: Cheshire Career: 169 appearances, 10 goals {1952-61}
World Champion 1952 & 1958
Runner Up 1954 & 1959, Semi Finalist 1955, 1956 & 1961, Quarter Finalist 1957
Young Gridballer of the Year 1952
Team of the Year 1952 & 1954
Nations Champion {England} 1957} {4th place 1961} 13 Appearances {1957-1961}
Sixth most capped Elite player in history {as of April 1961}
Jean Sloane: Cheshire Career: 172 appearances, 65 goals {1952-61}
World Champion 1952 & 1958
Runner Up 1954 & 1959, Semi Finalist 1955, 1956 & 1961, Quarter Finalist 1953, 1957 & 1960
Nations Cup {England} {4 Appearances, 4 Goals 1960-1961} {Did not play in 1961 3rd place match}
World Gridballer of the Year 1958
Team of the Year 1955 {Gridballer of the Year Runner Up}
All time Cheshire appearance Record holder {8th most Capped Gridballer of all time}
Nancy Berlin
World Champion {Cheshire 1958}
World Championship Runner Up {Cheshire 1959}
World Championship Semi Finalist {Cheshire 1955, 1956 & 1961}
World Championship Quarter Finalist {Cheshire 1957 & 1960}
Nations Champion: United States {1959}
Team of the Year {1958 & 1959}
Date and place of Birth: 30th November 1932, East Falls, Pennsylvania, USA, Age 28 {As of November 18th 1961}
Position: Right Guard
Debut: 20th March 1954 5-0 vs Milwaukee
Cheshire Appearances: 111 {1955-1961}
Goals: 9
Philadelphia 8 Appearances {1954}
United States 10 Appearances {1957-1961}
Nancy Francine Berlin was born to Jewish parents in East Falls, Pennsylvania in 1932 and showed a talent for dance by the time she was four years old, which led to her making her Broadway debut at the age of just fifteen. Having failed to break out of the chorus line, she returned home in 1953 to try out for the Philadelphia Quakers, making her debut in their second ever senior game the following season. Although she played just eight times that year, it was enough for her to impress the Cheshire Cats who persuaded her to cross the Atlantic for the 1955 campaign. It was an excellent decision. She's reached the Supergrid Play-offs in all of her seven seasons in England, including 1961, having, at the time of writing, just finished on the losing side in a Semi Final to Liverpool.
Her greatest year was 1958 when her defensive partnership with Sabrina Kaye was at it's best to secure her only Supergrid title to date. Berlin's performances earned her a place in the Team of the Year, which she repeated the following season as Cheshire's defence of their title fell in the Supergrid showpiece. The Silver gave her a full set of Supergrid medals, with two bronzes in 1955 and '56. She also earned Nations Cup Gold with the United States in 1959.
Off court, Berlin is a popular, and sometimes controversial figure with the British press. She's been criticised for her daring and sometimes revealing dresses when out on the town. And also received negative publicity for marrying British band leader, Ted Russell in 1959, he being thirty-two years her senior. Upon being told that she'd come second to Marjorie Bloom in a poll to find the sexiest Philadelphia player ever in 1960, Berlin attracted further controversy by saying "Marjorie Bloom may turn boys into men, but I take it from there."
{18th November 1961}
{Berlin divorced her husband in 1964 and remarried, having two sons. She retired in 1967. In 1970 she made a cameo appearance on The Brady Bunch and divided her time between England, The States and a holiday home in Italy. She was widowed in 2020 and is the oldest surviving holder of a Gridball broach.
Sabrina Kaye
World Champion {Cheshire 1952 & 1958}
World Championship Runner Up {Cheshire 1954 & 1959}
World Championship Semi Finalist {Cheshire 1955, 1956 & 1961}
World Championship Quarter Finalist {Cheshire 1953 & 1957}
Nations Champion {England 1957} {4th place 1961}
Young Player of the Year {Cheshire 1952}
Team of the Year {1952 & 1954}
Date and place of Birth: 10th April 1935, Birkenhead, Cheshire, Age 26
Position: Left & Right Guard
Debut: 1st March 1952 0-2 vs West Ham
Cheshire Appearances: 169
Goals: 10
England 13 Appearances {1957-1961}
Kaye, extreme left, after Cheshire's 1958 Title win.
Sabrina Catherine Claire Kaye never planned to be a Gridballer, it just kind of happened by accident. The Birkenhead Grammar School girl was working part time as a trainee receptionist in the Birkenhead hotel where the Cheshire Cats coaching staff were staying while overseeing try-outs for their squad for the 1952 Championship. The tall, teen's athletic build attracted the attention of her guests who invited her to attend the following day. That athleticism, coupled with a good sense of anticipation saw her selected to join the club as a defender. By the end of the following year her days as a receptionist were over as she was voted the Young Player of 1952 to go with her Supergrid Broach as the Cats swept to the title in their debut season.
Two years later Kaye was again in the Team of the Year but this time ended up with a Supergrid Silver Medal as the favoured Cats went down to underdogs, Newcastle. The increased heartbreak of back to back Semi Final defeats followed before her attention turned to the new International game. England were to be the first Champions in 1957 and Kaye shored up their defence in the victory over Wales to clinch the crown. A second Supergrid Broach came the following year in a game where she drew a huge breath of relief after almost gifting Liverpool a late winner before the Cats secured a 2-1 win in extra time. Her fourth Supergrid appearance in 1959 was by far the worst for Kaye as the lethal Willesden attack swept them aside in a crushing 4-0 victory.
At the end of the 1960 season Kaye was the sixth most capped player in Gridball history with 158 senior appearances for the Cats and England but remained second behind her team mate, Jean Sloane on the Cat's list. Her appearance in the 1961 Quarter Finals was her tenth consecutive Supergrid Play-offs appearance.
{November 18th 1961}
{Kaye was forced to retire after a serious knee injury on a pre season tour of Germany in 1968. She died in Birkenhead on January 11th 2009 at the age of seventy-three. 1952 team mate and Dublin coach, Julia Hilditch described Kaye as the greatest player never to be inducted as a Legend}
Jean Sloane
World Champion {Cheshire 1952 & 1958}
World Championship Runner Up {Cheshire 1954 & 1959}
World Championship Semi Finalist {Cheshire 1955, 1956 & 1961}
World Championship Quarter Finalist {Cheshire 1953, 1957 & 1960}
Nations Cup {England 1960-1961 - 4 Appearances, 7 Goals} {Did not play in 1961 Semi Final or 3rd place match}
World Player of the Year {Cheshire 1958}
Runner up to World Player of the Year {Cheshire 1955}
Date and place of Birth: 23rd April 1933, Cheadle Hulme, Age 28
Position: Sweeper/Centre
Debut: 1st March 1952 0-2 vs West Ham
Cheshire Appearances: 172
Goals: 60
The daughter of Scottish School teachers, Sloane was born in Cheadle Hulme near Manchester in 1933 but lacked the academic
Sloane, held aloft by jubilant team mates after winning Supergrid '58
leanings of her parents, instead showing a flair for art, studying for an art degree at the Victoria University in Manchester. As part of that degree, she began attending Manchester Bees training sessions in 1951 to study the movement of the players and befriended Bees player, Pat Milner, who persuaded Sloane to attend an upcoming trial for the Lancashire Hotpots in Oldham. The Hotpots had been selected to join the senior ranks in 1953 but for now would play in the English junior League. Having proved she was good enough by being selected, Sloane was impatient to play at the highest level. Manchester showed little interest but Milner again stepped in, advising to try another team set to make their senior debut in 1952, Cheshire, based in Birkenhead.
Sloane was instantly signed up to play at Centre and established herself as a star of the team as they reached Supergrid at the first attempt. The nineteen year old carved her name into Cheshire Cats legendary status when she pounced on an opportunity with literally seconds left on the clock to score a dramatic winner in an otherwise poor Supergrid against Liverpool.
Sloane completed her degree in Art while still helping the Cats reach the quarter finals in 1953, the first of only three occasions in ten seasons that she didn't feature in the semi finals, going on to play in four Supergrids, winning twice.
At a personal level Sloane was named in the team of the year in 1955, finishing runner up in the Gridballer of the year poll when still just twenty-two years of age, and was made team captain the following year. However, 1958 was her standout season, captaining the Cats to their second title as well as being named Gridballer of the Year and establishing herself as the Cats all time leading appearance maker. Sloane won the first of four England caps in 1960, scoring seven goals in National team colours.
Away from Gridball, Sloane runs an art Gallery in Liverpool, which she opened with art dealer, Plunkett Brown in 1955. The couple married the following year and have since opened further galleries in Manchester and London.
{November 18th 1961}
{Sloane retired at the end of the 1962 season to concentrate on her art business for the next ten years until she and her husband divorced in 1972. She began a relationship with an Austrian Oil tanker captain and moved with him to the Middle East. In December 1975 she boarded his tanker as it left port and was seen arguing with her boyfriend on board before vanishing overboard.. Her boyfriend claimed she committed suicide, though an attempt was made to try him for her murder, which failed due her body never being found.}