The Oxford Club League, which organised a host of mainly indoor sports, owed its existence to a woman ‘gatecrasher’.

She caused consternation when she turned up as a member of a hitherto all-male bar billiards team.

At a meeting of the bar billiards league, it was suggested a separate club league should be formed to cater for both men and women.

The Oxford Club League was formed in 1946, but it appears it was not until 1957 that a formal decision was made to allow women to play.

The league offered bar billiards, darts, shove-halfpenny, cribbage, dominoes, Aunt Sally and angling and attracted teams from numerous clubs in the city.

Among them were East Oxford Conservative Club, Cowley Workers’ Social Club, Headington United and Oxford City Supporters’ Clubs, the Railway Social Club, the Reform Club and West Oxford Democrats.

The league flourished during the 1950s, but the number of clubs dropped from 22 in 1950 to 12 in 1961 and only seven people attended the annual meeting, just two above a quorum.

By 1971, it was decided to suspend the league when only five teams entered and it was not revived, ending 25 years of activity that had embraced hundreds of Oxford sports enthusiasts.