UK Secondary School Sports - help required

@ Seegee
First I thought European football too, but somewhere I got the impression that it wasn't on the radar of English schools since schools already committed to sports in the 19th century. Let's say a school committed to Cricket in 1850 when she was founded, tradition would make the school stick to it even if the pupils ask for European football later. Only my thought.

@ Seegee
Don't you have a bad conscience as an Australian?
On youtube a German running a channel about differences USA and Germany told about the worst questions she was asked by Americans "Why didn't she warn them about 9/11 since she/her parents are 7 hours in front of them" If I am corect Australia is 11 hours in front of Germany nearly a day early
That happens if you got a Hollywood education and time travelling in Star Treck.

Cricket was not considered a ‘girls’ sport until comparatively recently. Girls played rounders instead. Yes, we do live in the future down here, but New Zealand are even further in front by 2 hours. The game of rugby is largely called that because legend has it that it wa founded at Rugby School in England. Cricket wasn’t highly regarded in England again until later. Prince Albert didn’t like it, and didn’t want his son the future King Edward VII playing it. It wasn’t considered a gentlemanly sport, same as football, yet oddly enough they had no problem with rugby.

I may break with tradition and begin sending it in before it is finished. Also, I'm having a bit of problem of too much happening on one day. I'm switching between three events, in widely different places, and I'm not entirely sure if it is easy to follow. I might have to break them up into different sections, telling all of one place's story different sections rather than switching between them.

The main "gods" I've invented are the god of corporal punishment, a goddess of salacious reporting, and a goddess of women's sports (who is tied to Title IX in the US). There are also some very minor gods, such as the goddess of the magic of making cupcakes. A godling was told that she need to stop wasting time and get an "of", and she went with something very easy. No, she doesn't have many followers, but I needed a ridiculous goddess to show how low the god of corporal punishment is falling as the Western World turns its collective back on spanking.

The bulk of the story comes from a newspaper that wants to boost sales via salacious stories, and what's more salacious than senior schoolgirls / first year female university students getting their bums thrashed?

Sounds like the goddess of the magic of cupcakes needed to spend some time being mentored by the god of corporal punishment. A very hands on kind of mentoring. lol

Can't wait to read this story when it's ready.

In UK schools it is much more complicated than is being stated here. The choice of sports tends to be based on two factors. Firstly the type of school and where it is located. Public schools, ie fee paying posh schools, will probably offer a wide range of sports. The old grammar schools again offered a range of sports including cricket, rugby union hockey and football, though the school I went to didn't have a soccer team but there was an unofficial football team. We also had Rowing Badminton and Orienteering as well as the range of athletic events. The secondary modern schools, played football and rugby - though in the area I lived in it was Rugby league. Girls schools tended to be Hockey and Netball.
Nowadays, there is little cricket played in schools - mainly I think because the season has a big overlap with the summer holidays when schools are closed.

In the days when I was at school a lot of the sporting activities were determined by the interest of various teachers who would supervise them outside the mainstream curriculum hence Orienteering and the unofficial soccer team.

In present times, sadly, the hand of officialdom weighs heavy and those leading any sports activities in a school setting have to hold the appropriate coaching certificate for that sport - otherwise there are all sorts of insurance issues. This leads to variation as some school areas have a limited range of sports provided within the school. Other school areas have a group of qualified teachers with coaching certificates who provide sports coaching at a number of different schools, hence offering a wider variety.
It doesn't help that the relevant qualifications needed vary from sport to sport, so a level 1: qualification may be sufficient for some sports but the governing body of another requires a level 3 qualification.

Not sure this has helped you, but don't let reality get in the way of a good story

I won't. I just find that the more little details I get right the easier it is to suspend disbelief.

Football (soccer) was not played by girls at my UK secondary school in the 1980s. Girls played hockey, netball and rounders. Boys played football ( soccer), rugby and cricket.

Thanks for letting me know.