England women's cricket team

The England women's cricket team is the team that represents England and Wales in international women's cricket. The team is administrated by England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), they played their first Tests in 1934–35, when they beat Australia 2–0 in a three-Test series. Their current captain is Charlotte Edwards, and their current coach is Mark Robinson. There is also an England Women's Academy team, consisting of players just below the full England squad.

History

The pioneers

England were a part of the first Women's Test series, as their team led by Betty Archdale touring Australia in the summer of 1934–35, three years after the Bodyline tour by the men. The team and their captain received "warm" responses from the Australian crowds. Winning both the first two Tests and drawing the third, England took the first series, and also beat New Zealand by an innings and 337 runs on the way home, where Betty Snowball contributed an innings of 189, which was to remain a women's Test record for half a century. However, their leading player, and one of the best-known women cricketers of the era, was the allrounder Myrtle Maclagan. She scored the first ever century in a woman's Test match on 7 January 1935.

Wembley Stadium

Wembley Stadium is a football stadium in Wembley, London, England, which opened in 2007, on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002–2003. The stadium hosts major football matches including the FA Cup Final and home matches of the England national football team.

Wembley Stadium is a UEFA category four stadium. With 90,000 seats, it is the second-largest stadium in Europe and the largest stadium in the United Kingdom. It is owned by The Football Association through its subsidiary Wembley National Stadium Ltd (WNSL).

Designed by HOK Sport and Foster and Partners, it includes a partially retractable roof and the 134-metre-high (440 ft) Wembley Arch. The stadium was built by Australian firm Multiplex at a cost of £798 million.

In addition to the FA Cup Final, the stadium hosts the season-opening FA Community Shield, the League Cup Final, the Football League Trophy and the Football League play-offs. It hosted the 2011 and 2013 UEFA Champions League Final, the Gold medal matches at the 2012 Olympic Games football tournament, and will host both the semi-finals and final of UEFA Euro 2020. The stadium also hosts the rugby league Challenge Cup Final, the NFL International Series and music concerts.

England

England ⁱ/ˈɪŋɡlənd/ is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west. The Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers much of the central and southern part of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic; and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight.

The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Palaeolithic period, but takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world. The English language, the Anglican Church, and English law – the basis for the common law legal systems of many other countries around the world – developed in England, and the country's parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation.

FA WSL

The Football Association Women's Super League (FA WSL) is the highest league of women's football in England. The league consists of two divisions, the WSL 1 and the WSL 2. It is run by the Football Association and began in April 2011. An initial eight teams competed in one division, which replaced the FA Women's Premier League as the highest level of women's football in England. The FA WSL 2, introduced in 2014, added a second division and a further 10 teams to the league. There is promotion and relegation between the two divisions, and planned promotion for 2016 from the FA Women's Premier League (level 3), which continues to play a winter season. WSL seasons run from April until October. The WSL champions and runners-up qualify for the UEFA Women's Champions League the following season. The current champions are Chelsea. The bottom team of the WSL 1 at the end of each season will be replaced by the WSL 2 champion in the next season; however for the 2015 and 2016 seasons both the WSL 2 champions and runners-up will be promoted as part of the league's planned expansion.

Woman

A woman is a female human. The term woman is usually reserved for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent. The term woman is also sometimes used to identify a female human, regardless of age, as in phrases such as "women's rights". "Woman" may also refer to a person's gender identity. Women with typical genetic development are usually capable of giving birth from puberty until menopause. In the context of gender identity, transgender people who are biologically determined to be male and identify as women cannot give birth. Some intersex people who identify as women cannot give birth due to either sterility or inheriting one or more Y chromosomes. In extremely rare cases, people who have Swyer syndrome can give birth with medical assistance. Throughout history women have assumed or been assigned various social roles.

Etymology

The spelling of woman in English has progressed over the past millennium from wīfmann to wīmmann to wumman, and finally, the modern spelling woman. In Old English, wīfmann meant "female human", whereas wēr meant "male human". Mann or monn had a gender-neutral meaning of "human", corresponding to Modern English "person" or "someone"; however, subsequent to the Norman Conquest, man began to be used more in reference to "male human", and by the late 13th century had begun to eclipse usage of the older term wēr. The medial labial consonants f and m in wīfmann coalesced into the modern form "woman", while the initial element, which meant "female", underwent semantic narrowing to the sense of a married woman ("wife"). It is a popular misconception that the term "woman" is etymologically connected with "womb", which is from a separate Old English word, wambe meaning "stomach" (of male or female; modern German retains the colloquial term "Wampe" from Middle High German for "potbelly"). Nevertheless, such a false derivation of "woman" has appeared in print.