Mary Earps, England goalkeeper at the recent Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand where she won the Golden Glove award, is set to be honoured in her home city of Nottingham with a tram to be named after her.
During the World Cup Mary Earps was an ever present and saved a penalty during the final, which England ultimately lost 1-0 to become runners-up in the tournament. Born in Nottingham she currently plays for Manchester United in the Women’s Super League and is said to be keen to return home to see the name being unveiled.
With no trams currently devoid of a name it remains to be seen which tram receives the new name. 222 may be the favourite as it has been used as the NET Community Hero Tram with a changing name each year, although its not outside the realms of possibility that another tram will be chosen if NET wish to continue with this campaign.
Tim Hesketh, Chief Executive of Tramlink Nottingham, commented: “Mary wants to come along to the depot to do the unveiling. It’s a lovely thing we can do with the trams – all our trams are named after the famous sons and daughters of Nottingham who put Nottingham where it is. The biggest challenge we have is we only have a certain number of trams so it’s really difficult, you can’t just keep adding people forever. Thankfully that’s not my decision.”
No date of when the naming may take place have yet to be announced.
Oh good. But can we have an assurance that her greatest claim to fame, the comment she made to a Spanish penalty-taker, will not also be painted on the side of the car?