I can’t remember much about the England Brazil women’s football match I attended with my football-mad daughter in Middlesbrough in 2019.

But I can remember what happened at Eaglescliffe station on route (Could these big cats still be at large?, September 12).

We were waiting to change trains, but when ours arrived its two carriages were already full. Normally I’d have been cross but that morning I was, instead, trying to compute something I’d seen right before the train pulled in.

“Did you see that?! I stuttered to my 12-year-old, while she stuttered the same thing to me. We were both convinced we’d spotted a big cat slinking through high grass opposite the platform. It seemed no one else had seen anything, missing the looooooong golden-coloured body, long tail and tall ears with specks of white.

We had no chance to ponder. Told the next train would be full too, several passengers clubbed together for a minibus to the Riverside Stadium. We arrived in time, and Brazil won 2-1. Mostly, though, I associate that day with a creature who’d undoubtedly beat Kitty or Tibby in a scrap.

Helen Leavey, Fishergate, York

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