Entry from OED Online

handbag, n.

DRAFT REVISION Mar. 2002

2. colloq. (chiefly Brit., esp. in Association Football). In pl. A confrontation, esp. one which is ineffectual or histrionic; originally and chiefly (replacing pistols) in phrases alluding to a duel, as handbags at dawn (also at ten paces, etc). Also (in sing.) attrib., as handbag situation, etc.

1987 Times 1 Jan. 24/7 Who said what in the world of sport in 1986... It was a case of handbags at three paces and he was unlucky. 1990 Independent (Nexis) 26 Mar. 14 Another such relationship was with Terence Rattigan whose In Praise of Love (1973) was extracted page by page; always with [John] Dexter's threat that it would be ‘handbags at dawn’ if the work did not satisfy him. 1994 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 25 May 13 One case in which he and the Crystal Palace player Andy Gray were shown the red card was ‘more of a handbag situation, where you push and shove’. 1997 News of World 14 Dec. 74/3 It was handbags in the dressing room but we were able to sort things out. 1998 P. LOVESY Death Duties (1999) xv. 101 Come mob-handed, have you Ruth? What's it to be, handbags at twenty paces? 2001 Evening Chron. (Newcastle) (Electronic ed.) 30 Mar., All I saw was some pushing and shoving. Really, it was no more than handbags at 10 paces.