Morning Advertiser 18.01.1869

The County Ground at Islington (also known as The Cattle Market Ground) was no longer in use for cricket in 1869. 
Some familiar names in the line ups.

President's XIV v Secretary's XIV

THE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION.

The gentlemen who have expended so much time in arranging the new code of laws for the regulation of the game of football had the gratification of seeing them put to practical and highly-satisfactory test on Saturday last, when the members of the association mustered in good round numbers at Battersea Park, and played a friendly game, there being fourteen on each side. A large muster of spectators, attracted the fine bracing weather and the novelty of the proceedings, attended, and, in common with those who took active part in the game, expressed their entire satisfaction at the working of the new laws. The sides were chosen the Messrs.Alcock, and were distinguishable as President’s and Secretary's,and included following :—Messrs. J. F. Alcock, E. C.Morley, C. M. Tebbutt, C. Hewett, G. T. Wawn, J. P. Phillips, Innes, M'Calmont, Needham, H. Baker, A. Baker, Lloyd, Hughes, Jackson, C. W. Alcock, A. Pember, H.W. Chambers, A. M. Tebbut, Gray, Drew, Graham, Cutbill, Morton, J. Turner, Morris, Renshaw, Lenchars, and Scott. The game commenced shortly alter half-past two, and some very spirited play ensued, which only concluded when twilight was far advanced, and resulted in the President’s Side obtaining two goals. It would be invidious to mention the names of any of the players having distinguished themselves where all were active; suffice it to say, that the afternoon was very pleasantly spent, and so was the evening, by portion of the members and their friends, who retired to the Grosvenor Hotel, Pimlico, where a capital dinner and some excellent wines were discussed the satisfaction of all concerned.The complete list of fixtures of the Barnes Club will appear in Saturday’s paper, and we shall be glad if the secretaries of other clubs will forward lists of their matches to come by Thursday’s post at latest.

 Sporting Life - 06.01.64

...too fierce a character to be popular

Sporting Life 05.12.63

A letter supporting the initiative of the Football Association to unify the laws of the game goes on to make a prediction that football played by grown men would never catch on.

Names

If we look at the current top 5 levels of the English Football Pyramid we find 18 different suffixes to club names:

I have not included Villa as Aston Villa is actually a place name (Villa Cross, Handsworth  was shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834 as Aston Villa). Crystal Palace, similarly, I have taken to be a place name.  I have also passed over the psuedo exotic use of AFC as a prefix . 
In a blog which deals with the development of football up until 1937 it would be foolish to include Dons, a 21st century suffix arising out of the relocation of Wimbledon in 2004.  Arsenal was originally a suffix, but now Arsenal is just Arsenal. 
That leaves us with the following:

Unique suffixes:

Alexandra 
 Crewe's football club formed in 1877. They either took their name from Princess Alexandra or from a pub that was named in her honour.  

 Argyle
 Initially founded in 1886 and resurrected in 1897 Argyle Football Club added Plymouth to their name on joining the Southern League in 1903. The club was likely to have been named after the Argyle public house. 

Hotspur 
The Tottenham was added by in order to avoid confusion with the Hotspur FC who had joined the Football association in 1879.

Orient
Eagle Cricket Club became Orient FC in 1888. This was possibly a reference to the
Orient Shipping Company, or maybe on account of  their relatively easterly location. The locational prefixes Clapton (1898) and Leyton (1945) were used in turn. From 1966-1987 the club was known as plain Orient.


Stanley

Accrington Stanley were originally founded in 1891. As far as I am aware the name originates from the Stanley Street area of the town. 

Wednesday
Founded in 1867 Sheffield Wednesday were officially known as The Wednesday until 1929.  

Interestingly there was a club in Wales called Abergavenny Thursdays (1927-2013).

 Others:

Albion
The ancient Greek name for Britain. West Bromwich were the first team to be known as Albion. However, rather than some poetic reference to antiquity or the visionary Blake the name originates from the fact that Albion is actually a district in West Bromwich. West Bromwich Albion graced the first season of  League football. 

Athletic
Amateur Athletic were a London club formed in 1868. Loughborough Athletic and Football Club (founded 1887) joined the League in the 1895–96 season.

City

The earliest use of the suffix City was by Lincoln City in 1884. They were also the first City in the League (1892–93).

County
The Nottingham club pre date the Football Association, being founded in 1862. The 2 Counties, Notts and Derby featured in the first season of the Football League.

Forest
The original Forest FC (the forest referred to being Epping forest) went on to change their name to Wanderers. Nottingham Forest joined the League in 1892–93.

North End 
Preston North End (originally a cricket club founded in 1863) played in the northern part of the town. hence the name. Preston began playing Association football in 1878.  Glossop North End was founded in 1886.

Rangers
The original Rangers were Hertfordshire ('Herts') Rangers, based in Watford and founded in 1865. Queen's Park Rangers entered the League in 1920.

Rovers 
A first for London: Clapham Rovers, alternating between Rugby and Association, founded in 1869. Blackburn carried the name proudly in the opening season of the League. 

Town
Saffron Walden were the first club to bear the suffix Town. Founded in 1872 they were known as Town by the time they joined the Football Association in 1879. The first Town in the League were Grimsby (1892–93).

United 
In 1873 Hanover United from Chiswick were the first Association club to use United. Sheffield United (1892–93) were the fist United in the League. 

Wanderers 
Wanderers FC were founder members of the FA. The first team to use Wanderers as a suffix appears to have been Shropshire Wanderers circa 1873. Wolverhampton and Bolton both played in the first season of League football.


The Football League has featured the following suffixes in the past:

Borough

Image by George Chilvers

Wigan Borough were in existence from 1920-1931 (previous clubs in Wigan had been Town, United  and County, Borough were later superseded by Athletic).

Celtic
Usually denoting a club with Irish Catholic origins, the Manchester club Stalybridge Celtic (founded 1909) played in the League for 3 seasons from 1921. I am uncertain about the origins of the club name.

Fosse
Leicester used to play their matches alongside the old Roman road, the Fosse Way. Joining the League in 1894–95 they were known as Leicester Fosse up until 1919, when they adopted the name Leicester City.

Harriers
Kidderminster Harriers and Football Club was formed by the merger of an Athletics club and a Rugby club. Harriers was a common name for athletics clubs. They switched to Association football in 1886. I have included them here although they did not join the Football League until 2000.

Ironopolis
A city of Iron- an apt suffix for Middlesbrough. The 'Nops' were founded in 1889. There was a  Welsh club Caernarvon Ironopolis (1894-1903).

Park Avenue 
A slippery one this, as this was never the official name of Bradford FC (1907), but the name of their ground was used to distinguish them from Bradford City.

Swifts
Burton Swifts came into being in 1871, morphing into Burton United in 1901. The season that Burton Swifts joined the League (1892–93) was also the debut season for Walsall Town Swifts (founded 1888). 

Trinity
Gainsborough Trinity were founded in 1873 as Trinity Recreationists, being founded by the Vicar of Holy Trinity Church. 

Tower
It is hardly surprising that a New Brighton club playing in the shadow of a 173 m tower (compared with Blackpool @ 158 m or Eiffel @ 324 m) should pay homage to that structure. New Brighton Tower (1896-1901) did just that.

Victoria 
The original Northwich Victoria was founded in 1874 and named in honour of The Queen.

The Oval, 1869-70 season

Having secured the use of the Surrey County Cricket ground at Kennington Oval The Wanderers put it to good use for the 1869-70 season.
Contemporary reports reveal that the Association game was still very much in its infancy. More than one of these fixtures was played between unevenly matched teams who failed to field eleven players.
Of the 19 known matches to have taken place at The Oval that season Wanderers featured in 15. They won 9 of these games and scored 29 goals.
The Wanderers had not yet reached their zenith. During the following 2 years football would undergo significant advances with the introduction of the FA Cup and international matches. The Oval would then assume the mantle of England's premier football venue.
Let's take a look at the first season:

09.10.69	Wanderers	0	2	West Kent
23.10.69	Wanderers	0	2	Old Etonians
27.10.69	Wanderers	3	0	Rochester
06.11.69	Wanderers	2	1	Upton Park
10.11.69	Wanderers	2	1	Royal Engineers
13.11.69	Civil Service	0	1	West Kent
20.11.69	Wanderers	0	0	Gitanos
01.12.69	Wanderers	4	2	Civil Service
04.12.69	Wanderers	2	0	Hampstead Heathens
11.12.69	Wanderers	1	2	Crusaders
14.12.69	Wanderers	1	2	Desperadoes
18.12.69	Civil Service	1	2	Old Harrovians
15.01.70	Wanderers	1	1	Gitanos
19.01.70	Wanderers	1	0	Harrow Pilgrims
22.01.70	Wanderers	3	0	Civil Service
29.01.70	Civil Service	0	2	West Kent
26.02.70	Wanderers	7	0	Forest
05.03.70	English	1	1	Scotch
	This was the first 'Alcock International'
19.03.70	Wanderers	2	1	Hampstead Heathens

Postponements/ cancellations:

24.11.69	Wanderers	P	P	Crystal Palace
05.02.70	Civil Service played a scratch team instead of the advertised match with Old Etonians
12.02.70	Civil Service	P	P	Old Harrovians
	English v Scotch was arranged for this date…
12.02.70	English	P	P	Scotch
	Postponed due to frost.
19.02.70	Wanderers	P	P	West Kent

Result or whether played unknown:

18.12.69	Gitanos	?	?	Harrow Pilgrims
05.03.70	Civil Service	?	?	Crusaders
14.03.70	Civil Service	?	?	Royal Engineers

Advertised but not played:

21.12.69	Gitanos	v	Bedouins
	Played at Blackheath.
08.01.70	Wanderers	v	Brixton
12.01.70	Wanderers	v	Bedouins

The Oval

In the 1860s London's football was played in public parks such as Clapham Common and Battersea Park. There were no enclosed football grounds.
A significant change occurred on Saturday October 9th 1869, when The Wanderers v West Kent was played at the Kennington Oval, the home of Surrey Cricket Club. This was the first football match to be played at the famous venue.
The cricket ground had been laid out in 1845.
Charles Alcock had good connections in the cricket world. He played for Middlesex and would, in 1872, become secretary of Surrey. He was able to persuade the current Surrey secretary, William Burrup, that allowing the footballers to use the outfield in the winter months was a good thing.
The orientation of pitch was east to west.

Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle - 13.10.69

Charles Nepean, scorer of the 1st goals at The Oval 

Over the following 23 seasons The Oval was England's leading football venue, hosting 22 FA Cup Finals (including 2 replays) and 10 internationals (8 v Scotland, 2 v Wales). It was also used as a venue for Rugby.

In 1892 Surrey County Cricket Club made it known that they wouldn’t be allowing any football to be played at The Oval until the end of October.Then, in January 1893, it was announced that because the square had been relaid there would be no football at The Oval that season.

7 days hard labour

Windsor and Eton Express - 12.12.68

Corner Kicks

A corner kick, Falkirk vs Queen's Park 1914

Most of the changes in the Laws of The Game in the 1860s and 70s concerned what happened when the ball went out of play.
Here we will look at Law 7:

1863
In case the ball goes behind the goal line, if a player on the side to whom the goal belongs first touches the ball, one of his side shall be entitled to a free kick from the goal line at the point opposite the place where the ball shall be touched. If a player of the opposite side first touches the ball, one of his side shall be entitled to a free kick (but at the goal only) from a point 15 yards from the goal line opposite the place where the ball is touched. The opposing side shall stand behind their goal line until he has had his kick.

Notice that the ball 'going behind the goal line' wasn't out of play as such: there was still the matter of getting the touch on it.  For the attacking team getting the touch down meant a shot at goal from 15 yards (Some similarities to Rugby here - in early Rugby rules the 'touchdown' or 'try' counted for nothing, but depended on the 'conversion' to a 'goal') . I can only assume that the 11 defenders would line up between the goalposts and just behind the goal line. As the attacking players all had to be behind the ball when it was kicked and that the ball had to be shot directly at goal I imagine that very few goals would have resulted from this process,

1866
Following the February 1866 AGM  the FA adopted the Sheffield principle of using secondary scoring to decide matches finishing equal on actual goals:
...if a player of the opposite side first touches the ball after it has gone behind the goal line of his adversary, one 'touch down' shall be scored by his side, and in the event of no goal being got by either side, or an equal number of goals being got on each side, the side obtaining the greater number of 'touches down' shall be the winners of the match.

 It was a relatively short lived experiment, the touch down disappearing from the rules altogether following the 1867 AGM, being replaced by a free kick for the defending team to be taken within 6 yards of their goal. 


Sheffield, 1868
The corner kick first made an appearance in the revised Sheffield rules of 1868. Having dispensed with rouges (touch downs) Sheffield introduced the following:
When the ball is kicked over the bar of the goal it must be kicked off by the side behind whose goal it went, within 6 yards from the limit of their goal...
when the ball is kicked behind the goal line a player of the opposite side to that which kicked it out shall kick it in from the nearest corner flag...

The 1870  FA rules had when the ball is kicked behind the goal line, it must be kicked off by the side behind whose goal it went, within 6 yards from the limit of their goal. 
and in 1872 the FA adopted the 1868 Sheffield rule verbatim.





It was in 1873 that the FA rules gave us the clear distinction between a goal kick and a corner kick (though neither term was used):
When the ball is kicked behind the goal line by one of the opposite side it shall be kicked off by any one of the players behind whose goal line it went, within 6 yards of the nearest goal post; but if kicked behind by any one of the side whose goal line it is , a player of the opposite side shall kick it from the nearest corner flag post. 

As the corner kick fell under the category 'free kicks' it was not permissible to score a goal directly from a corner kick.

The World...1867

It's hard to imagine a time when football did not enjoy mass popularity, and unless you've ever tried to organise a works or pub team , it's equally difficult to appreciate the obstacles that Alcock, Kinnaird et al overcame in order to bring the game to a wider public.
 As Alcock himself reflected in 1880:
What was ten or fifteen years ago the recreation of a few … has now become the pursuit of thousands – an athletic exercise, carried on under a strict system … almost magnified into a profession.

The world of Association football in the 1860s and early 1870s was narrow and parochial, described in correspondence to the press as a 'local clique.'
A great sense of fun also reaches out to us across the years- these were hip young men engaged in something novel and almost esoteric.

Alcock, in particular, was always on the lookout for novelty- ultimately it was this desire that gave us both international football and the FA Cup.

In 1867 a combined Eton and Harrow team challenged The Rest of the World.
A fitting example of how the most rag tag scratch matches in which these pioneers were involved has retained a place in the annals of the Association game, for the first match , which took place on January 8th 1867 , The World (referred to in some quarters of the press as The Universe) could only muster 8 players.
The 8 who took to the field at Westminster's Vincent Square ground were:

C.W Alcock (Old Harrovians / Wanderers)

K Muir McKenzie (Old Carthusians / Wanderers)

M Muir McKenzie (Old Carthusians / Wanderers)

H.F Deacon (Civil Service)

H.G Phipps (Old Harrovians)

J.E Tayloe  (Old Westminsters)

C.M Tebbut (Wanderers)

C.G Waudby (Civil Service)

Selected but absent were:

F Lucas (Old Westminsters)

S.H West (Westminster School)

W.J Dixon (Westminster School)

The Eton Harrow line up was: A.F Kinnaird (E), E Freeth (E), C.J Thornton (E), E.L Corrie (E), E.A Owen (E), A Crompton (H) & F.R Broughton (H).

The game ended in a 2-2 draw.

The Vincent Square playing fields can still be seen in London SW1.

For the rematch, held at the same venue on 23.01.67, The World turned out only 7 players. Despite the fact that Eton and Harrow had a one man advantage The World (who were practically Old Carthusians) ran out 0-2 winners.

K Muir McKenzie (Old Carthusians / Wanderers)

M Muir McKenzie (Old Carthusians / Wanderers)

J Butter (Charterhouse School)

E.C.S Gibson (Charterhouse School)

C.E.B Nepean (Charterhouse School)

J.A Foote (Charterhouse School)

J Kirkpatrick (Civil Service)

Selected but absent were:

O.S Walford

W.J Dixon (Westminster School)

E.C Bovill                            

H.J Smith

The Eton Harrow line up was: A.F Kinnaird (E), A.L Gallus/ C.W Alcock (H), E Freeth (E), C.M Tebbut, S.T Holland, J.H Morgan, E Trower & H.F Deacon.

I note that Tebbut played both for and against The World.