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.

Charterhouse v Westminster

London City Press 26.11.1864

It would appear that the writer of the above report hadn't grasped the terminology of the game.

The Morning Post 24.11.1865

Charterhouse and Westminster were 2 of the 'public' schools in which Association Football was the winter game of choice. In fact the Association rules and modes of play owed much to the brands of football played at these schools before the 1863 rules were drafted. The first ever inter-school match under Association rules was between Charterhouse and Westminster.

Some 20 years after the above matches were played the 'old boys' of each school had formed prominent clubs which supplied England with a number of internationals, and in the case of Charterhouse,won the FA Cup in 1880-81.

Both schools followed rules that allowed passing forward. The Football Association adopted this in 1867 , a key move in the creation of the game that we have today, opening up the possibilities for strategic interpassing rather than the headlong rushes that resulted from a rule whereby, as in Rugby, anyone in front of the ball was 'off his side'.

As you would imagine, with the scholars of both institutions being drawn from the upper echelons of Victorian society, there are a number of noteworthy names in the team lists. In footballing terms there are Charles Nepean (aged  14) and Montague Muir Mackenzie (18), both of whom featured in the Alcock Internationals of 1870-72 (representing Scotland). Nepean was an FA Cup winner with Oxford University in 1874. Photographs of these young men are scarce, however, here is H.H Cameron (Charterhouse, 1864).

Born in 1852, he was the son of of the pioneering photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.

Hints On The Game: Goal-keeping By T. S. Rowlandson

Capt. Thomas Sowerby Rowlandson. M.C. was killed in action during the 1914-18 war at the age of 36. 
He was educated at Charterhouse and  Trinity College, Cambridge .
He won a blue at Association Football and went on to play in goal regularly for Corinthian FC.
Later he played in the Football League for Newcastle United in season 1905-06 and also had a spell with Sunderland.Rowlandson represented  England (Amateur) against Netherlands in 1907.
The following appeared in  BO Corbett's The Annals of the Corinthian F. C. (1906):

The lot of a goal-keeper may not be considered the most enviable on the field, and it is certainly one of the most nerve-trying.

All other players have each their opportunity of retrieving any chance mistake by a brilliant recovery. Not so with the goalkeeper ; he has to wait in solitary sorrow till the opposing side may again be pleased to test his abilities. This may to some extent explain why many goal-keepers display marvellous powers in practice games, yet in an important match seem to lose all their activity and cleverness before the eyes of a large crowd.

Yet the art of goal-keeping is not without its interest. Of course, one of the greatest advantages to a goal-keeper is being able always to play behind the same pair of backs. He gets thoroughly acquainted with their play, knows where to find them at a corner-kick, and has no fears that they will obstruct his view of the ball. Moreover, many backs are very fond of passing back to the goal-keeper when hard pressed. If the goal-keeper is not aware of this habit, the back may unfortunately accomplish what the opposing forward has long been trying to do.

In taking a goal-kick it is always advisable to use the instep, and not the toe of one's foot, as in the latter case the ball has an awkward tendency to skid off in the wrong direction, especially on a wet day, with the result that a well-meant pass often finds itself at the foot of an opposing forward. For this very reason it is always best to kick a wet, greasy ball towards the touch-line, away from the centre.

In the case of a hard low shot, the goal-keeper should always try and pick the ball up with his hands in the same way as he would field a ball at cricket, remembering that a ball thrown to a half or back is often of more advantage to the side than a reckless punt down the field.

Of course, in a scrimmage near goal it is often the case that a goal-keeper has only time to punch the ball away with his fists. Still, he is generally able to take the precaution of punching it away to the side of the ground.

Perhaps the most dreadful moment in the life of a goal-keeper is when he has to face a penalty-kick. Naturally every goal-keeper has his own theory of how and where to stand at such a trying time. My own idea is to stand on one side of the goal, and at the moment when the ball is being kicked, to move sharply across the goal mouth with the eyes fixed on the man, and not the ball. By this method the intention of the enemy is more easily divined.

Next to saving a penalty, a goal-keeper's nerve is most tested when a forward breaks through the defence and runs free towards the goal. In such a case many a goal-keeper has been censured for running out to meet the opponent ; but I feel sure that more goals are saved than lost by this policy. The forward is very apt to be bustled by an advancing goal-keeper, while in any case he has a less open goal at which to shoot.

It may not be out of place to say a word about training. It is a very prevalent idea that a goal- keeper needs no training ; but surely training quickens the eye, and no goal-keeper can achieve any great success unless he does all in his power to increase his quickness and activity. For years it has been my practice to kick a ball against the wall of a large barn, and then to pick it up and punch it on the rebound.

Lastly, a goal-keeper should always be provided with two pairs of boots for dry and wet grounds, as well as a pair of woollen gloves, which will be found especially useful if the ball is likely to be at all greasy.

The Scout- Football Tips...

Lord Baden-Powell , the founder of the Boy Scouts, was a footballer in his youth. He was in the Charterhouse School football XI in 1876, a good goal-keeper, always keeping very cool according to The Carthusian of April of that year. He would have been 19 years old at the time. It is likely that he would have played with some of the Old Carthusians team that won the FA Cup in 1881.
In later life Lord Baden-Powell advocated the positive aspects of playing football whilst also emphasizing his opinion that, as a spectator sport, it was both morally and physically corrupting:
Football is a grand game for developing a lad physically and also morally, for he learns to play with good temper and unselfishness, to play in his place, and to play the game, and these are the best of training for any game of life.but it is a vicious game when it draws crowds of lads away from playing the game themselves to be merely onlookers at a few paid players.
He also wrote of the unwholesome and hysterical natures of football crowds, painting a most unflattering picture of  young British working class males.

By the 1920's, however, the Scout magazine, which carried Baden- Powell's endorsement on the cover, was offering its young readers football tips from some of the professional stars of the day.
The players mentioned on the cover of the issue shown above are:

Ted Hufton- goalkeeper for West Ham United.

Charlie Buchan- the legendary Sunderland and Arsenal inside forward.

Sam  Chedgzoy- Everton winger.

Jackie Carr- Middlesbrough centre half.

All four men were capped by England during the 1920s. 

Charterhouse & Old Carthusians

Charterhouse is a 400 year old public school* in Godalming, Surrey.

Association Football is still the main winter sport at the school, and the form of football played at the school in the pre association days influenced the development of the game. The schoolboys played in cloisters, small covered courtyards, so dribbling and running with the ball was more sensible than playing a game that involved carrying the ball until you were tackled by being thrown to the ground with everybody then piling up on you. Charterhouse football also allowed the ball to be passed forwards, a rule adopted by the Football Association in 1867.

The old boy's team, Old Carthusians won the FA Cup in 1880-81 and were semi-finalists in the following 2 seasons.  They won the FA Amateur Cup in 1894 and 1897. Old Carthusians' jerseys were  halved maroon and navy, the schools colours being maroon,navy and pink stripes.

School (stripes) versus Old Carthusians (halves)

The Old versus The New: Old Carthusians versus Preston North End in 1887. Old Carthusians typified the amateur origins of association football whilst Preston were the archetypal northern proletarian professional side.

The school colours.

The following Old Carthusians players represented England: Andrew Amos (2 caps), 

James Prinsep (1 cap), William Cobbold (3 caps), Walter Gilliat (1 cap), Edward Hagarty Parry (3 caps), Gilbert Oswald Smith (6 caps), Maurice Stanbrough (1 cap), Arthur Melmoth Walters (9 caps), Percy Melmoth Walters (13 caps), Charles Wreford-Brown (3 caps).

1881

* In the United Kingdom a public school is, paradoxically, a school where the pupils pay high fees, as opposed to the state schools, which are free.