Meuwsen beker (Amsterdam) 1912-1914

1912
In April 1912 an Easter tournament was played at Amsterdam- the trophy was donated by famous hat-dealer, J. S. Meuwsen.
The following teams participated:

Ajax (Netherlands)

Antwerp  (Belgium)  

FC Lloyd (Germany)
A Bremen club, probably representatives of the Dynamo Lloyd automotive factory.

GVC (Netherlands)
Wageningen based GVC (Go Ahead-Victoria Combination) are one of Netherlands oldest clubs, formed in 1903 as a merger of Go Ahead (founded 1886) and Victoria (founded 1889). In the seasons 1910-1911 and 1911-1912 GVC were runners up to Sparta Rotterdam in the national championships. The games were held in Het Houten Stadion.

07.04.12	Antwerp	5	0	FC Lloyd
07.04.12	Ajax	1	2	GVC
08.04.12	GVC	2	1	Antwerp
08.04.12	Ajax	6	0	FC Lloyd

1913

For the 1913 edition Ajax were joined by:

Werder Bremen (Germany)
Founded in 1899- the Green-Whites were founder members of the DFB (1900).

Cercle S. Brugeois  (Belgium)  

Founded in 1899 as Cercle Sportif Brugeois by former students of the Saint Francis Xavier Institute. Cercle won the Belgian national championship in the 1910–11 season.

West Norwood  (England)   
This tournament teaches us much about the gulf in class between English and continental football at the time. Although London's West Norwood had employed professional players since 1903 they were in the Isthmian League and the season had seen them finish bottom with a record of p 20 w 3 d 3 l 14. They had last played in the FA Cup in 1906- 07, losing 9-1 to Accrington Stanley of the Lancashire Combination. They did however win the London Senior Cup that season. West Norwood were badly affected by the relatively successful Crystal Palace moving into their neighbourhood.
The club had originally been formed as Stanley FC in 1887. They became West Norwood in 1889. Having played in a variety of locations in south London they settled at Herne Hill. In 1915 Crystal Palace of the Southern League took over this stadium and West Norwood slipped into decline.  

11.05.13	Ajax	1	0	Werder Bremen
11.05.13	West Norwood	3	0	Cercle S. Brugeois
12.05.13	Werder Bremen	1	0	Cercle S. Brugeois
12.05.13	West Norwood	1	0	Ajax

1914

West Norwood returned to defend their title, Ajax again hosted. The other participants were:

Stade Français (France) 
Now better known for Rugby Union, Stade had been operating a football section since 1888.

Groningen VC   (Netherlands)  
West Norwood notched up a second successive victory over Ajax. Their showing in the  Isthmian league had also been improved- 10th out of 11 ( p 20 w 4 d 3 l 13).


      

12.04.14	Ajax	2	1	Stade Français
12.04.14	West Norwood	5	1	Groningen VC
13.04.14	Stade Français	6	2	Groningen VC
13.04.14	West Norwood	1	0	Ajax

Special thanks to Mark (www.voetbalkroniek.nl) for help with missing results.

Rotterdamse Voetbal en Atletiek Vereniging "Sparta"

Founded in 1888 Sparta (Rotterdamse Voetbal en Atletiek Vereniging "Sparta") is Rotterdam's senior club. They played their first season of championship football in 1893–94.

1909

Sparta won the National championship in 1909, 1911, 1912, 1913 and  1915.

In 1899 the club adopted the colours of Sunderland.

Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax also sported these colours , red black and white being the civic colours of Amsterdam. When Ajax joined the  Eerste Klasse in 1911 the rules dictated that  there could be no duplication of strips, and Ajax adopted their iconic white shirts with a broad red band. 

The poster advertises a match between Sparta and D.F.C (Dordrecht).The Dordrecht club was founded in 1883. D.F.C still exists as an amateur club. In 

1904–05 D.F.C joined the Eerste Klasse West.  The seasons 1911-12 (goals scored), 1912-13 (1 point) and 1915-16 (1 point ) saw them finish runners up to Sparta by narrowest of  margins.
In 1923  Eerste Klasse West was split into West I (North Holland & Utrecht) and West II (South Holland), placing Sparta and D.F.C in different leagues.

Jack Reynolds

Jack Reynolds was born in Manchester. he began his career with Manchester City,
 but never made it into the first team.
He played for Burton United, Grimsby Town, The Wednesday and Watford before joining New Brompton, 
for whom he played 108 of his total 198 league games.
In 1912 Reynolds moved to Switzerland to coach St Gallen. 
In 1914 he was lined up to coach the German national team, but this was scuppered by the 
outbreak of the war.
Reynolds moved to The Netherlands and in 1915 began his first stint in charge of Ajax.
He was manager there in three spells covering 32 years;  from 1915 to 1925, 1928–1940 
and again from 1945–1947.
During the pre 1937 period Ajax won the following honours under Reynolds:
Eredivisie: 1918, 1919, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1937
KNVB Cup: 1917
Reynolds is credited with laying the initial foundations of a total-football style and introduced the youth system for which Ajax is still renowned. 

Ajax 1917

In 1919 Reynolds coached the Netherlands national team to a 3-1 victory over Sweden. 

China in Europe 1936

China v Great Britain 1936

The China squad for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin consisted of ethnic Chinese players from Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, and Java. Following a couple of trial matches the squad was named in April, and then, following 7 warm -up games in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Nanking, undertook an arduous 27 match tour of Indo China, the Dutch East Indies, Singapore, Burma and India before travelling to Europe.
Their record in these preparation games, played between May 8th and July 8th was:
Played: 34
Won: 28
Drawn: 4
Lost: 2
For: 141
Against: 41

The 1936 Olympic football tournament was a straight knock-out.  China were drawn against Great Britain in the first round. Great Britain won 2-0 through second half goals by John Dodds (Queen's Park) and Lester Finch (Barnet).
So after months of preparation and thousands of kilometers of travelling China's Olympics lasted 90 minutes.

The following week China played the first match of a three week tour of Europe.
The details of the first match on August 13th are unclear- they played a South-West Germany representative team in Frankfurt and lost (some sources give the score as 8-1 and others 8-3)*.
The Chinese then travelled to Vienna where they lost 4-2 to Rapid on August 15th and were thrashed 11-0 by Admira the following day.
On August 20th they defeated Servette 3-2 in Geneva.
Next stop was France and a 2-2 draw with Red Star Olympique in Paris on August 22nd followed by a 6-0 beating at the hands of Le Havre on the 23rd.
Ajax were the next team to entertain the China team, the Dutch winning 5-3 on August 27th.
The tourists then crossed the channel and met two English amateur sides. Their detour to England ended winless- On August 31st Islington Corinthians FC beat them 3-2 and Casuals 5-2 on September 1st.

The record of the European part of the tour (excluding the Olympic match) was:
Played: 9
Won: 1
Drawn: 1
Lost: 7
For: 15 or 17*
Against: 46

The star of the China squad was Lee Wai Tong. He received offers of contracts whilst in Europe, but, approaching his 31st birthday, he had resolved to retire from the game after the tour.

Ajax

Ajax c.1901 

                                                          Promotion winners 1910-11

1911-12  A change of strip -to avoid a clash with Sparta Rotterdam

Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax NV was founded on March 18, 1900, a revival of an earlier, short lived club (1894).

When Ajax reached the Netherlands top league for the first time in 1911 it was under the management of Jack Kirwan, a former Irish international who had played in the Tottenham Hotspur FA Cup winning team of  1901, as well as having spells with Everton and Chelsea.
Kirwan returned to Britain during the First War, but later coached Livorno in Italy (1923-1924).