Zuzu

Cunha Bueno, the Paulistano goalkeeper, in action against Palestra Itália in 1917.
Zuzu, as he was known, was a goalkeeper of desperation, noted for unconventional last ditch saves executed with all parts of his anatomy.
With Zuzu in goal Paulistano won the Campeonato Paulista in 1916,1917, 1918 & 1919.
Away from football he was a coffee farmer and exporter. 
The ball in this photograph looks small. I have read that size 4 balls were used in Italy, I'm not sure if that was the case in South America too. 

John Wisden & Co. Manufacture The Finest Footballs In The World

The Sportsman 21.09.01

Wisden, a name more often associated with cricket, was also a supplier of football goods.
Testimonials from the 1st Battalion Scots Guards (who used the 7/6 ball daily for 3 months) and Charterhouse School (ordering a 12/6 ball for the game vs Old Carthusians).
The Corinthian cost the equivalent of about £60 at today's prices.

The 'Swift'

This ball was used in the match between Albion and Belgrano Athletic Club on August 12th 1900. The match, a semi-final of the Tie Cup, was played in Montevideo, Belgrano winning 1-0 in extra time. 

The English made ball sold at auction for $4,817 in 2014.

In Touch with all Requirements

When ordering footballs please mention Association or Rugby...
The best ball here costs 9/3*. An agricultural labourer earned 14/ per week.




*Prices are in shillings /pence. 12 pence to a shilling, 20 shillings to a pound. 

Football King

I wonder if the Nike Ordem 4 would withstand being driven over by a two ton roller? I wonder if any League clubs possess a two ton roller?

Balls

31st May 1934, Stadio Littoriale, Bologna. Before the Hungary v Austria match, the process of selecting the match ball. I believe the picture shows Sternberg László (holding the balls) and  Hans Horvath (pointing). Referee Francesco Mattea (Italy) behind Horvath and possibly  Hungary coach Nádas Ödön on the left.

We have seen that in 1930 there was controversy over which ball was used in the final. In Italy 1934 there were 3 different models of ball in use, and the teams would decide which one to use before each game. 

7 days hard labour

Windsor and Eton Express - 12.12.68

Footballs

A newspaper advertisment from pre- revolutionary Russia. I Glazynov of Moscow offers London made footballs. The  'American rubber ' balls come in 5 sizes. Almost twice as costly are the 'English leather' balls.

Arsenal

A  football signed by the Arsenal team of 1936.  The signatures are:

 Norman Sidey
A centre half (which was now a central defensive position rather than a playmaker), he played 45 games for Arsenal (1932-38).

Bobby Davidson
The man who had to shoulder the onerous billing of being the next Alex James. Davidson played
63 games and scored 15 goals (1935-1937) but had the reputation of being a  'difficult personality' and moved on to Coventry City.

George Male
The fullback played 321 games for Arsenal (1930-48) He captained England 6 times in his 19 international appearances. 

Alex James
Among the greatest footballers of all time, James was the man who developed the role of the inside forward into something more approaching the modern midfielder. 

George Cox
In 2 seasons Cox played 7 games for Arsenal. He then moved on to Fulham, but his career never really took off.

Peter Dougal
A peripatetic Scottish inside forward whose many clubs included  FC Sete in France.

 Jackie Milne
A versatile winger, playing either left or right, Milne was at the club from 1935 to 1937 and played 54 games, scoring 19 goals .

Bob John 
Welsh international (15 caps) half back. John was with Arsenal from 1922 to 1937, making 470 appearances.  

Cliff Bastin
By the age of nineteen Bastin had won a League title, the FA Cup and been capped for England, making him the youngest player ever to achieve all three. 
He played 399 games for Arsenal having joined from Exeter City as a 17 yr old.  An outside left, he won  21 caps. He suffered with deafness.

 Les Compton.
A full back and later a centre half, he represented England twice and was associated with Arsenal for 22 years, playing over 250 matches. 

George Allison (Manager)
Given the unenviable task of succeeding the most innovative manager in the history of football Mr Allison did a more than decent job. An old school secretary manager with little involvement in coaching or tactics he led the Gunners to 2 league titles and 2 FA Cup wins.  In the 1939 film The Arsenal Stadium Mystery, he had the prophetic line: It's one-nil to the Arsenal. That's the way we like it.


 Joe Shaw (Assistant Manager)
Shaw had joined Arsenal as a player in 1907. On retiring in 1922 he joined the coaching staff and became caretaker manager when Herbert Chapman passed away. He oversaw the winning of the 1933-34 League title.

Arsenal players on a training walk.This form of fitness preparation has now fallen out of favour. 

The Great Victory

I have seen all the best sides in Football but I have never seen a side that compared to Preston North End at their best. We beat them but I do not pretend for a moment that we deserved to beat them.
Billy Bassett

The FA Cup Final, 1888. Preston North End were strong favourites to win the match. From September 1887 to March 17th 1888 they had won every game. On March 17th they had drawn 1-1 with Crewe Alexandra.

 In the eyes of  the FA president and match referee Major Marindin Preston North End were a Bad Thing- he disapproved of their supposed reliance on Scottish imports. Now the Preston players incensed him further by asking to have a team photograph with the cup before the match. 

Anecdotally West Bromwich Albion players refused to bet with their Preston North End counterparts on the outcome of the match. The team featured the majority of the players that would go on to feature in the Invincibles squad the following season. Add to that impressive pool of talent the name of  Nick Ross, probably the best defender of his era.

West Bromwich Albion		Preston North End
Bob Roberts	GK		R.H Mills-Roberts
Albert Aldridge	RB		Bob Howarth
Harry Green	LD		Nick Ross*
Ezra Horton	RH		Bob Holmes
Charlie Perry	CH		David Russell*
George Timmins	LH		Johnny Graham*
George Woodhall	OR		Jack Gordon*
Billy Bassett	IR		Jimmy Ross*
Jem Bayliss	CF		John Goodall
Joe Wilson	IL		Fred Dewhurst
Tom Pearson	OL		George Drummond*

* Scottish players. Mills-Roberts was Welsh. Mills-Roberts and Dewhurst were amateurs. The majority of the  West Bromwich players  were born in that town, with others from nearby Walsall, Tipton and Handsworth. 

Contemporary reports condemn the Preston forwards for their profligacy. Each of the 5 North End forwards was guilty of at least one serious error in front of goal, and Nick Ross was reported as having said at half time 'our forwards will cost us this match',

Preston North End

Bayliss put Albion ahead in the 20th minute, shooting home from a Bassett cross. Dewhurst equalised in a scramble 7 minutes into the second half, and after Jimmy Ross had hit the post West Brom got a winner with just over 10 minutes left to play. 

Modern references credit the winning goal to Woodhall, but most contemporary

newspaper reports I have read give the winning goal to Bayliss, heading in after Woodhall had shot against the post. Another account has a shot by Woodhall being deflected in off Bassett's knee. The Birmingham Daily Post infers that Woodhall was responsible for the goal.  Such was life before the action replay.

Bayliss

Woodhall

Woking 1908

This ball was used in a first round FA Cup tie between Bolton Wanderers and Woking .
The Cards were formed in 1889 and joined the West Surrey League in 1895. In the early part of the 20th century the club was beset by financial difficulties. In 1907-08 Woking progressed to the first round of the FA Cup having overcome Maidstone United and Oxford City in the qualifying rounds.
In the first round proper Woking were drawn away to Bolton Wanderers. Bolton were 13th in the First Division at the time (they finished 19th and were relegated). Woking were no match for their hosts.

Bolton Wanderers		Woking
John Edmondson	GK		J.C Adams
Bert Baverstock	RB		R. Stevenson
Jack Slater	LB		A.H Bell
Sam Greenhalgh	RH		A.V Pearce
Bob Clifford	CH		J .Monk
John Boyd	LH		F.S Lintott
David Stokes	OR		F. Butt
William 'Kilty' Cameron	IR		J. Kyle
Jackie Owen	CF		C.S Salisbury
Wattie White	IL		R.A Pask
Marshall McEwan	OL		G. Hutton

The 5-0 defeat proved to be a lifeline for Woking, whose pluck  impressed Bolton. The following season Bolton visited the Surrey club to play a benefit match that secured their solvency.
The match was played on Monday, 26th  April 1909, attracting a crowd of 2000.
Bolton were 1-0 after 1 minute and 3 up at half time. They eased off in the second half  (Woods, Hughes (2) and Marsh were the Bolton scorers). Jack Kyle scored a consolation goal for Woking in the 90th minute.

Then vs Now

Patsy Gallacher in action. It looks like the defender is launching into the sort of challenge that would have modern referees reaching for the red card.

Making comparisons between  players from different eras is futile and fun.
How would the galácticos of the 21st century have fared in the pre war game?
The pace of the game was slower, players smoked and traveled on public transport. They ate steak and chips for Saturday lunch and prepared for Cup Finals by taking a stroll on the beach. 
However, if we were to transport the stars of the modern game back in time , they would find 
that certain aspects of the game  would have act as levelers.

Arsenal were considered progressive...

Diet and preparation.
The players of the early professional age lacked the benefits of  scientific physical conditioning. Many of them would have started off from a disadvantaged baseline, as working class people at the time bore the lifelong effects of childhood deprivation, poor nutrition and disadvantageous living conditions.
In the era when professionalism and northern working class football were emerging the physical differences between the northerners and the privileged public schoolboys was often commented on (a good example been the Darwen vs Old Etonians games of 1879).

Charlton Athletic vs Preston North End, 1937 

Playing surfaces.
Up until the 1990s even top level matches were often played on terribly degraded pitches.

Germans

Footballs.
A weatherproof outer skin for the ball was not developed until the 1950s. Balls would soak up moisture, increasing their weight as the game wore on.  The boots worn reflect the unforgiving nature of the balls- reinforced toecaps were an advantage.  Stroking a 40 yard accurate pass with one of those old time leather casers would have been a physical impossibility. Heading also carried it's own risks. In the short term the player risked injury from the laces, in the long term the impact killed off brain cells.

Physical contact.
Dismissals were a relative rarity. Physical contact was very much a part of the game. Tackles from behind were permitted, as were shoulder charges. 50- 50 balls were contested with studs up. The more skillful players always faced a degree of physical intimidation in order to discourage 'too much of the fancy stuff'.

Footballs and Accessories

The English Midlands, 1908. Footballs, Guns and Gramophones- what else could you want?

The East Surrey Regiment

The East Surrey Regiment, Kolkata, 1890.

It's never particularly cool in Kolkata- about 25C in December and January, so that heavyweight kit and boots must have been hard work.
The British Military helped to spread football with their penchant for recreating English life wherever they went. 
Football was particularly popular in Bengal , with the locals founding clubs and aspiring to be able to challenge the English.
The first notable triumph for an Indian club  came in 1892 when Kolkata's Savabazar FC  defeated The East Surrey Regiment  in the Trades Cup final . 

The East Surrey Regiment feature in another curious episode. On July 1st, 1916 , The first day of the Battle of The Somme, Captain Billy Nevill gave his players 2 footballs with which to lead their assault on the enemy positions. On the balls was written: The Great European Cup-Tie Final. East Surreys v Bavarians. Kick off at zero and NO REFEREE.

Remarkably, given the carnage that followed, one of the balls was retrieved and returned to the regiment's HQ.

Tiverton Preedy

Thanks to the philosophy of Muscular Christianity and the missionary attitude that many Victorian Christians had towards the proletariat, churches and chapels were often the focus of football clubs in industrial cities and towns.
Bolton Wanderes and Everton were examples amongst the original members of the Football League; Manchester City can trace their origins to a church team.

Barnsley

Barnsley are another club who owe their existence to a man of the cloth.
Tiverton Preedy had direct links with the Muscular Christianity ethos. He studied at Lincoln Theological College - an institution founded by a former Rugby Schoolmaster, Edward Benson.

Rev. Preedy took his belief that sport was a useful means of providing moral education to Barnsley in 1887.  Barnsley was  predominantly a Rugby town, and  Rev. Preedy originally  played Rugby, but when he left the Rugby club in protest at their playing a match on Good Friday, he turned his attentions to Association. 

Rev. Preedy was a curate at St Peter's, and the club he formed carried the name of the church. The fixture lists of the north of England at this time are full of Saints and Holy Trinities. 

A generous friend to the poor...

Having graduated through the Sheffield and District League and the Midland League Barnsley were elected to The Football League in 1898.
They reached the FA Cup Final in 1910, losing to Newcastle United. In 1912 Barnsley lifted the FA Cup, beating West Bromwich Albion 1-0 in a replayed Final at Bramall Lane. The club presented the match ball to Rev. Preedy. 

Sarah Briggs from Barnsley Council and Arthur Bower, Barnsley FC historian, with the match ball from the 1912 FA Cup Final.

  Barnsley Chronicle 08.06.13

101 years previously- the same ball is booted away by Barnsley's Dick Downs. 

Football Stitchers

The Yorkshire Evening Post 15.08.16

The local press (predominantly in the north of England) were advertising for football stitchers right up to the end of our period (1937)

German advert c 1890

The Latest Novelty! announces this advertisment for a Berlin sports shop.
Football boots for a striker weighing just 600 grammes- modern football boots (or shoes) weigh in at about 250 grammes.
As football spread throughout the World there was no doubt that the best kit was produced in Britain. Continental retailers would boast that the gear on sale was imported from the UK.
The Victor ball was played with for 24 matches by Bolton Wanderers. The inference is that it kept its shape and didn't rupture or burst, something that the old style balls were prone to.

1914-18

These balls were destined for the troops on the western front

There are many accounts of balls being booted into no mans land before a charge...

Patent Footballs

Richard Daft was a cricketer. His son, Harry Daft, played football for Notts County and was an FA Cup winner (1894). He was capped 5 times by England. He also enjoyed a good county cricket career. 

The heaviness of rain affected leather balls was a factor that not only affected the spectacle of the game but also the health and safety of the players. Interesting to see that measures to combat this problem were being taken as early as the 1870s. 

Colours of Every Club in Scotland Kept in Stock

This advertisement dates from 1876. Victorian sports kit seems to have had little to do with comfort. The ball has a button at each pole- the buttonless design arrived in the 1880s.

This Scottish player is wearing a cowl on his head.