Old Carthusians 1903

The Dunn Cup was introduced in 1903 for clubs for former Public Schoolboys, and  Old Carthusians enjoyed a good run of success (they were winners  in 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1908 and 1910).

This line up features 3 'full ' internationalists (G.O Smith, Maurice Stanborough and Charles Wreford-Brown), as well as a couple of amateur internationals (Rowlandson, Timmis).
Captain William Simpson was a leading referee (he had taken charge of the 1896 FA Cup Final).  
Haig-Brown, O.E Wreford-Brown and Rowlandson were killed in the 1914-18 War.

The German Tourists of 1896

In the 1890s it was not uncommon for British clubs to venture to the continent, but it was pretty much one way traffic. Whereas clubs abroad were keen to learn from the sometimes gruelling experience of hosting English or Scottish guests (even lowly English clubs were a head and shoulders above the continentals- as late as 1913 Reading could thrash the best teams in Italy and West Norwood  beat Ajax) there was not much incentive for British clubs  in hosting visitors who would provide neither serious opposition or a healthy gate.

In 1896 a German team visited England, said by the press to represent the 'German Football Association'. The Deutscher Fußball-Bund didn't come into being until 1900, and I am not sure who was actually responsible for arranging the tour.  They were a weak side, and the British press were frank in describing their deficiencies. The Scottish FA were at the time considering an international against Germany, and during the tour the President of the SFA was keen to emphasise that the present tourists were not representative of The German League (sic):

Evening Telegraph 05.09.96

Mr Crichton's hopes that these sorry exhibitions would not interfere with the official game were sadly never tested, as the proposed visit to Germany by Scotland never materialized.
  During the tour the Germans played 3 Southern League teams and an amateur selection under the name of Crystal Palace (not the present Palace or the original club, but a scratch team made up primarily of members of Corinthian FC).

The Germans arrived at Queensborough on Tuesday September 1st having sailed from Flushing.

Yorkshire Herald 02.09.96

01.09.96 Sheppey United 9 Germans 0

The Germans played their first match on the evening of their arrival- and that combined with the poor weather conditions might have been considered a factor in their poor showing against their Southern League opponents at Sheerness. 

02.09.96 Chatham 15 Germans 0

The Evening Telegraph remarked on how the Germans were beaten even more easily than at Sheerness.Chatham were 9 up at half time.

The Edinburgh Evening News commented of the tourists It is about time they were going home. 

03.09.96 Milwall Athletic 9 Germans 0

The Morning Post 04.09.96

Herr Schlee must have been quite a goalkeeper- scathing criticism of the other 10 though...

Prior to the Palace game the London Standard remarked it is a great pity that those who had the arrangements of the tour in hand did not fix matches for the visitors against weaker clubs. As it is, so far, the germans have been so badly beaten as to greatly discourage them from paying another visit for some time to come. 

05.09.96 Crystal Palace 13 Germans 0 

Played at the Crystal Palace ground the hosts were a strong amateur side featuring many Corinthians. These included England internationals Charles Wreford-Brown, G.O. Smith (who scored 6) and Hugh Stanborough (4). 
The press reported very little interest in the game on account of the poor form the Germans had shown in their previous matches.



The Germans - it appears that only eleven players traveled, which is in itself a bold undertaking when playing 4 matches in 5 days- were:

S. Schlee (Hockfeld)
W. Joe (Duisburg)
H. Krussenbaum (Duisburg)
A Hinze (Aachen)
R Bachmeister (Bremerhaven)
H Young (or Jung?) (Erfurt)
J Weindenfeld (Duisburg)
W Schleeting (Duisburg)
J Bachmeister (Eisewach)
L Hoffman (Joisy)
W Otten (Duisburg)

The party left Britain the evening of the Crystal Palace game. In 5 dys they had played 4 matches and conceded 46 goals.

Wreford-Brown, soccer and generosity

The word 'soccer' is loaded with connotations. Like most British football lovers I don't like the word. It's hardly used now in the British media. It seems to me that in the 1960s and 70s it was far more prominent; soccer was about the black and white  truncated icosahedron balls and skimpy satin shorts- football spoke of a classier, more substantial brand of the game, although at least one of the 'quality' papers was using the term quite recently and no less a man than Brian Glanville frequently refers to the game as soccer. Of course, Welsh readers will remember the dreadful Soccer Sunday in the 1990s (maybe it still exists). I was always perplexed as a small boy when I heard Rugby players referred to as footballers. In the internet age  we have to sometimes use 'soccer' in order to avoid being swamped by references to the dreadful American game. 
There is , I must admit, something curiously pleasing about the term 'soccer ball', but aside from that I have no real use for the word.
We will never know whether or not Charles Wreford-Brown actually coined the word  soccer (an abbreviation of association) as an extension of the Charterhouse argot.
Wreford -Brown, who played for Old Carthusians and Corinthian FC won 4 England caps over a 9 year period, captaining the side on 2 occasions. He played his last game for Corinth at the age of 44 on a tour of Canada.
Wreford -Brown obviously didn't share the prejudices of some of his class when it came to professionalism!
In England's 1898 game with Scotland at Celtic Park the 31 year old Wreford-Brown was captaining the side. In the 3rd minute Aston Villa's Diamond Freddy Wheldon put England ahead. Wreford -Brown ran over to congratulate him and in shaking his hand passed him a sovereign (worth about £100 in today's terms).
20 minutes later the great Steven Bloomer doubled England's lead and found himself the recipient of another such gift, retrieved by his captain, he recalled, from the deep pockets of his knees length shorts (the style favoured by Corinthians players).  Bloomer handed the sovereign to referee Mr Robertson for safekeeping. 
 When Bloomer added the 3rd goal in the 73rd minute his captain's act of generosity was repeated. Mr Robertson, again entrusted with the coin , advised Bloomer that if he carried on scoring that he'd have to get a purse. 
Bloomer was quite well off and a noted collector of memorabilia (J.A.H Catton  recalls how varnished balls hung from the ceiling of his parlour) and he kept the sovereigns as a memento. 
The sovereigns were gold coins worth £1. The average player was on about £3 a week in the late 1890s, The average working man about £1 a week. 



Wheldon

Bloomer