Scotland v England 1884

Played at Cathkin Park 15.03.84.
This was the inaugural season of the British Home Championship and the Scotland England clash was always likely to be the decider. This was the 13th meeting between the 2 sides. Scotland had won 8 of the previous 12 matches and England had not beaten them since 1879.
For the first time in international football admission was by ticket only.
Dr John Smith scored the only goal of the game in the 8th minute to give Scotland a 1-0 victory.
The illustration shows 'A Bailey' but it is in fact Norman Coles Bailey, while E.C Bambridge Swift is E.C Bambridge of the club The Swifts. Francis Marindin , here acting as Umpire for England was so well known as to be recognizable only by the title The Major.
The contrast in stature between the illustrated English and Scotch (sic) players is worthy of note. The era of the gentleman amateur was drawing to a close, but the England approach was still largely based on the muscular public schools approach whereas Scottish football was more tactically refined.

The final table:

	P	W	D	L	F	A
Scotland	3	3	0	0	10	1
England	3	2	0	1	12	2
Wales	3	1	0	2	7	8
Ireland	3	0	0	3	1	19

The Umpire's Whistle 1872

I have read a great number of speculative accounts regarding the introduction of the whistle (logically for use by umpires rather than the referee). The common denominators tend to be the involvement of Nottingham Forest and one of the Sheffield clubs. A date of 1878 is often featured.
The following item from the Sheffield Daily Telegraph of 19th March 1872 should lay some of this speculation to rest:

The snippet of information is rather tantalizing. The article refers to a meeting of The Sheffield Football Clubs Association. It's unclear who Mr Brown was? There was a Mr Brown on the committee of the Heeley club, but that's rather tenuous.

In January 1872 Sheffield Norfolk played Forest, winning 5-1. I can find no record of the officials.

The return match on 09.03.72 at Nottingham saw Forest win 1-0. Messrs Pashley and Hussey were the umpires.

Incidentally, the pea whistle came into being in 1884, the legendary Acme Thunderer, so prior to this umpires would have used 'Police' type whistles. 

Here is my grandfather's Acme whistle, which would have seen service in the Swansea area in the 1930s.

A.H. Chequer

This rather solemn looking cricketer should be a familiar face to all students of Association football history. 
On March 16th 1872 at The Oval The Wanderers played The Royal Engineers in the first ever FA Cup Final. Fifteen minutes into the match Wanderers' 18 year old forward Robert Walpole Sealy Vidal succeeded in dribbling the ball a considerable distance into the Engineers' territory. Vidal centered and a teammate finished off the move from an acute angle.  The goalscorer was listed on the teamsheet as A.H Chequer. 
His actual name was Morton Peto Betts, known as Monty, a 24 year old  Old Harrovian and Cambridge University student. 
Bett's pseudonym arose from his membership of Harrow Chequers, It was common in the amateur era for players to be members of a number of clubs simultaneously.  As an Old Harrovian Betts was naturally a member of their old boys' side- the Chequers, founded in 1865. 
Chequers had been drawn to play against Wanderers in the first round of the FA Cup, but had withdrawn. There has been speculation that Betts chose his rather transparent alias to avoid being 'cup-tied.' It may, however, simply have been an example of the humour of the day. I note that in one early West Kent fixture one of the forwards is listed as A Chizelhurst- Chiselhurst  being the home of the West Kent club. I  can't help but wonder if this might also have been Betts!
Betts' name crops up frequently in the sporting annals of the 1870s and 1880s.
The earliest references I have found to him as a footballer come from 1870. His name does not feature in any reports of House matches at Harrow in the years when he would have been at school. In November 1870 he appears on a Wanderers line-up. Betts was also on a shortlist to represent England in the 2nd Alcock International on November 19th, but he wasn't selected and instead appeared in the role of Umpire (discharging  his duties with commendable impartiality throughout according to the press). December 1870 sees the first mention of Betts as a West Kent player, and he also played for South vs North during that month.
An example of multiple club membership giving rise to possible divided loyalties can be seen in January 1871. West Kent played Wanderers. Betts played for West Kent. In November that year Betts represented England in the 4th Alcock International. 1871 also saw the beginning of Betts' 20 years service as a member of the Board of the Football Association .
Betts' status within the game is reflected by his captaincy in 1872 of Middlesex (for a county game vs Surrey) and of Old Harrovians vs Old Etonians. This meant that he captained teams containing such natural leaders as Alcock and Kinnaird. 
Betts also featured regularly for London in their series of matches with Sheffield, and captained London in 1877.
By now Betts had 'matured' into a goalkeeper (although he does not appear to have been Old Harrovians' regular 'keeper in the 1876-77 season). On March 3rd 1877 Betts won his one and only official England cap when he played in goal against Scotland at The Oval.
Scotland won by 3 goals to 1. Contemporary reports attributed the Scots' success to combination play. England, on the other hand, retained the old singular approach.
This match did not signal the end of Betts' involvement with the international game. In 
1885 and 1888 he appeared as an Umpire in the  England vs Scotland matches.  

Referees and Umpires- England v Scotland

Deerstalkers were popular with referees.

When the Football Association’s Laws of the Game were drawn up in 1863 there was no mention to referees, umpires or any arbiters. However, by the 1870s it was common for association matches to be overseen by two umpires and a referee. This practice is traditionally ascribed to the advent of competitive football with the introduction of the FA Cup in 1871. Of course most football was still played by the class of men who would never knowingly seek to gain unfair advantage or deliberately transgress.
In the Alcock Internationals we see the casual approach to officialdom in keeping with the 'scratch' nature of the matches, the personnel being:
Match 1-No mention  made of Umpires and Referees, the assumption being that disputes were settled by the captains.
Match 2-Umpires - Morton Peto Betts (England) and Alexander Morten (Scotland)
Match 3-Umpires - Robert Barker (Hertfordshire Rangers, England) and William Wallace. (Wanderers, for Scotland) Referee - Charles Mansfield Tebbut (Wanderers).
Match  4- Umpires - Alfred Stair (Upton Park, England) and Gilbert Kennedy (Wanderers, for Scotland).
Match 5-Only one Umpire known - Alexander Morten  (taken from Andy Mitchell's First Elevens).

  In practice each side would nominate an Umpire to whom the captains could appeal regarding any situation that arose during play. This situation was usually adequate, although the Umpires were later described in the press as 12th men on each side who could harass the Referee with pleas and arguments.
One Umpire operated in each half of the field (or more accurately each side of the field- for this purpose the field was divided lengthwise). The Referee could operate from the sidelines, but was often to be found on the field of play.

If we look at the officials involved in the England  vs Scotland internationals during the Umpire / Referee era we see a veritable Who's Who of Victorian football.  Prominent football administrators and international players past, present and future fulfilled the roles.

	Referee	Umpires
		England	Scotland
1872	William Keay (S) (Hon. Treasurer- Queen's Park)	C.W. Alcock* (Wanderers & Hon. Secretary FA)	H.N. Smith (President - Queen's Park)
1873	Theodore Lloyd (E) (Crystal Palace)	C.W. Alcock* (Wanderers & Hon. Secretary FA)	Archibald Rae (Queen's Park)
1874	Archibald Rae (S) (Queen's Park)	Alexander Morton* (Crystal Palace)	William Keay (Queen's Park)
1875	Alfred Stair (E) (Upton Park)	Major Francis Marindin (President - FA)	J.C. Mackay (Hon. Sec.- SFA)
1876	William C Mitchell (S) (Queen's Park)	J. Turner (Swifts)	Robert Gardner* (Clydesdale)
1877	Robert A.M.M Ogilvie (E)* (Clapham Rovers)	Hubert Heron* (Wanderers)	William Dick (Hon. Sec.- SFA)
1878	William A Dick (S) (Hon. Sec.- SFA)	G. Turner (Edinburgh University)	R.B. Colquhon (Vice-President- SFA)
1879	Charles Wollaston (E)* (Wanderers)	A. F. Kinnaird* (Treasurer- FA)	R.B. Colquhon (Vice-President- SFA)
1880	Capt. Donald Hamilton (S) (Vice-President- SFA)	W. Pierce-Dix (Hon. Sec.- Sheffield FA)	J. Nicholson (Vale of Leven)
1881	Major Francis Marindin (E) (President-FA)	E.H. Bambridge* (Swifts)	Capt. Donald Hamilton (Vice-President- SFA)
1882	John Wallace (S) (Vice-President- SFA)	Segar  Bastard* (Upton Park)	Thomas Anderson (Renfrew)
1883	John Sinclair (I)* (Hon. Treasurer- Irish FA )	J.C. Clegg*  (President -Sheffield FA)	Thomas  Lawrie  (President- SFA)
1884	John Sinclair (I)* (Hon. Treasurer- Irish FA )	Major Francis Marindin (President-FA)	Thomas Lawrie (Vice-President -SFA)
1885	John Sinclair (I)* (Irish FA)	M.P. Betts* (Old Harrovians)	J. E. McKillop (Scottish FA)
1886	Alexander Hunter (W)* (Secretary-Welsh FA)	N.L. Jackson (Corinthians & Hon. Sec.- FA)	Alexander Stuart (Vice-President- SFA)
1887	John Sinclair (I)* (Irish FA)	R.P. Gregson (Sec- Lancashire FA)	R. Browne (Queen's Park FC)
1888	John Sinclair (I)* (Irish FA)	M.P. Betts* (Old Harrovians)	A Mc Kennedy (President- SFA)
1889	John Sinclair (I)* (Irish FA)	J.C. Clegg*  (President -Sheffield FA)	J.A. Crerar (Third Lanark FC & President -SFA)
1890	John Reid (I)* (Irish FA)	R.P. Gregson (Sec- Lancashire FA)	Charles Campbell* (President- SFA)
1891	William J Morrow  (I) (President- Irish FA)	S.W. Widdowson* (Nottingham Forest)	T.R. Park (SFA)

*denotes an international player.

The inauguration of the British Home Championship in 1883 saw the introduction of neutral referees.
The 1891-92 season saw the Umpires rendered obsolete- replaced by linesmen whose powers were relatively limited, the Referee, by now, having become at least in theory, omnipotent.