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.

SV Werder

Football was not well thought of in 19th century Germany. It was considered to an un-German pastime -  a decadent and morally damaging English 'disease'. The earliest clubs were generally associated with groups of students- the kind of young men who rejected convention and relished the shock factor of engaging in this scandalous game. 

In 1899 a group of students in Bremen were presented with a football (a prize in a competition of some sort?). naturally, they set about forming a club, and in February 1899 SV Werder was born. 

On September 10th that year they played their first match, a 1-0 win over neighbours Allgemeinen Bremer Sportclub von 1898. Both of these Bremen clubs were founder members of the DFB in 1900. 

Tradition has it that SV Werder were the first German club to charge admission to spectators.

In 1920 SV Werder went on to adopt the name Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V.