Canada Tour of the British Isles 1888

The above is a 50 cent coin minted in 1998 celebrating Canada's first overseas football tour.
In 1888 the Ontario based Western Football Association ( founded in 1880, this was the body behind Canada's earliest representative sides) sent a team to the British Isles.

Ireland
01.09.88	County Antrim	2	6	Canada
03.09.88	Distillery	2	3	Canada
04.09.88	Clarence	2	3	Canada
05.09.88	Belfast  YMCA	1	1	Canada
Scotland
08.09.88	Glasgow Rangers	1	1	Canada
11.09.88	Queen’s Park	3	1	Canada
13.09.88	Ayr United	4	0	Canada
15.09.88	Heart of Midlothian	0	3	Canada
18.09.88	Scotland XI	4	0	Canada
England
22.09.88	Sunderland	0	3	Canada
26.09.88	Middlesbrough	2	3	Canada
29.09.88	Lincoln City	1	3	Canada
01.10.88	Sheffield FC	1	1	Canada
04.10.88	Notts County	2	0	Canada
06.10.88	Newton Heath	0	2	Canada
08.10.88	Blackburn Rovers	4	1	Canada
13.10.88	Swifts (London)	2	2	Canada
15.10.88	Northampton	2	3	Canada
17.10.88	Oxford University	1	1	Canada
20.10.88	Old Carthusians	1	0	Canada
22.10.88	Aston Villa	4	2	Canada
27.10.88	West Bromwich Albion	1	0	Canada
31.10.88	Swifts (London)	1	0	Canada

P	W	D	L	F	A
23	9	5	9	39	41

The players:
The players were largely from the professional and academic class. The tour required them to take a 2 month break from employment and also to be in a position to pay $200 per man towards the cost of the tour. 

	Club	Position	Played*		Goals**
Alexander Garrett	Toronto Varsity	goalkeeper	23
Carl Kranz	Berlin Rangers	full back	18	3
Solomon Brubacher,	Berlin Rangers	full back	21
Fred Killer	Berlin Rangers	full back	19
Dr. Harry Pirie	Queen’s University, Dundas F.C	half back	20	1
Dr. William Burnet	Galt F.C.	half back	1
T.W. Murray	Galt F.C	half back	4
Dr. Wilfrid P. Mustard	Toronto Varsity	half back	6
Dr Edward P. Gordon	Toronto Varsity	half back	14
Harry Bewell	Norwood High School.	half back	2
David Forsyth	Berlin Rangers	forward	8	2
Walter Bowman	Berlin Rangers	forward	22	3
Alex Gibson	Berlin Rangers	forward	19	3
Dr Walter P. Thomson	Toronto Varsity	forward	21	10
E.H. Webster	Galt F.C	forward	21	3
Harry P Bingham	Berlin Rangers.	forward	4	1
Tom Gibson	Berlin Rangers	forward	21	4

*The lines ups for some of the games are not known in full.

** The scorers in 3 games (7 goals) are unrecorded.  There was also an own goal.

Noteworthy participants included Walter Bowman, who later became the first overseas professional to play in the Football League, and the leader of the party, David Forsyth.
David Forsyth was born in Scotland, but moved to Canada as a baby. He is often referred to as the Father of Canadian (Soccer) Football. He was a mathematician and high school principal  responsible for the foundation of  Berlin Rangers. He was also involved in the foundation of  The Western Football Association of Ontario.
Despite the strong influence of Scotsmen on football throughout the British Empire, Forsyth was the only member of the touring party who was not actually born in Canada. 

Berlin is now known as Kitchener.

Goalkeeper turned goalscorer...

Remarkably, given the free reign that goalkeepers potentially had under the earlier versions of the rules, there are not many instances of goalkeepers scoring goals in the 19th century. In fact, in the pre Football League era, the feat appears to have been unheard of. I have not been able to trace any instances. I get the impression that whereas the goalkeeper was free to use his hands anywhere in his own half, most keepers 'stayed at home' and got rid of the ball as soon as possible in the face of onrushing opponents intent on steamrollering them into the goal along with the ball. 
Football histories usually attribute the first goal scored by a goalkeeper to Manchester City's Charlie Williams. Williams scored for City at Roker Park on 14th April 1900 in a Second Division game that Sunderland won 3-1. Williams' effort is described as being either 'from a long clearance' or 'from a goal kick', beating no less a keeper than Doig. 
A look at the records shows that the feat had been achieved on at least 4 occasions before Williams struck.
The key to custodians getting on to the scoresheet seems to have been the introduction of the penalty kick, although even then it was 6 years before a keeper scored in the Football League.
Richard Gray of Second Division Burton Swifts scored from the penalty mark in a League match against Leicester Fosse on 27.11.97. Fosse won the match at Burton's Peel Croft ground, 3-2. 
Gray scored on the opening day of the following season (03.09.98) as the Swifts went down 6-2 at home  to Small Heath. The records do not show whether this (or any of his subsequent goals) was a penalty kick*.
That season Gray also scored in the FA Cup against the Leicestershire Senior League's Coalville Town on 15.10.98. Swifts won this home tie by 4-1, Gray opening the scoring. 
Gray's next goal came in a Division Two match against Loughborough on 07.01.99 that was drawn 1-1. All of his goals were scored at home.

*14.02.14- Addendum
I have now established from contemporary press reports that Gray's goals against Small Heath and Loughborough were also penalty kicks.

One year...

The 1911 FA Cup Final replay at Old Trafford. Bradford City 1, Newcastle United 0. The referee is former Crewe Alexandra and England inside right Mr Jackie Pearson.

This blog has now been online for one year. I would like to thank all regular readers for their support. 

Englishmen abroad...

Football's development towards being a game
 of mass appeal occurred at a time of great commercial enterprise.
 It was not just military ventures that took the English overseas, but trade, industry and the 
development of such infrastructural necessities as railways in the countries that were following
 in the wake of industrial development.
The same of course could be said of the Scots, particularly with regard to the development of 
South American football.  
This is not intended to be an exhaustive list, but merely to provide examples of the way in which
 Englishmen were involved in overseas football.


Founders:
Many overseas clubs, as we have seen, were founded by Englishmen, usually keen amateurs such as    
Herbert Kilpin (Milan) or Dr James Richardson Spensley (Genoa), but sometimes  professionals such as Mark Nicholson, the former West Bromwich Albion player and FA Cup winner who was a founder of First Vienna Football Club 1894.

Players:
A number of Englishmen were actually capped by other countries.
Russia.
The most extreme example of a national team fielding 'foreign' players  must surely have been Russia in their (second) 1912 encounter with Hungary, The team contained 5 Englishmen,  members of Moscow's British Sports Club.
William 'Vasily 'Charnock 

Arthur V. Parker

Arthur V. Parker
G. Newman
T. Lunn
Edward Thomas

Belgium.
A number of Englishmen represented Belgium:
Alphonse Wright (midfield, Racing Club de Bruxelles, Belgium 5 caps 1906-07)
Wright kept his British citizenship a secret from the Belgian football authorities.

 Georgy Hebdin (forward, Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, Belgium 12 caps 1908-20)
Initially kept his British citizenship a secret, but then satisfied FIFA's residency law.

Eric Thornton (goalkeeper, Léopold FC de Bruxelles, Belgium 2 caps 1905)
Thornton went to Belgium to study and represented  l'Université de Bruxelles in the 1900 Olympics. In 1907 he relocated to Antwerp and joined Beerschot AC.

 Austria
Charley Stansfield  (forward, Vienna Cricket and Football Club,2 caps 1905)
A real dark horse, with no form as a footballer in his native UK, he scored 4 goals in an international for Austria in a 5:4 win over Hungary, Stansfield played for Vienna Cricket and Football Club and won 2 international caps. He was however, a gambler and a drinker. Cricketer sent him packing, back to England, ad he appears never to have played again. 




Argentina
If you look at the Argentina line up that faced Uruguay on 21.10.06 the British/ European influence is obvious from the names of the players, many of whom were the sons of immigrants. 2 of the Argentina  players were actualy English born: 

Héctor J. Henman (inside forward, Alumni- 1 cap) Harold James Henman had traveled to South America with a South African touring side. He was, however, English born.
Wilfredo A. Stocks (winger, Belgrano- 1 cap) born in Nottingham, both parents English, moved to Argentina as a small boy. 


France (tenuous)
 I hesitate to include Charles Wilkes,  some sources claim he was born in the Chanel Islands and  adopted French citizenship, others record him as being born in Le' Harve. He played 4 times for France (1905-08).
Similarly Victor Sergent (Victor Bentall-Sergent) was born in England, but his father was French. The Racing club de France defender was capped 5 times by France (1907-13).

Ricardo Zamora

He liked a drink (Cognac) and he liked a smoke (60 a day or Havana cigars, which he was once arrested for smuggling into Spain). Noted for spectacular saves and a trademark white sweater, Ricardo Zamora Martínez was probably the greatest goalkeeper of the first half of the 20th century. 

Club career:

RCD Espanyol  (1916–1919) Zamora's first success came in 1918 when Espanyol won the Campionat de Catalunya . He argued with the club directors and was transferred to Barcelona.

Barcelona (1919–1922)  At Barcelona  Zamora enjoyed 3 great years in which they won the Campionat de Catalunya 3 times (1919–20, 1920–21, 1921–22) and the Copa del Rey twice (1920, 1922).

RCD Espanyol (1922–1930) During Zamora's second spell at Espanyol he enjoyed another Campionat de Catalunya / Copa del Rey double (1928–29). He had begun inauspiciously though- suspended for a year for tax evasion relating to his signing on fee. 

Real Madrid (1930–1936) From 1931 onward the club was known as Madrid Football Club (during the Second Spanish Republic). The Copa del Rey became known as Copa de España: Madrid were winners in 1934 and 1936. They also won  La Liga twice (1931–32, 1932–33).

Catalunya
 Zamora played for the Catalunya team on a regular basis in the 1920s, winning the Copa Princep de Asturies 3 times (1922, 1924, 1926).

Spain
Zamora made his international debut in Spain's first official international- the 1-0 defeat of Denmark at the 1920 Olympics. Zamora's performances won him rave reviews during the tournament , but in only his 4th game, against Italy, he was sent off in the 79th minute for striking an opponent. Following the chaos of the final , Spain played Netherlands for the silver medal and won 3-1.
In the 1934 World Cup Spain beat Brazil in the first round. They then held hosts Italy to a 1-1 draw. Italy's roughhouse tactics put Zamora out of the replay (which, of course, Italy were never going to lose).

Zamora won 46 caps for Spain (W31-D7-L8). He conceded 42 goals and kept 20 clean sheets.

Despite being awarded the Order of the Republic in 1934, Zamora was not a Republican or a Catalan nationalist. 
During the Fascist war against the Republic the Fascists promoted the rumour that Zamora had been killed by Republicans. He was later taken prisoner by the Republicans (accused of having Fascist sympathies) and went into exile in France.