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The Youth of England’s Only Game – Foot Bawl!
Football fans are depicted in full-voice in this wonderful Edwardian cartoon. Ralph Cleaver was born in 1893, and was the brother of artist Reginald Cleaver. Ralph specialised in political and spo...
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Blackguardly and disgraceful
In 1887, the Northern Echo printed an alarming yet undeniably amusing letter from Cleveland referee John Reed Jnr describing a match between Yarm and North Skelton that had resulted in ‘the most blackguardly and disgraceful scenes ever witnessed on a football field’.
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The Footballers’ Railway Saloon
Let me say something about what goes on in the footballers’ railway saloon, and about the arrangements which are made for the comfort and well-being of the party during league journeys. Of course the saloon is always engaged, no matter whether the journey to be made is short or long. It is a detail that in the case of a party of such dimensions the railway company makes no extra charge for it. It is necessary that all the men should be together, and under the eye of the trainer and the secretary, who also acts as manager.
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Football Dogs – Bullpunchers vs Bullrags
An easterly wind was blowing hard, when we were requested, by special invitation, to attend a certain football match, which, when all has been said and done, has proved to be the most extraordinary exhibition of “footer” that has ever been known in the history of the game. The football dogs, whose spirited play we are to chronicle in detail presently, are for the most part bull-terriers of high degree. They belong to the brothers Riccobono, of Manchester, to whose wonderful knowledge of animals and their training no small amount of praise is due.
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Lady Footballers match at Crouch End
This sketch from the Illustrated Police News, titled ‘Football Up to Date’, depicts the first match of the British Ladies’ Football Club, featuring captain Nettie J Honeyball and goalkeeper Mrs Graham, in March 1895. ‘I went out of curiosity, and to see if the dear creatures were up to League form,’ wrote the paper’s correspondent ‘Veteran’, ‘and I came away with the sad conviction that the proper place for the British Ladies’ Football Club to exhibit their skill would be in the playground of a girls’ school, and not in public.’
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Shocking death of footballers
‘There was a shocking accident to a team of football players in America,’reported the Illustrated Police News, rather vaguely, in December 1894. ‘A bus containing a loadful of them was run into by a train as they were driving over a level crossing; some were killed on the spot, two more have died since, and the cases of three others are regarded as hopeless.’ Further research reveals that the accident happened in Southbridge, Massachusetts, on 29 November 1894 – Thanksgiving. The Southbridge Purples YMCA team were on their way to their local field to play a Worcester Polytechnic XI when their omnibus was struck by a passenger train.
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Bad weather and a murder trial
The first international match between England and Wales was curious for several reasons, in part due to bad weather and a murder trial. The game was played at the Kennington Oval on 18 January 1879 ‘with snow lying several inches deep, while a cheerless mixture of snow and sleet was falling’. As an indication of how terrible the weather was, as few as 85 spectators turned up – representing the lowest ever attendance at an international match involving ‘home nation’ teams.
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Football riot and the Derbyshire Police
The playing of traditional ‘mob’ football in the streets of Derby had been banned since 1846, so when the game was revived in 1880, the townsfolk were warned that anyone playing in the streets would be ‘imprisoned without the option of a fine’. In order to suppress the game, ‘a large body of police arrived by train from all parts of the country’. This typically vivid sketch from the Illustrated Police News shows what appears to be a mass riot, with stone-throwing townsfolk battling stick-wielding police.
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Imprisoned Hussars amuse themselves at football
This sketch, ‘Imprisoned Hussars on Pretoria racecourse’, appeared in the Illustrated Police News in November 1899. The Hussars were cavalry units engaged in the Second Anglo-Boer War, which took place between 1899 and 1902. ‘They make the best of their lot and amuse themselves at football,’ said the paper. Around 20,000 British soldiers were killed or died from illness during the war.
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A football referee mobbed and shamefully treated
Pity poor William Hay, referee of a match involving Moffat FC in Dumfries in 1897, who was ‘mobbed and shamefully treated’ at the final whistle, an incident depicted in this typically vivid image from the Illustrated Police News. In a subsequent court session it was revealed that he had been threatened, seized, and pelted with eggs. Five defendants were fined a pound each for throwing eggs, while another was fined two pounds for attempting to pull the ref’s nose.
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