Football: The Association Game/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II.
THE GROWTH OF THE ASSOCIATION GAME.
As has been pointed out in the previous chapter, the formation of the Association as an independent body, with a code of its own, practically dates from December 8, 1863. The withdrawal of the Blackheath club, meant the withdrawal of all the clubs favouring Rugby rules, and their secession left the management of the Association in the hands of those who had advocated the adoption of the dribbling game. Mr. Campbell had consented to retain the post of Treasurer until the next annual meeting; and his retirement destroyed the last link of union between the followers of the two great schools of football. As a consequence it was not long before the few vestiges of the Rugby game, which had been incorporated in the first code, framed by the executive of the Association, were removed. At the very next general meeting, held in February, 1866, the try at goal was displaced. The touch-down, though, was still retained for a time, and in the event of no goals being scored, or an equal number obtained by each side, a match could be decided by a majority of touch-downs. At the same time, with a view apparently to secure the co-operation of Westminster and Charterhouse, the strict off-side rule which had been in force was modified to ensure uniformity in this essential principle of the game. The adoption of the rule which had prevailed at these two schools, which kept a player on side as long as there were three of the opposite side between him and the enemy's goal, removed, in fact, the one remaining bar to the establishment of one universal code for Association players in the south at least In the north, Sheffield maintained a code of its own, and some years elapsed before the Sheffield Association gave up its own rules, and thereby gave the parent Association undivided and undisputed control as the legislators of the game.
Meanwhile, in the early part of 1866, a suggestion had been received from the Hon. Secretary of the Sheffield club, that a match should be played between London and Sheffield. The challenge, it is hardly necessary to add, was duly accepted, and the match, the first of any importance under the auspices of the Football Association, took place in Battersea Park in the spring of 1866. The Wanderers, practically a continuation of the Forest Football Club, which changed its name in 1863, after four years of unbroken success; Barnes, Crystal Palace, and N.N.'s were then the backbone of the Association game in the neighbourhood of London. These four clubs, indeed, between them furnished the eleven which represented London, As the names may be of interest, the Wanderers supplied four—C. W. Alcock, R, D. Elphinstone, Quintin Hogg, and J. A. Boyson; Barnes three—J. K. Barnes, R. G. Graham, and R. W. Willis; the N.N.'s the same number in A. J. Baker, A. Pember, and C. M. Tebbut; while the eleventh place, and that one the most important, the responsible position of goal-keeper, was filled by a member of the Crystal Palace club, Alec Morten, who for some years, veteran though he was, had no superior between the posts.
Mr, E. C. Morley, the first Hon, Secretary, in the interim had been replaced by another member of the Barnes club, in Mr. R. W. Willis, who in turn gave way to still a third representative of Barnes in the person of Mr. R. G. Graham. The success which had attended the meeting between London and Sheffield had contributed in no small measure to increase the popularity of the Association game in London, and the effects were visible in a considerable addition to the number of clubs which declared allegiance to the Association.
The winter of 1867, too, saw another step in the development of the game—the institution of County matches. Middlesex at the time possessed a large proportion of the principal players within the Metropolitan area, and Middlesex was considered strong enough of itself to meet a combination of Surrey and Kent. It was a clever handicap, too; for the match, which took place on November 2, 1867, in Battersea Park, instead of Beaufort House, the use of which had been promised for the purpose, and, for some unaccountable reason or other, withdrawn at the last moment, ended, after a most stubbornly contested game, in a draw without goals to either side. A few months later, Surrey and Kent met at the West London Running Grounds, Brompton, a match which was the forerunner of the Inter-County contests which have been continued with increasing success down to the present date.
Even at this time the sphere of the Association was very limited. On January 1, 1868, only twenty-eight clubs owned its jurisdiction. These were the Amateur Athletic, Barnes, Bramham College (Yorkshire), Charterhouse School, Civil Service, C.CC. (Clapham), Cowley School (Oxford), Crystal Palace, Donington Grammar School (Lincolnshire), Forest School (Walthamstow), Holt (Wilts), Hull College, Hitchin, Kensington School, Leamington College, London Scottish Rifles, London Athletic, Milford College (South Wales), N.N.^s (Kilbum), Royal Engineers (Chatham), Reigate, Sheffield, Totteridge Park (Herts), Upton Park, Wanderers, Westminster School, West Brompton College, and Worlabye House (Roehampton).
The wants, too, of the Association were evidently of the smallest, as at the general meeting held on February 26, 1868, it was deemed expedient to institute an annual subscription of five shillings, and a record on the minutes of that same meeting is not without significance, containing as it does the announcement that there were no funds in hand, and no balance-sheet was read.
Still, by this time the Association had become firmly established, and by the spring of 1870 it was already commencing to develop its resources. The month of February in that year had seen the retirement of Mr. R. G. Graham from the position of Hon. Secretary, and the election in his stead of Mr. C. W. Alcock, who was subsequently replaced by Mr. F. J. Wall, the present secretary. It was just about this period, too, that the Sheffield Association decided to assimilate its rules to those of the parent society—the only step required to realize the long-expected hope of one code of rules acknowledged by Association players throughout the kingdom. In the first half of the seventies, indeed, the Association was making history in bounds.
Another important event in the annals of the Association was foreshadowed during the summer of 187 1. At a meeting of the committee, held on July 20, in that year, it was resolved, "That it is desirable that a Challenge Cup should be established in connection with the Association, for which all clubs should be invited to compete." The idea was received with general favour; and at a subsequent meeting, held on October 16, 1871, attended by, in addition to the committee, representatives of the Royal Engineers, Barnes, Wanderers, Harrow Chequers, Clapham Rovers, Hampstead Heathens, Civil Service, Crystal Palace, Upton Park, Windsor House Park, and Lausanne clubs, the resolution was carried, "That a Challenge Cup be established, open to all clubs belonging to the Football Association." Owing to the fact that most of the fixture cards had been completed for the season,- the northern clubs were conspicuous by their absence. Sixteen clubs in all had entered, and of these only two—Queen's Park Club, Glasgow, and Donington Grammar School—came from north of Hertfordshire. Hitchin, the Royal Engineers, Reigate Priory, Maidenhead, and Great Marlow were all outside the Metropolitan radius; but the other eight^the Wanderers, Harrow Chequers, Barnes, Civil Service, Crystal Palace, Upton Park, the Clapham Rovers, and Hampstead Heathens—were all within easy reach of the City, and all came fairly under the category of London clubs.
The insertion in the first rule of a clause, giving the committee the power to exempt provincial clubs from the early tie drawings, enabled the Queen's Park club to come up fresh to London as one of the four competitors in the fourth round. Their opponents were the Wanderers, and the match, the first of a really International character under the Association rules, which was played at Kennington Oval, ended in a draw. Unfortunately, they were unable to stay in London to replay the game; and the Wanderers, who thus qualified for the final, were successful in winning the trophy for the first time, after a stiff contest with the Royal Engineers, by one goal to none, though they had all the best of the play.
I specially stated that the meeting between the Wanderers and Queen's Park was the first which could be called a bonâ fide International match for a particular reason. For some time past there had been contests bearing the title of England v, Scotland in Londop, but, as a matter of fact, the eleven which represented Scotland was, in a great measure, composed of players merely of Scotch extraction, and in some cases, perhaps, of even less substantial qualifications. The successful show made by the Queen's Park club against the Wanderers in the competition for the Football Association Cup was, beyond a doubt mainly responsible for 'the institution of an International match between England and Scotland on a strict basis. The very suggestion of such a contest under Association rules was quite enough to rouse the ire of the Rugby players north of the Tweed. At the lime, indeed, the Rugby game was paramount in Scotland. All the principal clubs played according to Rugby rules, and, in fact, the Queen's Park eleven was the only combination, I think I am right in saying, in the country which had adopted the Association game. The captains of the Scotch Rugby clubs were determined, too, not to have their rights usurped without at least a protest. A letter, signed by representatives of the leading clubs in Glasgow and Edinburgh, appeared in the Scotsman newspaper, pointing out the absurdity of Scotland taking part in an International match under rules which were not in favour with the bulk of Scottish football players. There was, of course, a good deal of sense in the objection; but, as was only to be expected, it did not have any effect in checking the advance of the Association game. On the contrary, the opposition only gave a new zest to the efforts of the promoters of the movement, and the preliminaries were not only ratified, but the match duly decided at Glasgow on November 30, 1872.
The game, which was played on the ground of the West of Scotland Cricket Club in Glasgow, proved to be singularly well contested, and, in fact, the two elevens were so very evenly weighted, that at the end of an hour and a half neither had been able to secure a goal The Football Association could hardly have had a better advertisement, and the enterprise of those who had been mainly responsible for the ratification of the match was fully rewarded by the great impetus it gave to the diffusion of Association rules throughout the west of Scotland. A return match was brought off at the end of the same season at Kennington Oval, when England won by four goals to one. Since that time only one fixture has been made for each winter, with a great advantage to Scotland, who, until the last twenty years, had an almost uninterrupted sequence of victories.
The satisfactory completion of this first International match marked a new era in Association football, and the effects were, as was only to be expected, far-reaching. In Scotland the Rugby game soon found itself faced by a formidable rival. New clubs were formed in all parts, with every sign of vitality. On every available open space youngsters found amusement in urging the flying ball, so that there was a constant accession of likely players to disseminate the game all over the country. The development of the Association game in Scotland was indeed extraordinary; and in the course of a few years the enthusiasm of the Queen's Park club had worked such a wonderful effect, that the Rugby element, which had for so long enjoyed a monopoly of Scotch football, was already in a minority.
By this time the future of the Association game was well assured. The fusion of the Sheffield Association rules with those of the parent body removed the last remaining obstacle in the way of a universal code for players of that way of thinking. Since then, though the constitution of the Association has undergone several, and most of them important, changes, the game itself remains very much the game it was, with only some very slight modifications, with the object of repressing the excess of zeal which has been, perhaps, the rational outcome of the growth of the game and of the keen competition which has followed the rapid development of football during the last few years. The changes in the constitution of the Association, and the chief events which have marked the devolution of Association football, will form material for a special chapter.