the Football Association were directly or indirectly responsible, as might perhaps be inferred from my remarks, for the arrangement or control of these early matches between London and Sheffield. They had systematically declined to recognize any modification of the rules. An offer of the Sheffield Association for a home and home match was, indeed, refused solely for this reason; and a challenge from the Cambridge University Association Football Club, to play a match under the rules of that Association, was also declined. On similar ground, overtures had also been made in 1871, on behalf of the South Derbyshire Association, for a conference of the two bodies with a view to amalgamation; but this proposition met with the same lack of encouragement. Until the fusion of the Sheffield Association with the parent society, the selection and management of the London team was wholly and solely in private hands, and the fixtures had in no way the official impress of the Football Association.
Meanwhile, the establishment of a Challenge Cup, open to all clubs belonging to the Association, had, as already stated, given a great stimulus to the game. Instituted in 1871, through the initiative mainly of a few of the more influential of the Metropolitan clubs, it was not long before the Cup took a much wider scope. In the first code of rules the holders were only required to take part in the final match; but this provision was only in force for one year, and, subsequently, the club winning the Cup had to fight its way through the competition the same as the other entrants, until quite recently, when a qualifying competition was instituted to weed out the smaller clubs.
Though the introduction of Association football into Lancashire about the same period as the establishment of the Cup, the first of an innumerable succession of trophies
