Jon
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Post by Jon on Nov 28, 2021 19:48:22 GMT
150 years ago tomorrow was the first recorded ASSOCIATION football match played in Torquay - or at least the earliest discovered until now. Something earlier may turn up one day. Earlier incarnations of the Torquay Football Club (1856 and 1862) have been reported here but, although broadly of the kicking or dribbling code, pre-dated the formation of the Football Association. torquayfansforum.co.uk/thread/7296/football-torquay-1862There may have been an association club between 1863 and 1871 - I'll let you know if I find it! Sporting Life 09/12/1871  WMN 04/12/1871  Western Times 21/12/1871  |
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Post by stefano on Nov 28, 2021 22:01:17 GMT
Strange how Association Football only appeared in the Bay in 1871, the year the first FA Cup ties started, the final being in 1872. I thought that Rugby Football started when a public school boy caught a football when playing the Association game and ran past bewildered opponents to touch it down in the goal. It has always been an unlikely story to me knowing what my teachers did to us kids if we didn't comply exactly with what we had been told! Anyway apart from that Rugby Football is recorded in Brixham in 1850. Played mostly by rough and ready fishermen, it sounds a bit like my time with Brixham United 🏉⚽️
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Dec 2, 2021 0:36:28 GMT
Strange how Association Football only appeared in the Bay in 1871, the year the first FA Cup ties started, the final being in 1872. I thought that Rugby Football started when a public school boy caught a football when playing the Association game and ran past bewildered opponents to touch it down in the goal. It has always been an unlikely story to me knowing what my teachers did to us kids if we didn't comply exactly with what we had been told! Anyway apart from that Rugby Football is recorded in Brixham in 1850. Played mostly by rough and ready fishermen, it sounds a bit like my time with Brixham United 🏉⚽️ I would take that Brixham claim with a large pinch of salt unless you can provide a contemporary reference. Anyway, nobody could play Rugby Union until 1871 for the same reason that nobody could play Association Football until 1863. The Webb Ellis fairy tale / creation myth is indeed a load of nonsense. Early folk football was an extremely barbaric sport so more akin to rugby than soccer I suppose. The only real rule was to get the ball in the opponents' goal by whatever means. Public schools started to lay down rules - each school to its own. Most of these started to become more civilised, with the exception of Rugby School. It was the barbarism of Rugby that greatly slowed the public acceptance of football compared to cricket. Press reports in the 1860s and 1870s were more of death and injury caused by football than about the game itself. When the FA was formed, it was to bring about a common set of rules which outlawed brutality. It soon became clear that the thugs from Rugby were impossible to civilise. Football in Torquay in the 50s, 60s and early 70s was predominantly of the dribbling/kicking code rather than the hacking/handling code. Harrow School was the biggest influence. It was only in 1875 that the tide suddenly turned in favour of Rugby. Newton College changed codes and Paignton and Brixham clubs were formed. Torquay Athletic followed in 1876, Torquay and South Devon Club in 1877, Newton GWR and Newton Rifles in 1878. Rifles became the current Newton Club - although the club wrongly lays claim to a formation date of 1873. It is a great shame that the area fell to the barbaric side - setting real football back by maybe half a century. I would summarise football in Torquay: Pre 1850 Brutal folk football 1850-1875 Mostly Harrow Rules / emergent soccer code 1875-1900 Rugby dominant 1900-1925 Soccer catches up 1925- Soccer on top Distressing to see the barbaric game making a bit of a comeback in Exeter, but good to see Torquay Athletic resolutely continuing its decline. |
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Post by stefano on Dec 2, 2021 8:13:22 GMT
One sometimes gets the impression that Jon is deliberately controversial and as a weapon makes up dates as he goes along! 🤣
Of course Newton Abbot All Whites was founded in 1873. Everybody in the whole world knows that, and as a Newton Abbot boy it was knocked into us as kids (an interesting method of education used by teachers and parents in those days). They were not of course known as the All Whites in those days, that only started as late as 1903 when they changed to an all white kit.
My first rugby club which I watched regularly from the age of 11 but I never got the chance to play for them as I was just too busy with soccer.
With rugby union I moved clubs as a spectator as I moved around for work, so after All Whites it was Torquay Athletic, Launceston, Barnstaple, Ivybridge, Plymouth Albion, and Exeter.....and no I didn't start watching Exeter when they made the Premiership I watched them in the 4th and 3rd tiers of the National game when they were still playing at the County Ground. I was working in Exeter at that time and one of my work colleagues was playing for them.
Some great memories from all the various clubs. I have often wondered how many more good memories I could have accumulated if I had done the same with soccer and been able to tear myself away from Torquay United which I also started watching when I was 11. But no, I am stuck with them. Too late now! 😉
Anyway interesting read as always Jon enjoyed it as always. Sports spectators always are full of opinions, and in mine I have always believed that the term "The Beautiful Game" was mistakenly assigned to the wrong sport! 🏉⚽️
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Dec 3, 2021 0:50:07 GMT
One sometimes gets the impression that Jon is deliberately controversial and as a weapon makes up dates as he goes along! 🤣 Of course Newton Abbot All Whites was founded in 1873. Everybody in the whole world knows that, and as a Newton Abbot boy it was knocked into us as kids (an interesting method of education used by teachers and parents in those days). People used to make up foundation dates and nobody would question them. I had to wind my way through fiddly microfilm rolls to find that Torquay United was formed in 1899 not 1898. With so many old newspapers now easily searchable online it is far easier to correct formation dates. South Devon League 1902 1903 Exeter City 1904 1901 Torquay Athletic 1875 1876 Newton RFC 1873 1878 The East and South Devon Advertiser 17/4/1886 reports on the last annual supper of the 5th Devon Rifle Volunteers or "Newton Rifles" before they changed their name to just Newton Abbot at the behest of Lord Clifford. Captain Bearne recalled how the club was formed several years earlier when George Townsend Warner suggested a game of football after the annual shooting matches at Decoy Range. The same paper reported on the annual prize shooting in its edition of 23/11/1878 and added that a good many members indulged themselves at football after the shooting in the college grounds kindly lent by their chaplain Rev GT Warner. GT Warner only moved from Highstead, Torquay to Newton College in 1875. Newton College boys diligently published a school magazine from 1875 to 1881 which faithfully recorded all college football activity. First mention of the Rifles / Volunteers was not until 1879. In 1873 Newton College twice played Exeter RFC at association football. The second meeting was reported in the Flying Post as being just Newton. This may be where the 1873 myth came from. |
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Post by stefano on Dec 3, 2021 7:55:23 GMT
Thanks Jon but please don't make too much fuss about it as a lot of work has gone into planning the 150th anniversary for 2023 😉🏉
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