1923

Marvin Close

Description

1923: Life in Football 100 Years Ago takes a deep dive into the matches, personalities and events that lit up the game a century ago. Based on exhaustive archival research, it’s also a social history that reveals how fans and footballers lived their day to day lives and how they were affected by the year’s happenings. What they ate, drank and how they spent their leisure time. How players trained and what they earned. Who the top clubs and players were and what type of tactics they used. What kit and boots they wore and how they prepared and travelled to games, often alongside the fans. The book explores why mining communities produced so many of the year’s top footballers, and how an amateur playing army captain made an unlikely debut for the full England side. From the infamous White Horse Cup Final and the shocking murder of footballer Tommy Ball, to the painful legacy of World War One on the game and the emergence of top professional football in Europe, it’s a unique look at a memorable year in football and beyond.

Sujets

• Histoire

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 14 novembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781801504126
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2022
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Marvin Close, 2022
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright.
Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781801504010
eBook ISBN 9781801504126
---
eBook Conversion by www.eBookPartnership.com
Contents
Introduction
1. Legacy of War
2. Life in
3. The Fans
4. Training and Tactics
5. The Kit
6. The Grounds
7. The Building of Wembley
8. The White Horse Final
9. First Division
10. Second Division
11. Third Division South
12. Third Division North
13. The Battle of Britain
14. North of the Border
15. The Amateur Game
16. Women s Football
17. The New Season
18. La Garra Charrua
19. Europe
20. Getting the News
21. Betting and Football Pools
22. The Two Tommys
23. The Last Weekend
Epilogue
Appendix
Bibliography
Photos
To Sheily, Holly, Jacob, Edward, Matilda, Uddin, Patricia, Mark, Rachel, Dom and Will.
Introduction
Football is the ballet of the masses.
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, Russian composer
FOOTBALL WAS invented by posh rich people at English public schools. And then we, their lackeys, their servants, the unwashed working class - we stole it from them. By 1923 the theft had become complete. It had become ours, the people s game. We grew it in this country and then gloriously, spread it around the working people of the world. Esperanto was a wonderful idea, but it failed. The only truly universal language is football. And by 1923 it had become the most popular sport in the world.
A century ago in Britain 80 per cent of adult males smoked cigarettes, and that figure included a lot of footballers. The drink of choice was mild beer and the only takeaway on the block was fish and chips. There was of course no TV or internet and BBC Radio was only just celebrating its first birthday. It was the year that the football pools were invented but it was highly illegal to actually bet on football matches.
These were earlier, simpler times, where the life of a footballer was very different from today and this book explores how they lived, trained and played. What they wore, ate and drank. How they got around and travelled to matches and training. It looks in detail at the major events of the year - the building of Wembley Stadium and England s biggest club ground, Maine Road; the chaotic White Horse FA Cup Final; the death of Aston Villa s Tommy Ball, the only Football League player ever to be murdered; Scotland s continued success in the Home International tournament and the nation s sporting influence around the world; and the emergence of some of the world s greatest early superstars. It was a glory year for both Liverpool and tiny Nelson; the England team fielded three amateur players; and an economic slump was affecting football s finances. We will look too at how football was progressing in Europe and South America and how the press covered the game back in 1923, as well as the joy of collecting cigarette cards and the early programmes.
We ll explore the deep class divide that existed within football clubs. This was a time when boards were mainly made up of well-off local dignitaries, placeholders and businessmen who not only had little in common with their working-class footballers but generally regarded them as their servants - the help hired to win their club success. Footballers in 1923 were little more than chattels effectively owned by their clubs. Once a player was signed, they became that club s property and could only transfer and move on with their employers permission. This of course was many decades before football agents and a powerful footballers union, though some players were starting to fight for the latter.
As well as writing books about football, I ve created a lot of fiction for television, radio and theatre and with that you can plot and storyline because you re in complete control of the characters, the events and where the stories will go. Writing history and narrative non-fiction is a very different beast indeed. You set off with a plan, usually knowing a lot already about the broad brushstrokes and the stories you want to pursue. But the more you research, the more you realise that things ain t what you thought they were. The deeper you explore, the more you become blindsided by facts and hitherto little-known details that blow your early thoughts and prejudices out of the water. That s been very much the case with this book, which as a result has been a sheer joy to write.
During my research, I made some amazing new personal discoveries for myself. I did not realise that throughout the 1920s there was a thriving American Soccer League that matched the early NFL for attendances and interest. Or that Brazil s first football superstar, Arthur Friedenreich, was once banned from playing for his country because he was black. Or just how vicious the FA were in sabotaging women s football in the early 1920s. I hope you enjoy the journey, too.
As a writer, I ve tried to double- and triple-check all facts and details herein, but I m sure there will be the odd error along the way, so in advance, my sincerest mea culpa .
1
Legacy of War
The old men were still running the country. The politicians who had caused millions of deaths, as if they had done something wonderful.
Ken Follett, Fall of Giants
MONDAY, 5 July 1915. It was a grey, rainy morning on the Somme. The night before had been quiet, opposing sides cocooned within their redoubts. In the British lines there had been the chance to brew tea, eat some rations, smoke a few fags and then gain some hours of slumber. A rare peace would soon be ruptured. An hour before daybreak, 200 men from the 9th Green Howards regiment got the order to advance. They emerged in the drizzle from their trenches to attack a German position 300 metres away. The aim, to overrun an enemy machine gun emplacement as part of a wider attack to gain ground across the Somme battlefront. It would become a familiar story throughout the offensive; soldiers thrown thoughtlessly forward into inevitable death. As the men were ordered to run across open ground towards the enemy, they were cut down in droves. The German machine gun nest was causing carnage.
Desperate decisions have to be made swiftly in battle and on the hoof, Second Lieutenant Donald Bell spotted a shallow communications trench that led across to the German lines and resolved to act. Armed with a revolver and a rucksack full of Mills bombs, he dragooned Corporal Colwill and Private Batey and their rifles to join him in navigating a perilous way on hands, knees and stomachs through the channel nearer towards the enemy machine gun nest. The trio spent 15 long minutes propelling themselves slowly, silently, quietly through the mud until they arrived cheek by jowl next to the German trenches. They sprung up from their cover and with astonishing bravery the three men attacked the well-populated German position with rifles and revolvers, fast-bowled Mills bombs, cricketstyle, into the enemy base and knocked out the machine gun, killing 50 enemy soldiers. Many Allied lives were saved as a consequence.
For their gallantry, Colwill and Batey were awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. For his quick thinking and bravery, Second Lieutenant Bell became the only professional footballer during World War One to win Britain s highest military honour, the Victoria Cross. He would never hold it in his hands. Five days later, Bell again stormed a German machine gun post near the village of Contalmaison and this time he did not escape the bullets. Newly married on leave, he died aged 26 and was eventually buried where he fell.
Harrogate-born Bell was a superb all-round sportsman excelling at cricket and rugby. But his first love was football and while training to become a teacher at London s Westminster College he signed amateur forms to play for Crystal Palace in the Southern League. After getting a job back in Yorkshire teaching at Harrogate s Starbeck College, Bell signed professional terms with Bradford Park Avenue and in 1914 was part of the promotion-winning team that helped them into the top flight for the first time. Before Bell left for war, Bradford Park Avenue s manager Reg Hall described him as our new jewel in the crown, a footballer who would see us happily into the future .
Donald Simpson Bell had reputedly been the first professional footballer to sign up for action in World War One. At the outbreak of the conflict, there were around 5,000 players in England and Scotland s professional and top amateur leagues but few initially joined up. At the start of the war, the powers-that-be were convinced that football should continue to help keep up public morale. Leagues, cups and games continued through 1914 and into 1915, but as a generation of young men began to die across the water on mainland Europe, public opinion began to turn. Well-paid, fit young footballers were increasingly seen as privileged - some even called them cowards for not joining up. In the football hotbed of Sunderland, Lord Durham hoped that the Germans would drop bombs on Roker Park to encourage players and fans to think about where they