Month: November 2022

30th November 2022

“The modest Scotland total was knocked off by Yorkshire without the loss of a wicket, thanks to the captain Martyn Moxon and a promising young player called Michael Vaughan”.

[An Ordinary Spectator, page 272].

Initially, all 211 member football associations were eligible to attempt qualification for the 22nd edition of the FIFA World Cup, although half a dozen subsequently fell by the wayside for non-football reasons, including North Korea (due to safety concerns about Covid-19) and Russia (disqualified following the invasion of Ukraine). 32 teams duly qualified for the multi-billion dollar tournament in Qatar, the group stage of which is currently approaching its conclusion. In 18 days time, the final will be contested in the 80,000 capacity Lusail Iconic Stadium.

It is all something of a far cry from the first official international football (soccer) international, which was played between Scotland and England at the West of Scotland Cricket Club ground in Partick, Glasgow, on 30th November 1872: 150 years ago today. The match – watched by 4,000 spectators, some (though not all) of whom paid one shilling each – finished in a 0-0 draw.

An important word here is “official”. Football historians will point to five other England-Scotland matches that had taken place from 1870, but these had all been in London with, crucially, the Scotland teams entirely comprised of players based in England. For the November 1872 encounter, the England team crossed the border to take on a side whose players were all based in Scotland. (It would appear that the organisers set out to present this match as the first official international at a very early stage).

Indeed, the Scotland team was not only drawn from domestically-based players. It was drawn from the members of a single club – Queen’s Park, the pioneers of the development of the skills and tactics of the “association” version of football in the British Isles (and, therefore, the world). By contrast, the England team had players from 9 different clubs, of which Notts County, Sheffield Wednesday and Crystal Palace are instantly recognisable to the modern supporter. Other representatives came from both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Harrow Chequers and the 1st Surrey Rifles.

For the contemporary newspaper accounts of the match, I consulted the Leeds Mercury and the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligentsia for 2nd December 1872, both of which allocated one paragraph to the game, the latter in its “Sporting News” section after its reports on steeple-chasing, coursing and hunting.

The reports suggest that there were several things with which the football supporter of a century and a half later can readily identify. Most obviously, the contest was 11-a-side (in contrast with the first rugby international, played in March 1871 at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh, in which Scotland and England had each fielded 20 players – see “Plan B”, 7th March 2022). In addition, both sides were commended for their splendid dribbling skills, although passing moves seem to have been in short supply. Moreover, Scotland wore dark blue shirts with an embroidered thistle and England white shirts, although – less frequently observed these days – the English also wore caps and the Scots red cowls. The closest that either side came to scoring a goal was when the ball narrowly – and, to some, disputedly – cleared the tape that was used to represent the England crossbar. (Where was VAR when it was needed?)

Prior to today, my only previous visit to the West of Scotland CC ground had been in May 1995, when I watched Scotland play Yorkshire in a group match in the Benson and Hedges Trophy. Jim Love, with whom I had played in the Yorkshire Cricket Federation (i.e. Under 19) side of 1974, was the Scotland captain. He scored a half-century but, as noted above, it was a one-sided affair, the visitors winning by 10 wickets. My reference to the venue in An Ordinary Spectator opined “[T]hat more is not made of the fact that this was the location for the first-ever soccer international… is something of a minor mystery to me”.

The significance of the ground (for football) is now indicated by two plaques that have been placed on the clubhouse wall in the period since my initial visit. The upper one reads:

“The World’s first international football match

was played between Scotland and England

at the West of Scotland Cricket Ground,

Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow, on St Andrew’s

Day, the 30th November, 1872.

Presented by Mr John C McGinn,

President of the Scottish Football Association,

30th November 2002.”

The plaque is neatly presented, albeit with its wooden frame showing some signs of wear after two decades of west of Scotland weather. It is also unobtrusive. Indeed – to the casual observer – it is dominated by the second plaque placed just below it (in 2018), which commemorates the first appearance of Rangers Football Club in a Scottish Cup Final: a match (and its replay) against Vale of Leven on the same ground in 1877.

The inscription on the latter states triumphantly that: “[T]hese games were to change the course of Rangers history”. As a symbolic representation of the hegemonic role that the Old Firm of Rangers and Celtic play in Scottish football, the dual-plaque display says a great deal, I think.

The Scottish Football Association has maintained a low-key approach to this latest anniversary, apart from announcing a commemorative Scotland-England fixture at Hampden Park in September next year. (The SFA website gives far more prominence to the 50th anniversary of the inaugural women’s international in 1972). This appears to follow the lead of Scottish Rugby. I noted that in Plan B that there was nothing at the Edinburgh Academical sports ground at Raeburn Place to mark the 150th anniversary of rugby union’s first international, whilst the stone monument commemorating the centenary in 1971 is currently at the edge of a large pile of rubble on the far side of the field.

Accordingly, when I took the train into Partick this morning to visit the cricket ground, I expected that I might be largely alone, perhaps to walk around the boundary edge and take a couple of photographs before wandering back to Dumbarton Road in search of a coffee shop. How wrong I was. It was not long before I learned that The Hampden Collection – a group of volunteers celebrating the pioneering role Scotland played at the dawn of association football – had spent some considerable time with the West of Scotland CC and others preparing for the 150th anniversary.

By one o’clock, a sizeable number had gathered on the terracing of the clubhouse – boosted by a substantial media presence – as two teams of primary school footballers attired in the respective kits of 1872 (though without the caps and cowls) replayed the inaugural fixture. There was only limited space for 11-a-side on the truncated pitch, but there was no little skill shown – the England goalkeeper made a splendid first-half save – as well as sound positional awareness. There was also some bravery; the teams were both comprised of boys and girls and one of the latter, having inadvertently taken the ball full in the face, continued on as if nothing had happened (though I did notice that the referee kept an eye on her to check she was ok).

The day’s event closed with a short ceremony at 2.15pm when there was a “kick-off” involving two of the great grandsons of Joseph Taylor, one of that first Scotland team.

During the course of the day, I spoke at length on separate occasions to three of the volunteers, beginning with Will Moffat of the Hampden Bowling Club, with whom I had an enjoyable chat on entering the ground. Each in turn demonstrated their informed enthusiasm for the group’s work and their detailed knowledge of the first international. Thus, I was able to supplement that which I had previously acquired from Wikipedia with the information that the pitch had run north-south (the Scots playing downhill in the first half towards the imposing façade of Partick Burgh Hall, which had been completed earlier that year) and that the kick-off had been delayed from its 2.00pm scheduled start due to the sheer numbers of spectators.

My interests are not only in watching sport in the present day and in reflecting on the sport that I have watched in the course of my lifetime. I am also drawn to the circumstances surrounding those defining occasions – and the associated venues – in the history of sport that have been the key milestones on the long journey of sports spectating (and playing) that has brought us into modern times. In terms of international football, this is a journey that has – to date – run from the West of Scotland CC in Scotland 1872 to the Lusail Iconic Stadium in Qatar in 2022.

And the result of the primary school pupils’ soccer match? Not quite the exact replication of the goalless draw of 150 years ago. A late goal gave victory to England: 1-0.

[For completeness, I did later find my coffee shop on the Dumbarton Road. The excellent Caffé Monza on my way back to Partick Station].

14th November 2022

If and when I am eventually raised to the House of Lords, I shall arrange for the motto of my coat of arms to read “Nos illuc in fine”. We get there in the end.

I suspect that there are many participants in the current Rugby League World Cup – players, coaches, administrators, spectators – who would recognise the sentiment. The tournament was originally scheduled for the Autumn of 2021, but was postponed midst much controversy and (between some) ill-feeling – see “Same Time Next Year (Perhaps)”, 19th November 2021. It has now completed the semi-final stage with Australia and Samoa scheduled to meet next Saturday at Old Trafford to decide the winners. (I shall focus here on the men’s tournament; there have been separate women’s and wheelchair events).

I wonder if, in retrospect, the tournament organisers might wonder if having 16 sides in the competition might have been too many. At the elite level, the sport’s talent is spread fairly thinly, notwithstanding the scope for “heritage” players in Australia and England opting to represent the countries of a parent or grandparent.

In the group stage of the tournament, there were a number of very one-sided matches. England racked up 94 points against Greece, whilst Tonga scored 92 against the Cook Islands and Australia 84 against Scotland. The sides at the bottom of the 4 groups played (and lost) a total of 12 games in the process of which they registered a total of 76 points, but conceded no fewer than 618: an average score-line of 6-51.

(I am prepared to acknowledge that there is a counter-argument suggesting that the countries in which the fledgling sport of rugby league has scope to grow and prosper might need to go through these painful rites of passage. In the group stage of the 1995 Rugby Union World Cup, played in South Africa, New Zealand defeated Japan by 145 points to 17. Whilst it is claimed by some that this result held back the development of the sport in Japan by many years, it was nonetheless the case that, by the time of the 2019 tournament (which Japan hosted), the home side had reached the standard at which it could defeat both Ireland and Scotland in the group stage and progress to the quarter-final).

As far as the current Rugby League World Cup is concerned, most pundits would have predicted Australia and New Zealand to take their places in the semi-final and this was indeed how it transpired. On Friday evening, I went to Elland Road in Leeds to watch these teams face off.

In advance of the match, I did wonder if Australia’s relatively trouble-free passage to this stage might act against them. In their four games (including the quarter-final against the Lebanon), they had registered 240 points – including 43 tries – and conceded only 18. By contrast, New Zealand had been battle-hardened in their compelling quarter-final match with Fiji, in which they only took the lead for the first time within the last 10 minutes.

I mentioned this when I fell into conversation with a middle-aged man wearing an Australian rugby shirt as we walked towards the ground before the match. “Do you fancy your chances?” I asked him. “I think Australia will win”, he replied in a broad Yorkshire accent. “New Zealand were a bit clunky in their last match”.

In the event, Australia were fully engaged from the opening kick-off and New Zealand were far from clunky. The tone was set in the latter’s haka, the amplified sound of which swept through the stands. Thereafter, from beginning to end, it was an absolutely pulsating encounter of unremitting action, high skill and physical confrontation. New Zealand took the lead after 10 minutes with Dylan Brown’s smartly judged cross-kick to the try-line, which Joseph Manu leapt to catch and pass back for Jahrome Hughes to gather and score.

We waited for the inevitable Kangaroo response. It came a few minutes later and was a try of absolute brilliance. The half-back-cum-hooker Ben Hunt sent a high 50 yard punt spiralling deep into New Zealand territory which Josh Addo-Carr, having sprinted down the left wing, caught on the full at full speed without breaking stride on his way to the try line. The kick was inch-perfect and Addo-Carr timed his arrival to meet it with absolute precision. As the winger walked back to take his place for the New Zealand re-start, I wondered how many long hours on the training field had been invested – by both kicker and recipient – in order to generate such a breath-taking outcome.

Both sides added tries before half-time, when New Zealand led 14-10. In the second half, the battle continued unabated with, on several occasions, the spectators around me gasping (or perhaps wincing) in astonishment – and admiration – at some of the physical challenges they were witnessing.

It was perhaps somewhat ironic, therefore, that Australia’s winning try was a relatively soft affair. Having been awarded what I thought was a contentious penalty 10 yards from the New Zealand line, the Australian captain, James Tedesco, instructed the playmaker Nathan Cleary to take a tap kick rather than an attempt at goal. Cleary duly did so and passed the ball to Cameron Murray, who charged through a couple of would-be tacklers to score under the posts. At the time, it seemed to have been an unexpected breach of the New Zealand defensive line; looking at the television replay later, it was clear that Tedesco, with a clinical assessment of the state of play, had sensed a vulnerability in his tiring opponents which his side could ruthlessly exploit. Cleary’s conversion made it 16-14 and, even though there were still over 25 minutes left to play, that turned out to be the final score.

In contrast with the ersatz Australian I had met earlier, the majority of the local supporters seemed to favour the New Zealanders. A chant of “Kiwi, Kiwi” rang round the ground in the closing minutes as the “neutral” locals realised that the players’ diminishing reserves of energy were approaching complete exhaustion. Australia held on, however, despite a couple of late scares, their status as tournament favourites vindicated.

It being 11th November, the traditional colours of the two sides’ shirts – green and gold, and black and white – were supplemented with the design of a poppy, in Australia’s case on one of the sleeves and for New Zealand on the chest. As it happened, earlier in the day, along with a couple of hundred other people – including the whole of the Kangaroos’ squad of players and staff – I had attended the short Remembrance Day service in Victoria Square, where the Leeds War Memorial is situated.

James Tedesco’s day had begun with him laying a wreath at the ceremony. By the end of the evening, he had led his side into the Rugby League World Cup final.