Steadily, throughout the 2000s, I had searched for former members of the Association and done my best to ensure that they didn’t throw away records. Whenever there were files or memorabilia that the owner no longer wanted I was able to redirect these either to the British Library or the National Football Museum in Manchester. My own cellar revealed old minutes, newsletters and football programmes, all of which have been invaluable in compiling this book. I have not had access to a complete set of WFA minutes but I have done the best I could with whatever material was available to me – and it was a lot! Just as important, have been the memories of so many people who were involved with the WFA from its inception in 1968 and beyond.

Although, as the late Queen Elizabeth II said, ‘recollections may vary’, the memories of so many have helped to jog the brain cells to unearth long-buried stories. My thanks in particular to June Jaycocks, David and Marianne Hunt, Jenny Bruton, Pam Marlowe, Mary and Suzanne Hull, Bill and Viv Bowley, and many more. Almost all of whom I tracked down were kind and generous with their time and their help. Occasionally someone did not wish to talk to me, but I hope that I have done justice in recording what was a relatively short existence for the Association. The WFA was founded on voluntary effort, which continued even after we were able to open an office. Unsurprisingly, given the time span, I was too late to speak with some volunteers. Clubs, leagues and much of the Association’s business was down to their efforts. When it became obvious that our inadequate resources would not be enough to develop the sport as it deserved, we handed its organisation over to the Football Association in 1993. The 2022 Euros trophy and England’s silver medal from the 2023 World Cup are surely proof that we were right to do so.

Our determination

Since UK women’s football has found its way on to the sports pages of the national newspapers and even TV and radio news bulletins, there has been a steady increase in the number of books written on the subject. None, however, have been devoted to the re-emergence of the sport in the late twentieth century through the work of the Women’s FA following the Football Association ban of women’s matches from pitches under their control (and consequently the other British football authorities) in 1921. A ban that remained in place until the end of 1969.

Some women found a way to play football in the intervening years, but it took the selfless efforts of men and women in the 1960s to overturn the ban and secure a sound base from which today’s women’s players have benefitted. Breaking the Grass Ceiling attempts to record the struggles of the Women’s Football Association to become established and to recognise what those people achieved.

Extracted from Breaking the Grass Ceiling by Patricia Gregory

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The Gentle County, Waterford, can boast a proud sporting tradition. It is as long as it is varied. It’s largest urban area, Waterford City, has witnessed bull-baiting at Ballybricken to the roller hockey craze at the Olympia Ballroom. Similarly, the towns and villages of the Déise were keen and steadfast in their own sporting endeavours. Boxing, cricket, cycling, horse racing and polo were some of the pastimes enjoyed by communities from Carrick-on-Suir to Cappoquin. Sporting events became – and remain – a huge part of the social calendar of County Waterford’s inhabitants. Such competitions and festivities brought many around Ireland to the South-East. Pursuits such as horse racing saw County Tyrone-native, Johnny Ryan (1826-1907), receive the patronage of the Marquess of Waterford in 1834. Ryan’s impressive record of (at least) 112 victories from 130 races wearing the colours of Lord Waterford stands as one of the greatest win records in the history of the sport. No doubt he was provided with enough insight and advice from Lord Waterford, who in 1840 came 4th in the Grand National, aboard his horse, The Sea. Ryan would better his patron’s effort at the National, however, it was a trio of third place finishes.

Another popular pastime that was becoming increasingly lucrative was pugilism. And a colossus of the sport in the 19th century was a Lismore-native known as the ‘Irish Giant,’ Ned O’Baldwin (1840-75). Standing at 6ft 6 1/2in and weighing 200lbs, O’Baldwin became a well-known fighting figure in England, before making his way to America. However, he never delivered on the promise of his early performances in the sweet science, and would meet a bloody end in September 1875. O’Baldwin was shot by his business partner in a saloon. A piece in the Chicago Citizen concluded that Ned O’Baldwin ‘… gained notoriety, if not fame, as a pugilist.’

Similar infamy followed the life of Waterford-born tennis player, Vere Thomas St. Leger Goold (1853-1909). He holds the rather unique and unusual distinctions of being the first tennis player born on the island of Ireland to contest a Wimbledon final, as well as being the only Wimbledon finalist to be convicted of murder. As people based across the county made their name in a variety of sports abroad, there would be an equally significant contribution made by its inhabitants to the development of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The individual who coined the name of the organisation that governs the native games of hurling and Gaelic football was Knockhouse-born and Mount Sion School educated John Wyse Power (1859-1926). His role as one of the early secretaries of the association set it on firm foundations. Wyse Power’s Waterford connections saw Tramore host the first All-Ireland Athletics Championships under the auspices of the GAA. Subsequently, John became the first Chairman of the Dublin County Board. He even inspired the character of ‘John Wyse Nolan’ in James Joyce’s Ulysses.

And in these native sports, All-Ireland success would be some time in coming for the Déise. Though not for Fourmilewater’s Jack Dwan and Glendaloughin’s (The Nire) Larry Tobin, who played for the Clonmel Shamrocks. The Clonmel club represented County Tipperary, which won the 1900 All-Ireland Gaelic Football Championship. This led Sean O’Donnell to note in a letter to the Irish Press (in 1964) that Dwan and Tobin were ‘the first Waterford men to win All-Ireland medals.’

Undoubtedly one of the most-underrated and neglected sporting figures raised by the River Suir was Dublin-born golfer Patrick Joseph Mahon (1906-45). Paddy attended Mount Sion in the city, and caddied at Tramore and Waterford Golf Clubs. Mahon later became a professional at the Royal Dublin Club around 1934. The next few years were hugely successful, as Mahon regularly competed for the top honour at the Irish Professional Championship, played in the Open Championship, as well as becoming the first Irish golfer to win a tournament in Britain. This latter success came in the 1935 Western Isles (North of Scotland) Championship at Islay. Two years later, Mahon’s form saw him become the most-talked about golfer in the world and touted to become the first Irishman to play in the Ryder Cup. His form saw him top the list for the most in-form golfers in 1937 (essentially World No. 1), but missed out on competing in the Ryder Cup due to an interpretation of the residency rule in that competition’s Deed of Trust.

Moreover, the 20th century increasingly saw women try to develop their own sporting competitions. Some documenters purport that a game between sides from Dungarvan and Waterford city which took place in the Old Boro on 24th August 1913 as ‘the inauguration of ladies’ hurling in Waterford City and County…’ The progress of camogie didn’t run smoothly either. We learn in August 1914 that a game between Kilmacthomas and Kilrossanty at Mahon Bridge ended in much acrimony. The Waterford News from the time reported ‘Early in the match suspicion grew stronger as brilliant feat after feat was performed by the suspect.’ The local periodical continued, ‘At about five minutes to go one of the home side took the hat off the doubtful one and it was at once seen that the latter was wearing a wig.’ The report concluded, ‘A rush was made for the wig, which when procured was held aloft by a Kilrossanty player amidst a scene of great excitement.’

Inevitably, such incidents did not help the staging of camogie across the county. One of the most popular sports played by women in Waterford (in the early 20th century) was hockey. As an Irish Ladies’ hockey team toured the United States in 1925, the squad boasted 3 players residing in the Gentle County. They were Mabel Fudger, Isabel de Bromhead and Irene McCullagh. The team won all 13 of their games, scoring 102 goals while conceding only 8 times. McCullagh was hugely influential as the Irish side’s netminder, while Mabel Fudger starred as her team’s top scorer, finishing with 32 goals.

Their legacy would continue with figures such as Josie McNamara, who was adept at camogie, badminton, tennis, table tennis as well as pitch and putt. McNamara is one of the most talented and successful athletes in the story of Waterford sport. More opportunities and variety for women to pursue sport would come as the 20th century went on. There was the Waterford Fencing Club (lasting from 1948 to 1973), the development of the first local Ladies’ Soccer League (1967 to 1970), squash, and surfing to name a few. These stories that are often neglected are just as important, as they show the spirit and endeavour to have sports survive with the hope that they would one day thrive.
The playing of sports from cricket to cycling have risen and waned like the tides of the Suir, and the same can be said of sporting success across the county. However, as often as night follows day, from witnessing dawn along the Copper Coast to sunset at Clonea, where there are games to be played and community spirit, Waterford’s sporting story will continue to evolve, with the best yet to come. Many of those purveyors of such pastimes would echo the legendary words of John Mullane, ‘I love me county.’

The post ‘I Love Me County’: Waterford sporting stories appeared first on The History Press.

Brian Clough touched rock bottom in the summer of ’65, just as the Sixties entered their most swinging phase. The retiree player and sacked Sunderland youth coach only felt like swinging out against the world that had dealt him such cruel blows. By his own admission, he ‘went berserk for a time… drank heavily and was hell to live with.’ He didn’t act ‘very manly’ and ‘nearly went off the rails.’

Adding to his worries, he had another mouth to feed. His wife Barbara had given birth to their first child Simon in June 1964. And she’d now fallen pregnant again. Indeed, the summer of 1965 was – in his own words – ‘when the fear crept in.’
Given his unique Jekyll & Hyde character, Clough had few friends in the Sunderland dressing room, and even fewer in its boardroom. But he did have a sea of compassionate admirers among the club’s fans.

At a loss and with time on his hands, Clough became involved with those organising and playing for the local trainee teachers’ football team. Final-year student Grant Shearer, President of the Athletics Union at Sunderland Teachers’ Training College, says Clough coached three sessions for them in September 1965.

Clough would invite him and his fellow trainee teacher Russ Postlewhite to his bungalow on St Nicholas Avenue to watch Shoot, the local weekly TV football highlights programme. He’d tell them, ‘Come around on Sunday and tell me how the team has done.’ His dedicated wife Barbara, nicknamed Squibs, would get a brew on, while 15-month-old Simon made himself heard.

Given what had happened to Clough prior to their meeting, Grant describes him as ‘very bitter’ about his injury. They’d sometimes meet Clough at the nearby Barnes Hotel for a Sunday roast. He recalls one occasion when the ex-player drove 200 yards from his home in his carpet slippers and his entrance separated the throngs of AFC Sunderland-worshipping lunchtime drinkers like Moses’ parting of the seas. Served immediately at the bar, Clough ordered an orange juice.

Russ Postlewhite lived with Grant in digs opposite a children’s hospital on Barnes Park. Their young landlady Mrs Mason was married to a largely absent seagoing engineer, their home providing board and lodging to students such as themselves. They returned one afternoon to find her breathless through excitement. She’d answered a knock on the door only to find local hero Brian Clough on the front step. Starstruck Mrs Mason relayed his message to her two lodgers, ‘Tell the boys, suited and booted and down my house by 7 o’clock.’ They’d often arrive at his bungalow and enquire, ‘Where are we going Brian?’ They’d drive to venues such as Newton Aycliffe Boys Club and rub shoulders with Sunderland’s reserve team players. The events were often football talk-ins, where oddly, Sunderland first-team players were largely absent.

But wherever they went, there were packed and eager-to-listen audiences. Clough was a terrific speaker and those in attendance were either transfixed or roaring with laughter. On other occasions the boys would simply babysit for Brian and Barbara Clough, although he’d rarely tell them where he and his wife were going out.

Sunderland had promised Clough a testimonial. To avoid a boring ‘milk-and-water friendly’, he planned a Tyneside versus Wearside battle in what he pledged would be his final appearance in a Sunderland shirt, and promised, ‘I will referee. I will linesman. I will help sell the programmes. But no one will see me play in a match again.’

Clough set about assembling the best players possible for his send-off game. Yet if he expected any charity from ex-playing colleagues, little was forthcoming. Years of rubbing people up the wrong way meant that the crocked centre-forward encountered a wall of coldness. When he came to call in favours, despite the tragic ending to his career, he found he was a Billy Few Mates.

One shining example was Sunderland left-back Len Ashurst. Clough blamed his ex-colleague for the ‘bad ball’ he’d been chasing when he smashed into the outrushing Bury goalkeeper on Boxing Day 1962. Roughly a month before the testimonial game, Ashurst had walked out of a Sunderland Rotary Club event. Salty-tongued Clough turned a speech into a ‘tirade’ in which he ‘slammed’ Ashurst and each first-team player in turn by listing all their faults.

It was during these weeks that two job offers determined Clough’s new career path. One came from West Bromwich Albion to coach their juniors, although that would mean a move away from his native North East. The other came about thanks to ex-Sunderland legend and Sunday People back-page columnist Len Shackleton.

The accepted version of events is that football fixer ‘Shack’ brokered Clough’s first managerial appointment. Either he suggested to a club chairman that Clough fill his vacant managerial post, or he persuaded him to apply. Whatever the sequence, there were ‘hints’ that a job at North-East football’s poorest relations ‘could be his if he cares to go for it.’ He was due to have informal talks with their chairman.

A crowd of 31,898 crammed into Roker Park on Wednesday 27 October 1965 to pay tribute to one of their own. One local newspaper paid homage to ‘the greatest post-war goal machine the game has seen’. For another he’d been the ‘terror around the six-yard line’. A Sunderland XI faced a Newcastle United Select XI composed of United’s defence and five guest stars. These included Arsenal’s George ‘Geordie’ Armstrong and George Eastham (a former United player), as well as Liverpool’s Ian St. John. The Newcastle XI trounced the Sunderland XI 6-2, but the result was irrelevant. As were Clough’s two goals, the second a generous late penalty gift from the referee. The more important business took place after the game.

In the ground’s crowded refreshment room, Sunderland chairman Syd Collings announced that Clough had accepted the vacant manager’s position at Hartlepools United.

The Football League’s newest and youngest manager then declared in his own imitable way:

‘If you want to see some good stuff from Saturday onwards, get yourselves down to a little place called Hartlepools. It won’t be a little place for very long.’

His bragging then extended to telling Collings:

‘We will be meeting you three seasons from now.’

‘In which division?’ the quick-witted chairman fired back.

We can assume that the tongue-in-cheek and immodest Clough was planning three successive promotions from the Fourth to the First Division.

Yet his most immediate task would be keeping Hartlepools in the Football League. They’d applied for re-election in five out of the previous six seasons. The 30-year-old had coached Sunderland’s youth team but had agreed to take on football’s toughest assignment with zero management experience.

But Clough wasn’t daft. He’d pondered all available lifelines before taking the job. Len Shackleton’s offer and advice had been the first. Given a 50/50 choice between coaching youngsters at West Bromwich Albion or being top dog at Hartlepools, he’d chosen his native North East. Straight after his testimonial – and Clough being Clough – he’d never thought to ask the audience. Given the scale of the challenge, his most vital lifeline was phoning a friend.

Extracted from Alchemy by Christoper Hull

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Immense changes have occurred over that seventy-year World Championship period, beginning with the hectic, heady and exciting days of the early championships, when such illustrious names as Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss battled to break new records. Over the years, unsafe and unwieldy cars driven by incredibly brave and highly skilled drivers have evolved into the sleek, superfast and comparatively ultra-safe beasts of today, whose drivers, of course, remain equally as skilled.

There have been many dramas, crashes and thrilling moments along the way at iconic tracks such as Aintree, Brands Hatch and Silverstone: the great rivalry between Lauda and Hunt; memorable names including Senna, Prost, Schumacher, Mansell, Coulthard and Hill; and the modern-day achievements of Lewis Hamilton.

The evocative images below chart the inexorable progression of the ultimate motorsport and were all taken by Mirrorpix photographers.

Extracted from The F1 World Championship at the British Grand Prix: 70 Years in Photographs by Mirrorpix

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The boundaries that constrained and gradually stifled any latent talents within them, appeared impenetrable to most. This restriction was reinforced by the government of the day. For example, women were not allowed to vote, own property or even work outside the home if they were married, with the consequential loss of independence.

During the early part of the twentieth century the suffrage movement, led by the courageous Pankhurst womenfolk and their sister suffragettes, was gradually gaining ground in the fight to secure for women an equal place in society. Thanks to their untiring efforts, women were eventually given the right to vote, work outside the home, divorce if they were unhappy, and own property, but the suggestion that they could also, for example, take on managerial roles was still being ridiculed – as was the idea of women taking part in sport.

A young British woman called Mercedes Gleitze was at the forefront of this radical movement in what was a male-dominated world of sport. Born in Brighton in 1900, the youngest daughter of economic immigrants, Mercedes recognised in herself a talent for sea swimming, and made up her mind to turn this inherent gift into what was, in those days, an extraordinary career as a female long-distance swimmer.

The 1920s was a time of heightened achievements by explorers, mountaineers, aviators and the like, and long distance swimming, especially the crossing of the English Channel by a woman, was a prize waiting to be claimed.

Hers wasn’t an over-night success story. It took perseverance. For example, Mercedes made eight formal attempts before becoming the first British woman to conquer the English Channel, and it took her six attempts to become the first person ever to swim across the Strait of Gibraltar. Her swims were covered extensively by the media of the day, and she became a role model in the emergence of the ‘new women’ of that era. As a young, working class woman, without influence or financial support, she set up and managed a unique sea career.

The journalists of the day went out in the accompanying boats to cover her sea swims – most of them in waters unchartered by a swimmer. These reports highlight the differences between then and now: pigeon post instead of mobile phones; ham sandwiches and omelettes instead of high energy drinks, just a compass to guide them in dangerous, foggy conditions, with the pilot having to physically listen out for ships’ sirens above the noise of his own engine to avoid being run down, compared to today’s computer-equipped pilot boats – and so on.

Mercedes spoke publicly about wanting to bring honours to the country of her birth by virtue of her swimming achievements, but apart from that she was also one of the first women from the sporting world to institute a charity with the money she earned from her aquatic activities. During her years working as a typist in London, she witnessed at first hand the poverty all around her caused by the high unemployment of the times. She felt a strong empathy with these unfortunate families, and it gave her added motivation to make a success of her swimming career. She planned to use any prize money to help at least a few of the homeless, hungry people in Britain, and she eventually achieved her objective in the city of Leicester, in collaboration with a scheme run by the Leicester Rotary Club.

Apart from her open water events, a series of 27 endurance swims performed by Mercedes in corporation pools in the UK and abroad, culminated in a British record of 47 hours of non-stop swimming, and they also provided the bulk of the revenue needed to get her charity up and running. These events were unique in Britain and thousands of people attended the various pools to watch her swim, often necessitating the police to be brought in to control the crowds queueing outside.

Mercedes retired from swimming in 1933 and became a suburban housewife, bringing up three children. During those years she became increasingly reclusive, and eventually completely withdrew from practically all human contact apart from her immediate family. Her amazing achievements, however, deserve to be remembered and celebrated by women and athletes alike.

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By the 1870s there was no doubt that the socio-religious work had struck a deep chord of response, particularly their work for temperance, entertainment and education. The cultural alternative to the public house, the Temperance Coffee Tavern provided a new basis for growth and development, and the Quakers, always the pioneers in Bristol’s Temperance movement, set up a coffee house, the British Workman Coffee Tavern in 1874. As coffee didn’t have the same attraction as alcohol, a number of activities were organised at the coffee house, clubs formed, lectures held and billiard tables acquired.

Another venture was the establishment of the Clifton College Mission, founded by Rev John Percival (appointed as headmaster of Clifton College in 1862) as a bridge between the schoolboys of the College and the town. The newly founded Mission was located in the new Bristol parish of St Agnes, and developed around the starting point of the leisure time of the individual. Early visitors to the Mission would have seen in the 1880s the Working Men’s Club, reading rooms, and a gymnasium of truly magnificent proportions, fully equipped for all forms of gymnastics and drill. The Mission organised football and cricket teams and a cycling club. One of the few constant activities involving the public school boys and the members of the Mission was the annual rugby football match between the school and the Mission boys (who were taught to play rugby football especially for this match).

The Dings, a notorious area of poverty and degradation in the St Philip’s area of Bristol, between Temple Meads and Barton Hill, was one of the worst slums in Bristol. In this district of narrow alleys and mean houses conditions were so bad that the health of the people was impaired and ordinary comfort became impossible. The only place for the man of the house to get away from such uncomfortable dwellings was to the local public house, where there was light and warmth and companionship, but where the very small family income could quickly be drunk away.

Joseph Hinam Bell of the Cumberland Street City Mission, appointed by the Bristol City Mission to do pioneer Christian work in St Philip’s made a gallant attempt to deal with the alcohol problem, and largely due to Bell the St Philip’s Coffee House Company was formed to provide a counter attraction to the public houses in the area. Other prominent Christian citizens interested themselves in Bell’s work, a Committee was formed, and a plot of land at the junction of Oxford Street with Kingsland Road was purchased in 1885. In March 1888, the Shaftesbury Workmen’s Institute and Public Hall was officially opened as an alternative to the many public houses and gin palaces of the area, ‘…free from the taint of intoxicants and other evil influences’.

The Revd Urijah Thomas, minister of Redland Park Church was also aware of the dreadful conditions in the Dings area, and devised a scheme which he believed had a double benefit. He saw the needs in St Philip’s and knew that many young people in the Redland Park Church had not sufficient outlet for their energy and their idealism. In 1893 the Shaftesbury Mission was started in the Shaftesbury Hall, the Revd Thomas inspiring members of Redland Park Young People’s Guild to go down to St Philip’s to run boys’ and girls’ clubs, sports clubs, gymnastics classes, first aid, Bible classes and many other activities.

However, the accommodation proved to be quite inadequate as by 1898 the Dings’ Club was conducted in Sydney Alley because there was no room for it in the Hall. Before the Shaftesbury Crusade was established a number of Clifton College Old Boys had founded a social club for boys located in the Dings which gave its name to the Dings’ Club for Boys and Young Men. In 1896 H.M. Harris took over the responsibility of the Club which became part of the Shaftesbury Crusade. During the 1890-91 rugby season there is a reference in the Bristol Mercury newspaper to Dings Boys’ Club playing against St Agnes Boys’ Club Rugby Club.

In 1897, H.W. Rudge founded and established Dings Crusaders Rugby Club as a part of the Dings Boys’ Club, one of the activities of the Shaftesbury Crusade. Herbert William Rudge, a prominent member of the Shaftesbury Crusade, was the club’s first honorary secretary, holding office for thirty years, before becoming club president in 1930.

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The Gunners have won England’s top tier League title thirteen times, but how closely were you watching those title-winning campaigns?

Q1.

Apart from the 2003/04 ‘Invincible’ season, when they didn’t lose a single match, what is the fewest number of defeats Arsenal have suffered during a League title-winning campaign – and what is the most defeats they recorded while winning the League?

Q2.

Arsenal’s record points haul is 90, achieved when winning the title in 2003/04. However, if 3 points for a win had been the rule prior to 1981/82 as well as since then, what would have been Arsenal’s most productive title triumph in terms of points accrued?

Q3.

When Arsenal won the title for the first time, in 1930/31, two players scored more than 30 League goals apiece, and another was ever-present for all 42 matches. Who were the players concerned?

Q4.

Arsenal kicked off their 1947/48 title-winning season with a run of how many consecutive victories?

Q5.

Arsenal have concluded some of their title-winning campaigns with emphatic victories in the final game: 5–0 in 1930/31 and 1937/38; 8–0 in 1947/48; 6–1 in 1990/91. Can you name the hapless opponents in each case?

Q6.

When securing the title in 1970/71, Arsenal achieved a club record twenty-nine wins, and beat nine teams both home and away. Who were the clubs over whom the Gunners did the double that season?

Q7.

Which eleven players won League championship medals in both the 1988/89 and 1990/91 title-winning seasons?

Q8.

In terms of number of goals conceded, what title-winning season yielded the meanest defensive record – and which one was the least watertight?

Q9.

Who scored Arsenal’s first and last goals, respectively, in each of the following League title-winning campaigns: (1) 1970/71; (2) 1988/89; (3) 1990/91; (4) 1997/98; (5) 2001/02; (6) 2003/04?

Q10.

When Arsenal won the League in 1932/33, their two wingers – Cliff Bastin and Joe Hulme – missed just 2 matches between them, and were first and third top scorers, respectively. How many League goals did the pair score between them that season?

Q11.

After the epic title-clinching 2–0 win at Anfield on 26 May 1989, about which Arsenal player did one of Liverpool’s say that if a cannonball had been fired at him that day, he would still have controlled it and laid it off to one of the midfielders without a second thought?

Answers

1.

George Graham’s 1990/91 title winners lost just 1 match, while George Allison’s 1937/38 side suffered eleven defeats but still finished as champions.

2.

Arsenal would have earned 94 points in both 1930–31 (28 wins, 10 draws) and 1970/71 (29 wins, 7 draws) – although they were both 42-match campaigns compared with 38 in 2003/04.

3.

Jack Lambert scored 38 and David Jack scored 31, while Cliff Bastin (who scored 28) was ever-present.

4.

Six straight wins – and they were unbeaten over the first 17 matches of the campaign.

5.

Bolton Wanderers in both 1931 and 1938; Grimsby Town in 1948; and Coventry City in 1991. 

6.

Blackpool (1–0 home, 1–0 away), Burnley (1–0, 2–1), Coventry City (1–0, 3–1), Ipswich Town (3–2, 1–0), Manchester City (1–0, 2–0), Manchester United (4–0, 3–1), Nottingham Forest (4–0, 3–0), Tottenham Hotspur (2–0, 1–0), and Wolverhampton Wanderers (2–1, 3–0).

7.

Lee Dixon, Nigel Winterburn, Steve Bould, Tony Adams, David O’Leary, Michael Thomas, Paul Davis, David Rocastle, Alan Smith, Paul Merson and Perry Groves.

8.

In winning the League in 1990/91, Arsenal conceded only 18 goals. In contrast, when they won the title in 1952/53, their defence was breached sixty-four times – but they still secured the championship on goal average.

9.

(1) Charlie George scored the first and Ray Kennedy the last; (2) Brian Marwood and Michael Thomas; (3) Paul Merson and Perry Groves; (4) Ian Wright and Tony Adams; (5) Thierry Henry and Francis Jeffers; (6) Thierry Henry (penalty) and Patrick Vieira.

10.

53 – Hulme scored 20 and Bastin 33. (Ernie Coleman was second top scorer with 24 goals.)

11.

Alan Smith, who headed Arsenal’s first goal at Anfield to finish the season as the First Division’s top scorer with 23, having begun the campaign by netting in each of the Gunners’ first 8 matches.

Extracted from Never Mind the Gunners 2: Another Ultimate Arsenal Quiz Book by Graham Lister

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Despite the short notice, the Games were exceptionally well organised. The challenge of organising the Games with barely two years’ notice was accepted by Lord Desborough, the dynamic chairman of the British Olympic Association, with support from King Edward VII. Aristocrat Desborough was a formidable force, having climbed the Matterhorn, rowed for Oxford in the boat race and swum across the base of Niagara Falls and he was able persuade the organisers of the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908 to fund and build a stadium next to their west London site in return for a share of gate receipts. The exhibition organisers even donated £2,000 towards the stadium’s running costs!

In total, 12 sports venues were used for the Olympics across London, but this was the first time that a stadium had been specially prepared for the Games and that swimming would not take place in open water. The grandstands were designed to accommodate 66,000 spectators, but the stadium could actually hold up to 130,000 standing on terraces. The area of west London where the stadium was situated soon became known as ‘White City’ taken from the marble cladding used on the exhibition pavilions.

Completed in just ten months by George Wimpey, the stadium included running and cycle tracks, an open-air swimming pool and facilities for track and field athletics such as a pitch for football, rugby, hockey and lacrosse. Unfortunately, as it turned out, the summer of 1908 was a washout, with heavy rain turning the infield of the stadium into a mudbath. The swimming pool also got swampier as the Games progressed, and by the end of the swimming events the water was so murky that competitors were colliding with each other.

The Olympics ran from 27 April to 31 October 1908, the longest ever, and involved over 2,000 competitors from a record 22 nations – more than three times the number who competed at St. Louis. The 1908 Olympics were the first Games to award gold, silver and bronze medals (previously some winners had received only a diploma) and the first in which all entrants had to compete as a member of a national team, rather than individually. It was also the first to include winter events (figure skating events were held in October, months after the other events) and in which women were allowed to compete – 37 women were amongst the competitors – although Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the IOC, was opposed to their participation. Qualifying rounds and a limit on the number of competitors any one nation could field were also instated.

Events included, for the first time, diving, field hockey and a relay, with athletes running the 200m, 400m and 800m ‘Olympic relays’. Less successfully, powerboat racing and tug-of-war made their first and last appearances at the Olympics in 1908, the latter dominated by British police teams who took home the gold, silver and bronze medals.

The 1908 London Olympic Games were not without controversy, however, as international politics and contentious judging reared their heads on several occasions. The problems began in the opening ceremony, the first time at the Olympic Games that delegates had paraded behind their country’s flag in sportswear. The Finnish team refused to carry a flag when they were told they would have to march under the standard of Tsarist Russia and Irish competitors were ordered to compete for Great Britain, causing many to withdraw. The United States, whose flag had been inadvertently omitted from being displayed above the stadium, retaliated by refusing to respectfully dip the Stars and Stripes as they passed the Royal Box. This was a precursor of several arguments between the Americans and their British hosts who, by agreement with the IOC, provided all the judges and timekeepers. Americans lodged complaints of biased judging and bemoaned that British rules were applied to events. The tensions reached a climax in the final of the 400m, which was contested by three Americans and one Englishman, Wyndham Halswelle. The final was won by American John Carpenter, but he was judged to have obstructed Halswelle and was subsequently disqualified and a re-run ordered. In protest the Americans refused to take part so Halswelle ran unopposed to secure the gold medal. Captain Wyndham Halswelle was killed by a sniper at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in the First World War.

More controversy followed in the marathon, held on the final day of the competition. In previous Olympics the length of the marathon had been around 40 km (24.85 miles) but in 1908 a 42 km (26.10 miles) course was decided upon, starting at Windsor Castle (as the King had requested that his grandchildren see the start of the race) to White City Stadium. An additional 195 metres was added on to the end to enable the runners to finish in front of the Royal Box. The total distance of 42.195 km became official in 1921 and has been used as the standard distance for the marathon since the 1924 Games.

In 1908 the marathon runners followed a route from Windsor Castle through Stoke Poges, Ruislip and Wormwood Scrubs to the finish at White City and the race’s dramatic ending caught the public’s attention. Italy’s Dorando Pietri was the first of the 75 marathon runners to enter the stadium, but it was immediately apparent something was wrong. Dazed, he headed in the wrong direction around the track, tottering towards the finish tape, but he collapsed more than once and to be helped by race officials to his feet. Applauded by the 90,000-strong crowd, he was still the first to reach the finish line but was disqualified and stripped of his victory for receiving outside aid. The gold medal was thus awarded to the next competitor to cross the line – Johnny Hayes, the youngest member of the US team. Although some eyewitness accounts have suggested that Pietri may have had the odd swig of brandy proffered by spectators around the route, his plight touched the hearts of public and the following day Queen Alexandra presented Pietri with a gold cup as a special consolation prize.

As a result of all the controversies, changes were made for future Olympics and other major sporting events. Track and field rules were standardised, the IOC appointed officials from an international pool rather than leaving it to the host nation and the 400m was run in lanes at the 1912 Stockholm Games.

The Games ended on 31 October 1908, returning a small profit to the organisers as well as bequeathing a stadium to London which continued to be used for a variety of sporting events until 1985 when it was demolished to make way for new BBC premises. The event also set the bar for future Olympics with Team GB topping the medal table for the only time with 146 medals in total – 56 golds, 51 silvers and 39 bronzes.

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Early years

Born on 3 July 1899 in Tost, Germany (now Toszek in Poland) into an Orthodox Jewish family, Guttmann started studying medicine at the University of Breslau in 1918 after being turned down for military service on medical grounds. He took his MD degree in 1924 and then worked with Europe’s leading neurologist Professor Otfrid Foerster until 1928, when he was invited to start a neurosurgical unit in Hamburg.

After a year, Guttmann returned to Breslau when Foerster asked him to return as his first assistant. He remained there until 1933 when the Nazis forced all Jews to leave Aryan hospitals. As one of the leading pre-war neurologists in Germany, Guttmann became neurologist to the Jewish hospital in Breslau before being elected Medical Director of the hospital in 1937. 

In 1938 Guttmann defied the radical laws specifying that Jewish doctors could only treat Jewish patients and gave orders that any male person entering the hospital should be treated. His career would no doubt have suffered as a result but thanks to his growing international reputation, he had a number of offers to work outside of Germany. Together with his wife, Else, and two young children, the Guttmanns fled Germany and, desite speaking no English, headed for England, at first settling in Oxford. Guttmann busied himself with various research projects and for a while worked at Radcliffe Infirmary and St Hugh’s College Military Hospital for Head Injuries. 

By the early 1940s, as war progressed, the Government were preparing themselves for an influx of paralysed servicemen and decided to open a special spinal ward to cater for casualties. In 1943 Guttmann was asked to become Director of the new unit, the National Spinal Injury Centre at the Emergency Medical Services Hospital at Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire. He accepted the post on the condition that he was free to implement his own theories on how best to treat patients, with no interference. 

The National Spinal Injury Centre

The new Spinal Unit was opened in early 1944 with Dr Guttmann at the helm. It had fewer than 30 beds and, initially, was very poorly resourced. However, the medical need was clear – within six months the unit had almost 50 patients.

At the time, treatment for paraplegics in England was still rudimentary and Guttmann was dismayed by what he found. Care for patients was merely palliative and most prognoses were terminal. More often than not the injuries themselves were not life-threatening, it was other complications such as bed sore and urinary tract infections which posed the biggest dangers. Morale amongst staff was rock bottom.

Guttmann singlemindedly set about transforming the treatment and making the Stoke Mandeville spinal unit a success, throwing out the fatalistic care regime, challenging negative staff and insisting that patients fight back. He began by copying a regime that a Dr. Munro had introduced in the US in the 1930s, which was to regularly move patients to avoid the build up of pressure sores and infections developing. Then, crucially, he introduced the idea of rehabilitation and physiotherapy as medical treatment. 

Rehabilitation

Guttmann was a great believer in the power of sport to change lives, seeing it as an integral method of therapy for those with a physical disability to help them build physical strength and self-respect. Patients at Stoke Mandeville were engaged in physical and skills-based activities to keep them active – and social. Woodworking, typing, clock and watch repairing workshops were set up in the hospital and sports such as archery, which improved mental well-being as physical strength, were introduced. The first sport promoted by Guttmann as rehabilitation was a hybrid form of wheelchair polo and hockey which was initially played informally on the wards against physiotherapists before evolving into a proper team game. A decade later and sport was completely integrated into the hospital routine, both for its therapeutic and rehabilitative value and as a way of encouraging competition among patients.

The birth of the Paralympic movement

Although sport for athletes with an impairment has existed for well over 100 years (the first sport clubs for the deaf were already in existence in Berlin in 1888) and the earliest recorded wheelchair games in the UK took places as part of a ‘Gymkhana’ for staff and patients at the Royal Star and Garter home in Richmond, Surrey in 1923, it was at Stoke Mandeville that the first established wheelchair games began.

On 29 July 1948, coinciding with the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games, Guttmann organised an archery contest for World War II veteran patients with spinal cord injuries – the ‘1948 Wheelchair Games’. 16 patients (14 men and two women) from Stoke Mandeville and the Star and Garter Home for Injured War Veterans in Surrey (where a special paraplegic ward had been set up in conjunction with Dr. Guttmann) competed against one another for a Challenge Shield. The Star and Garter Home won and were presented with the cup, marking the first recorded competition between disabled athletes and the moment that the Paralympic movement was born.

The Stoke Mandeville Games go international

Following the success pf the first event Guttmann decided to make it an annual spectacle, and it soon became known as the ‘Stoke Mandeville Games’. More teams and more sports were added to successive games – in 1949 six teams competed and ‘wheelchair netball’ (later wheelchair basketball) was introduced. Over the years, as word spread about the games around different spinal hospitals in the country, more participants took part and the number of sports on offer increased.

The first international competition at Stoke Mandeville occurred in the summer of 1952 when a small team from the Military Rehabilitation Centre at Aardenburg in the Netherlands competed against a number of British teams. In 1953 a team arrived from Canada, by 1954 there were Australians, Finns, Egyptians and Israeli teams competing. By 1956 there were 18 different nations participating; a forerunner to today’s Paralympic Games. This was also the year that the Stoke Mandeville Games were presented with the Fearnley Cup by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for outstanding contribution to the Olympic ideal.

The 1957 Games was the first where all continents were represented and in 1958 the competition for the British team was such that a national Games had to be held prior to the main International event in order to select the team.

The 1955 International Stoke Mandeville Games

Becoming the Paralympic Games

By 1960 the possibility of holding the games outside of Britain for the first time, and somewhere other than Stoke Mandeville, was discussed. As the Olympics were being held in Rome that year, Guttmann saw no reason why the International Stoke Mandeville Games could not be held their either. Now considered the first ‘Paralympic Games’, although still called the International Stoke Mandeville Games, they were held for the first time in the Olympics venue immediately after the Olympic Games. The XVII Olympic Games ended in Rome on 11 September 1960 and just one week later 400 athletes representing 23 nations assembled for the first overseas International Stoke Mandeville Games. In Rome, athletes shared the same accommodation and venues as their Olympic counterparts. A precedent had been set.

From 1960 it was the intention that the annual International Stoke Mandeville Games would continue to take place at Stoke Mandeville, except in the Olympic year when the Games would take place in the Olympic host city or country, although this was not always the case. The Japanese were keen to host the Stoke Mandeville Games following the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games but this experience this experience was not repeated in the 1968 Mexico Olympics, when financial constraints and accessibility issues prevented then taking place. Instead Tel Aviv stepped in to host them. The 1972 Wheelchair Games were held at Heidelberg, near to the 1972 Olympic host, Munich and in 1976 Montreal hosted the Olympics and Toronto the Paralympics. However in 1980, the Olympics host, Moscow, refused to host the Paralympics and instead they took place in Arnhem in the Netherlands. In 1984 disagreements and financial issues meant that the venue fell through, so although Los Angeles was the Olympic host city, Stoke Mandeville had to step in to host a separate Games.

Initially Guttman was adamant that the Stoke Mandeville Games would only be open to those with spinal cord injuries, but this changed in 1976 with the addition of two new classes; athletes with a visual impairment and athletes who were amputees. This has since been broadened further. This year also saw the introduction of specialised racing wheelchairs. The 1976 Toronto games were the first to use the title ‘Olympiad for the Physically Disabled’ when the International Stoke Mandeville Games Foundation (ISMGF) and the International Sports Organisation for the Disabled (ISOD) combined to create a single event. 1976 also saw the first Winter Paralympic Games in Sweden. Despite these improvements, the Games were still not always considered an equal or ‘parallel’ to the Olympic Games. 

The 1980s – a pivotal decade

The 1980s saw a rapid growth in the Paralympic Movement. Relations between the ISMGF and the IOC became more friendly and led to more collaboration. The 1988 the first games officially titled the ‘Paralympic Games’ took place shortly after the end of the Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea. The link between the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games was firmly established in 1989 by the foundation of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the global non-profit governing body, and since the 1988 Summer Games of Seoul and the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville, France the Paralympic Games have been twinned with their Olympic counterparts and taken place in the same cities and venues as the Olympic Games.

The word ‘Paralympic’ derives from the Greek preposition ‘para’ (belong or alongside) and the word ‘Olympic’. It means that the Paralympics are the parallel Games to the Olympics and illustrates how the two movements exist side-by-side. 

The number of sports within the Paralympic programme and the number of athletes competing continues to grow. After a struggle to receive recognition as the true equal of the Olympic Games, the Paralympics now exist alongside and continue to push boundaries. From humble beginnings in Stoke Mandeville, the Paralympic Movement is a growing sporting phenomenon and a lasting legacy of Sir Ludwig Guttmann which shows no signs of slowing down.

Dr. Guttmann’s legacy

Not only the ‘father of the Paralympic movement’, but also an important figure in the development of treatment of spinal injuries, Dr. Guttmann became President of the ISMGF and also founded the British Sports Association for the Disabled in 1961. In the same year he also became inaugural President of the International Medical Society of Paralegia (now known as the International Spinal Cord Society) and was editor of the society’s journal.

Guttmann received the OBE and CBE from the Queen and was knighted when he retired in 1966. He continued to travel and lecture all over the world on spinal injuries and it was he who spear-headed conversations with the IOC over the use of the term ‘Olympic’. Sir Lugwig Guttmann died on 18 March 1980 of heart failure following an earlier heart attack. Although he did not live to see his work realised his work continues through the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville and through the Paralympics. His advancements in the treatment of spinal injuries revolutionised the field and his work continues to influence physicians the world over. 

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The oldest of them all

The early beginnings of tennis are believed to have originated in twelfth-century northern France, when the object we now know as a racquet first came into use. But what about Wimbledon? In the world of sporting competitions and tournaments, some have stood the test of time and have existed a lot longer than others. Wimbledon is one of them. The Wimbledon Championships were founded in 1877, so this year it is just shy of being 140 years old. Technically, it is older than the modern incarnation of the Olympic Games (the International Olympic Committee was founded 122 years ago) although not quite as old as The Americas Cup sailing competition, which supersedes Wimbledon by 26 years. However it is THE oldest tennis tournament; older than the US Open and Roland Garros (French Open).

With thanks to Data Set Match for the Wimbledon statistics

In the beginning

Legend has it that the inaugural Championships of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club were held in order to raise money to repair the club’s pony roller, the one used to maintain the croquet lawns. Then again comedian Billy Connolly once said that legend is nothing more than rumour plus time, so make of that what you will. What is for sure is that they very first Championships got underway at around 3.30 p.m. on Monday 9 July 1877 with play taking place at the club’s then home beside the London & South Western Railway in Worple Road, Wimbledon. Twenty-two men each paid a guinea to take part with one, an old Etonian by the name of C.F. Buller, dropping out before a ball had even been hit. The final saw local land surveyor Spencer Gore comfortably defeat William Marshall 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 in just 48 minutes, the match having been postponed several times over a number days due to a combination of bad weather plus the annual Eton versus Harrow cricket match – a highlight of the social season – taking place at Lords. As for the Women’s final? Well there wasn’t one. Not until 1884 did the ladies get a competition all to themselves with 19-year-old Maud Watson beating her elder sister Lilian 6-8, 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

The switch

Well before the outbreak of the First World War it had become blindingly obvious that the 8,000 ground capacity at Worple Road was inadequate. And so the All England Club, to coin its abbreviated title, started looking for a new site. It eventually settled on an area of land off Church Road to the north of Wimbledon town centre, moving to its new home in 1922. At the time the relocation was seen as something of a gamble, costing as it did approximately £140,000. The club has stayed put ever since. In fact there’s probably more chance of hell freezing over than Wimbledon moving from Church Road.

Prize money

Up until 1968 when tennis finally went professional nobody ‘officially’ earned a penny for competing at Wimbledon (the payment of backhanders to amateurs was however rife throughout the sport, hence the term ‘shamateurism’ frequently being used). In fact during the early years of the tournament players ended up out of pocket having had to pay an initial entrance fee for the honour of competing. When Rod Laver won the Men’s final in 1968 he was rewarded with a cheque for £2,000 which nowadays wouldn’t come close to paying for one of Roger Federer’s extravagant cream suits (for the record Federer bagged a cool £850,000 for winning Wimbledon in 2009). And if you think that’s paltry then pity Billie Jean King, winner of the Women’s Singles in 1968, who collected just £750 in prize money for her efforts.

The saint and the sinner

The third ever man to win the Wimbledon Men’s Singles title was a North Yorkshireman by the name of John Hartley, otherwise known to his parishioners in rural Burneston as the Reverend John Thorneycroft Hartley. This man of the cloth hadn’t expected to reach the latter stages of Wimbledon which explains his return home on the middle Saturday of the 1879 tournament to fulfil his religious duties the following day. Come Monday afternoon he was back at Worple Road ready for his semi-final having caught a train from Thirsk to King’s Cross station that morning before hot-footing it across London to the All England Club. He duly won, despite the haphazard pre-match preparation, going on to defeat the Irishman Vere Thomas St Leger Goold in the final. Hartley successfully defended his title in 1880 and reached the final again in 1881 only to be absolutely crucified – not literally of course – by William Renshaw in a match that lasted just 37 minutes, the shortest recorded time for a Men’s Singles final at Wimbledon. 

Several years after losing to John Hartley in the 1879 final, Vere Thomas St Leger Goold was found guilty along with his wife Marie Girodin of killing a wealthy Danish widow by the name of Emma Liven in Monte Carlo. He was sentenced to penal servitude for life on Devil’s Island, French Guiana, where he died in 1909 at the age of 54 by which time Hartley had become an Honorary Canon of Ripon Cathedral. Now there’s a salutary lesson in right and wrong for you.

One of a kind

In 1947 Hans Redl of Austria progressed to the fourth round of the Men’s Singles event at Wimbledon. Nothing of particular significance about that you might think. Not until I tell you that Redl had lost his left arm while on active service during the Second World War, fighting at the Battle of Stalingrad. As a result special dispensation was granted for him to touch the ball twice every time he served, tossing the ball into the air with his racquet before hitting it. Redl went on to compete at Wimbledon until 1956. 

In the wars

The arrival of the First World War saw the Championships suspended from 1915 to 1919, during which the All England Club managed to survive on donations from members and wealthy benefactors. By the time hostilities resumed again in 1939 Wimbledon had moved from Worple Road to Church Road becoming a larger, more resilient and far less amateur operation in the process. Between 1940 and 1945 the club remained open to members though the Championships themselves were suspended, the grounds being used for a variety of war-related purposes including civil defence training. On the night of 11 October 1940 a ‘stick’ of 500lb bombs caused considerable damage to the club’s grounds with one striking the Centre Court roof. This meant the crowd capacity of Wimbledon’s most famous arena was reduced for the first three Championships after the war while rebuilding work took place. 

Max factor

In 1921 Liverpool-born Max Woosnam won the Wimbledon Men’s Doubles competition along with Randolph Lycett. Not bad when you consider Woosman was better known for his exploits with balls of a slightly larger nature, playing centre-half for Chelsea and Manchester City as well as earning a solitary England cap in 1922.

The Matthews Final

In 1962 Stanley Matthews won Junior Wimbledon. No, really! Oh alright, it wasn’t actually the famous England footballer but his son, also called Stanley, who defeated the Georgian youngster Alexander Metreveli 10-8, 3-6, 6-4 in the final.

For more fascinating facts about the Wimbledon Championships be sure to check out The Wimbledon Miscellany by Spencer Vignes. 

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