Victorian sports By Max Hardingham

The Victorians and Sport: Lots of the sports we play today were first introduced during the Victorian period. Here are some examples: Football Cricket Boxing Croquet Cycling Roller skating Horse riding Rowing And many many more……. I am going to look in more detail at the Victorians and football

Football- The start of the FA Before 1863 there were no rules and so teams could do whatever they wanted. On Monday 26 October 1863, there was a meeting of football captains at the Freemasons’ Tavern in London. The meeting was arranged to set up a football association which would set up a code of rules and regulate the sport. The meeting was organised by Ebenezer Cobb Morley, a solicitor who loved to play football. He was captain for Barnes football club. He is often called the founder of modern football. Morley was made FA secretary and came up with the first set of rules called the Laws of the Game. He was later made FA president. This was the start of the Football Association (FA). This year the FA is celebrating its 150th birthday.

Football cont… There were 11 teams that first joined the FA. They were: Barnes FC Blackheath Blackheath Proprietary School Civil Service (War Office) FC Crusaders (London) Crystal Palace (1861) Kensington School Forest FC (Leytonstone) NN Club (Kilburn) Perceval House (Blackheath) Surbiton FC

FA cont… The Laws of the Game The first FA Laws of the Game had 16 rules. They contained information about: size of pitch, starting the game with a coin toss, throw-ins, hacking and fouls, goal kicks. Some of these rules are different to how we play football now. For example: - After each goal is scored the teams change ends. - For throw-ins the ball is not in play until it has hit the ground. - There were no goal keepers, substitutes, red/yellow cards and penalty kicks.

FA cont… The invention of shin pads Shin pads were invented in 1874 by Sam Weller Widdowson( the Nottingham Forest team capt) He decided to cut down a pair of cricket pads to protect his shins. The idea didn’t become popular straight away and it took several years before they were widely used. The shin guard was included into the FA’s Laws of the Game in 1881.

FA cont The invention of crossbars In the first FA Laws of the game it stated that there had to be ‘two upright posts, eight yards apart, without any tape or bar across them’. However this meant that a goal could be scored even if it was kicked high into the air as long as it went between the 2 posts. This was very unfair. So a tape between the 2 posts was introduced in 1866 and solid crossbars in 1882.

FA cont… The invention of goal nets The goal net was invented by Everton fan and civil engineer John Alexander Brodie. He decided to do something after a wrongly-disallowed goal robbed his team of a victory against Accrington in 1889. He tried his invention at Stanley park. Brodie later worked as chief engineer on the Mersey Tunnel, but said the goal net was his best achievement.

FA cont… Womens’ Football Even women played football in the Victorian times! At the beginning of 1895 the British Ladies’ Football Club was started by Miss Nettie Honeyball . About 30 female footballers joined the club and would train twice a week . The players wore kits that were the same as the men. This caused an outrage because women usually wore dresses. They wore baggy blouses and long knickerbockers, stockings and fishermen’s caps. The players also wore shin guards and football boots.

Thank you for listening to my presentation. Hope you enjoyed it..