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SPORTS HISTORY BLOG

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Many fine football careers have been launched in the Junior ranks, and two sports historians have recently taken a close look at the players who first made their name in three internationals played at West Bromwich Albion's ground, The Hawthorns.
   Robert Bradley and Douglas Gorman have been assiduously researching the history of football in the Birmingham area, and they have written an account of the England v Scotland junior games of 1908, 1925 and 1935. Their fascinating account, entitled The Hawthorns Series, reveals what happened to the players in the annual matches between the Birmingham and District FA and the Scottish Junior FA.  Famous names such as Peter Nellies, Dougie Gray and Jock Brown are included, as well as many lesser lights who still had a worthwhile professional career.
   Robert and Douglas have published the article here on this website to give it a wider audience, and I would welcome submissions from any other researchers who have written new and original work on Scottish Sport History.
   Click here to read The Hawthorns Series (pdf).

NB article updated, most recently June 2019.
4 Comments
Roger Baker - 11 years ago
A further snippet on one of the Birmingham players in the first of the Hawthorns games. George Sinclair Moore was born at Stockingford, just outside Nuneaton, on the 12th of August, 1884.
Douglas Gorman - 11 years ago
Many thanks for the new information Roger. I will update the article to include the place and exact date of birth for George Moore.
Henry Myatt - 10 years ago
The referee for the 1908 game was Mr Brodie of Wolverhampton. I've actually got the programmes for all 3 WBA games. They also confirm that Crichton took the penalty. I've collected match details of every Junior International that ever featured a WBA player, including teams, atts, refs, reports etc, mostly from the Scottish newspapers who were far more interested in the series.
Douglas Gorman - 10 years ago
Thanks Henry. It is very interesting that you have also been researching the Junior Internationals from a West Bromwich Albion angle. I have added the name of the referee for the 1908 match – thanks for that and also for confirming Crichton scored from the spot. I was very interested to know that there were programmes for these games – it would be great to see them. We got some information from the Albion News published for Albion first team games at the time but not from programmes for the games themselves. It would be good to remain in touch.

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All blog posts, unless stated, are written by Andy Mitchell.