I recently enjoyed a nice cappuccino at Nina's Coffee in Kendal, Cumbria. It can be found at 20 Market Place, next to the Working Men’s Institute, and is popular with shoppers and families.
   So what? There are no obvious clues, but this unassuming little place has a great sporting heritage. It used to be the Football Inn, and is one of the oldest surviving football-related buildings in Britain with a history stretching back 250 years.
   The earliest record dates from 1774, when Joshua Craven inherited the Foot-ball Inn and the nearby George and Dragon from his father, also Joshua. Its name was reputedly taken from the football taken as a trophy after a fierce competition between Kendal and a neighbouring town. For many generations the ball hung in the kitchen, and it appears to have had a football-shaped sign outside.
   Newspaper cuttings reveal some of the history of the pub, which for the early part of the nineteenth century was owned and managed by the Brocklebank family, then a variety of tenants held the lease: Henry Winter, Mrs Unsworth, John Richardson, William Hodgson, Peter Mortimer and Thomas Kay.  It was a popular meeting place for local groups such as Kendal Friendly Society, formed in 1785. 
   In 1891 Kendal Corporation purchased the Football Inn for £1,740 with a view to improving access to the market hall next door (now Westmorland Shopping Centre). They later changed their minds and decided to sell it again and the inn's alcohol licence was not renewed in 1904. George Sill was the last landlord.
   It appears to have been quickly forgotten, as James Clarke's monumental History of Football in Kendal (1908) makes no mention of the Football Inn – but then his focus was on the modern game rather than its medieval folk origins.
   Thankfully the building has survived as a café. It is Grade 2 listed, and although the ground floor has been completely modernised, the upper two floors retain the original stone frontage. The title deeds are held in Cumbria archives.

Below are some 19th century newspaper clippings (from the British Newspaper Archive):

The discovery of this unique illustration of the world's first rugby football international has brought to life one of the most important moments in sporting history.
   Scotland met England on 27 March 1871 at Edinburgh Academicals' ground in Raeburn Place but although both teams were photographed there were not thought to be any pictures of the match in progress.
   However, when I came across this engraving in a print dealer's catalogue I soon realised its significance. Previously unknown to historians, it was published four weeks after the match in a short-lived publication called The Illustrated Newspaper, originally in black and white then colourised at a later date.
   It is signed J McL R, the initials of John McLaren Ralston (1849-83), a talented 22-year-old Glaswegian artist who was starting to make a name for himself in a career that brought admiration from, among others, Vincent van Gogh.
   What makes Ralston's illustration all the more intriguing is that his elder brother William (1841-1911) famously drew the sketches of the first association football international, which took place the following year.

The brothers' style of illustration has strong similarities and it has been said by art historians that John (known as Jack) was the more talented of the two and taught William how to draw. They certainly had an excellent artistic pedigree as their father Peter ran a well-known photographic studio in Glasgow city centre, good enough to earn a royal warrant. Peter Ralston took his sons into the business, and both used it as a springboard to launch their careers.
   When Jack Ralston headed over to Edinburgh in 1871, he joined an enthusiastic crowd of around 4,000 crammed into Raeburn Place to witness the inaugural rugby international. He had ample opportunity to draw a number of character studies and used a degree of artistic licence to capture the scene, placing his focus on the spectators in the foreground. They are paying scant attention to the match, some of them engaged in discussion or argument and they are clearly well-to-do, including a finely dressed lady. Whether they relate to specific individuals is hard to say.

The players, by contrast, are almost incidental, a blur of movement in the background. There is just enough detail to show that the forwards are engaged in a mighty scrum while some backs stand aside from the struggle, ready to intercept a loose ball or breakaway run. An umpire in top hat, perhaps the legendary HH Almond, watches intently. 
   ​There are other interesting aspects to the scene, as it appears to confirm that the playing surface was laid out between the slope of the ancient archery mound, which used to be a feature of ground, and its boundary on the east side. The English team actually complained that the pitch was too narrow, just 55 yards wide. Also of interest, the goalposts are much shorter than in modern times.
   The idea that the international pitch was squeezed into a corner of Raeburn Place is emphasised by the absence of spectators behind the north goal, a slope would have given a good vantage point but was on neighbouring farmland and separated from the sports field by a burn. In the distance can be seen the buildings of South Inverleith Mains Farm, which was bought by the city and demolished in 1889 to create what is now Inverleith Park.

The day ended in an unexpected – and much celebrated – victory for the Scotland twenty by a goal and a try to a try, yet until now the only known images relating to this historic match were the posed team groups. The Scotland photo was taken in front of the pavilion by ER Yerbury, just before the start of play, while the England team had two photos taken that morning 'in plain clothes and in uniform' by Ross and Pringle of George Street.
   Ralston was only 22 at the time and his drawing of the scene was an exciting addition to his portfolio. He must have taken it directly to his publisher as he is recorded in the London census just five days later. Over the coming decade he was in much demand as an engraver and his prolific output appeared in journals such as the Illustrated London News, not to mention many books. He covered a range of contemporary, rustic and historic scenes and among them are more sporting subjects such as bowls, croquet and curling.  His talent was even admired, somewhat incongruously, by Vincent van Gogh, who described one Ralston print as 'exquisitely done'.

Sadly, Ralston's star shone only briefly. He lived in Hampstead while he worked as an engraver for London publications, but then he fell ill. He returned to Glasgow and died on 11 July 1883 in the family home at 2 Kersland Street, aged 34 and unmarried. His cause of death was given vaguely as 'debility'.
   Rugby football, on the other hand, went from strength to strength, and the Raeburn Place ground, which opened in 1854 as a school sports field, is itself currently being transformed. Jack Ralston's impressions of the first match will go on public display for the first time at the new Museum of International Rugby, due to open there in 2020. 

You can also read an article about this discovery in The Times newspaper.

The full story of the first football internationals, both rugby and soccer, is detailed in my book 'First Elevens', available here price £9.99 post free.

I guess this document will have to be filed under the title of 'one that got away'. I recently came across it in a catalogue from a small Irish auction house, but it has long gone. 
   This four page pamphlet has a unique place in football history. It was published in November 1863 by the committee which drew up the Cambridge University rules of football. This was the latest in several attempts to create a composite set of rules, starting in 1846, but would be the one with the most profound influence. It was reproduced in the sports papers of the day, and came to the notice of the fledgling Football Association in London whose members were holding a series of meetings that autumn to establish a common code for football. Its publication galvanised the debate among the game's founding fathers, as it provided a tentative solution to the arguments which were raging between different factions. Charles Alcock saw it as something of a godsend and proposed adopting the Cambridge rules in their entirety, albeit with some small modifications, and that is indeed what happened. The FA's rules were duly published in December 1863, and association football came into being.
   The Cambridge rules were important enough to be printed in The Field and Bell's Life, and then JC Thring set them out alongside the FA's final version in his little book of football rules, which he published at the end of 1863.

So, where is this original 1863 copy of the Cambridge Rules now? Sadly, the short answer is that I don't know. 
   I can't help feeling that its significance was not appreciated, as when the auction house first listed it in 2009 it was left unsold, and then when they tried again in 2015 it sold for the princely sum of 60 euros. I asked the auction house to forward my details to the purchaser, which they kindly did, but I have had no further response. 
   This is a shame as I have never seen another and as far as I know it is the only surviving copy. I remain hopeful that it will surface, one of the true building blocks of association football.
   However,  if this unknown copy of the 1863 Cambridge Rules has survived, who knows what else is out there? The fact that something so old can surface does raise the faint hope that perhaps, one day, the mythical rules from 1848 will also be found.

I have long had an interest in French football - see my posts on Victor Gibson and White Rovers, for example. And this is another example of a little-known tale, the first ever football match between English and French clubs.
   It took place in Southampton on 19 February 1873, between Portswood Park and Le Havre. Thanks to detailed reports in the Hampshire Advertiser, which have recently become available thanks to the British Newspaper Archive, I have been able to piece together the story.
   Portswood Park was originally a cricket club with a home at Abbot's Park, now better known as North Stoneham Park. The club was formed in 1867 as a successor to the Olympic Cricket and Athletic Club, and its members had played football in the winter months from about 1870. In those fledgling days of the sport, there was still much confusion about rules, and they played a kind of hybrid football that was neither association nor rugby.
   As the newspaper makes clear, this particular match came about thanks to George Harper, a local ship owner, who originally proposed a cricket match with his contacts in Le Havre. The reply came back from Rev George Washington that they would rather play football, and the clubs agreed to play the game.
   It was quite a venture for the visitors, who travelled by steamer on the Tuesday from Le Havre to Southampton, and booked into the South-Western Hotel. There, they agreed the arrangements of the game with their hosts, including the rules and the number of players.
   On Wednesday afternoon the match drew a crowd of 3-400 spectators, including 'many ladies', to the Antelope Ground in Southampton. This was the home of Hampshire County Cricket Club and later the home ground of Southampton FC until 1897.

The teams had 12 players on each side, and everything went fine with the arrangements until Le Havre kicked off: 'in a few minutes it was evident to all that their opponents were too powerful and heavy for them, and also that they did not understand the rules on this side of the water, especially the carrying of the ball'. It was one-way traffic throughout, and the final score was emphatic, with the match report declaring that Portswood Park had won by a goal, eleven touchdowns and eleven rouges to a single rouge for Le Havre. This contradicted the reporter's own description of play, which credited two goals to Lungley. Regardless, it was clearly not much of a contest.
   At this distance in time it is hard to work out what rules the teams were playing to, or the origins and influences which led to this form of football. Even the scoring system requires some scrutiny as the reporter appears to have confused touchdowns and rouges. A touchdown, as in rugby, gave the opportunity to kick for goal over the posts and historically this is similar to the rouge, a term from the Eton field game and also used in Sheffield football. 
   The teams enjoyed a marvellous dinner that evening at the Philharmonic Rooms and the visitors were entertained by numerous speeches and toasts. The visitors then returned to the docks at midnight for the return journey to France. Despite every best intention of arranging a return match in the coming months, it never happened and the game remained a one-off.
   Portswood Park had only a short life as a club thereafter and appears to have stopped playing cricket in 1874. Le Havre, on the other hand, went from strength to strength and Havre Athletic Club became a successful multi-sport club including teams playing both association and rugby football.
   Given the nature of the football they played in 1873, this match is difficult to categorise and it will not find a place in the histories of rugby or association football. Yet it was 'football' of a sort, and indicates that innovative sporting contacts were feasible outside the usual framework of established clubs and schools. 

Finally, I have looked into the background of the players taking part.
   The Portswood Park team is easier to identify, as they were mainly middle class professionals at the start of their careers as solicitors, clerks and shipping agents.  Most of them also played cricket and took part in local athletics meetings.
   Team captain was Peter Vosper Buchanan, a clerk who later emigrated to New Zealand. The others were: Caleb Joshua Wood, a clerk; brothers Charles Roberts Welsh, still at school, and Frank James Tizard Welsh, a brewer; Sidney Gater Warner, trainee solicitor; Arthur George Payne, son of Southampton's mayor; Lucius Melville O'Brien, trainee solicitor; James Lungley, son of a local shipowner; Bernard Harfield, a clerk; Frank Henly Elliott, slate merchant; Dunbar Wilson Johnston Duncan, who later played cricket for Hampshire; and the goalkeeper identified only by his surname Cecil, possibly one of the brothers Aubrey or Egerton Cecil, who also played cricket for Hampshire.
   Others mentioned include the club president, Councillor John Neat Pocock, and vice-president George Thomas Harper. Tickets were sold at the High Street shop of Thomas Dartnall, who also provided the catering.
   As for Havre Football Club, the most prominent player was Reverend George Washington (1835-1906), resident minister in Le Havre, who had been educated at Winchester College and Cambridge University, hence he probably had a good football background. The only other player I can identify with certainty is Charles Edward Gabain, the club treasurer and a wealthy coffee importer.
   The remaining Havre players were Bateson, Roberts, Moir, Mitchell, Barlow, Bruin, Bordier, Harding, Stephenson and Furneaux. From the names, most of them were British but they do seem to include two or three Frenchmen.

A couple of years ago I wrote about William Sleator, an Englishman who is regarded as one of the fathers of French football. In 1891 he founded White Rovers FC, the first club in Paris, and imported the first set of goalposts to France.
   When I wrote that article, I appealed for further information and was therefore delighted to be contacted by his grandson, Christopher Robbie. We met up and exchanged information - he was unaware of many of Sleator's exploits - and he found his grandfather's priceless gold medal, pictured here. He also provided a snapshot of the man himself. 

The gold medal is the top honour of the French Football Federation, presented to those who have made a major contribution to football in the country. In general it is awarded to long-serving officials, who have already accumulated the silver and gilt category awards, so it was really something special for Sleator to be recognised in this way. The presentation was made 1949, half a century after he gave up playing the game, and showed that his pioneering role in French football had not been forgotten.

Christopher Robbie shared fond recollections of his grandfather, who died in 1955. The story was made all the more interesting as Robbie himself has a fascinating life story as a TV announcer and actor - there are plenty of clips online - and I am sure I saw him in action as a cyber leader on Dr Who in the 1970s (Revenge of the Cybermen). It just goes to show that sport history can lead in all sorts of interesting directions!

When I wrote the biography of Lord Kinnaird a few years ago, one of the challenges that I faced was an absence of personal recollection by the man himself. He kept some scrapbooks and photos, but appeared to have left no sporting memoirs.
   However, there was one particular quote widely attributed to him, the source of which I had never been able to track down. It read: 'I believe all right-minded people have good reason to thank God for the great progress of this popular national game.' It was only recently that I stumbled across its origin in a religious magazine called Progress, published by the United Free Church of Scotland in January 1901. The article sheds a fascinating light on the early development of football, made all the more useful as it is written by a man who lived through the sport's fledgling days in the 1860s.

Thanks to digitised newspapers, and I can now reproduce the full article:

Football, by Lord Kinnaird

I have been connected with the Association game ever since its commencement and, indeed, my knowledge of the game dates from about 1865. Looking back, I cannot but contrast its present popularity, when from 60,000 to 70,000 people will gather to see an International match, or the final for the Football Association Cup, and those old days, when a handful of people, who were admitted free, used to come and witness the best matches of the year. Reading the football reports on a Monday morning, it is difficult to realise that this is the same game. I know of no sport which has so quickly assumed national importance as football.
   I well remember some of the first attempts to extend the game beyond the confines of our public schools and universities. The earliest efforts were made in London, and the neighbourhood, the teams being largely composed of old members of Eton and Harrow, with Winchester, Westminster, Charterhouse, and members of H.M. Civil Service. My own personal knowledge of the development of football mainly applies to the Association game, but I fancy that what one can say of this branch is equally true with reference to the Rugby game.
   I was one of a small committee formed to think out what came to be the Association Rules. These were based on the game played by Eton, Westminster, and Charterhouse, leaving out the Eton 'rouge', which resembles what Rugby friends would call the scrum.

What Led to Football's Great Popularity?

It is generally difficult to popularise a new game, but it early appeared to many leading athletes that there was a great need for an open air game available to all classes, especially for those who could not afford the more expensive pastimes. It further gained a great impetus from the increase of the Saturday half-holiday and the general increase of leisure. Young men found they had more free time, and not much to occupy the time. Another force which early came in to extend the liking for football was the annual matches between public schools and university teams.
   The first large town to take up the game energetically was Sheffield, and the annual matches were played between London and Sheffield under rather different rules, the first match being in 1866. Then came the keenly contested games between England and Scotland, which became an annual fixture. It was in Yorkshire, at the home of sport, Bramall-lane Cricket Ground, Sheffield, that spectators first began to assemble in any great numbers. They were the fairest spectators of any crowd, always ready to appreciate the points of the game, and to applaud good play on either side. It would be well if the spectators in England and Scotland today would follow their example. We would then be spared many of the disgraceful scenes which bring discredit on the game. In those days umpires were not necessary - the captains of the two teams made most admirable umpires, and from their positions they were able to give as good and fair decisions, often better, than the modern umpire.
   Scotland, of course, began early to take up football, and it spread like wildfire, and they very soon produced players to hold their own in any contest. The management of the Scottish team passed into the hands of a committee in Glasgow, which became the Scottish National Association, and the annual match was keenly looked forward to and eagerly contested. The third match, which was played at Kennington Oval in 1871, was a most exciting affair, and ended in a draw. For the first three or four contests the Scottish team was mainly composed of men like myself, resident in or near London, but Mr. R. Smith, of the Queen's Park, Glasgow, did excellent work, and was amongst the forerunners of the many who are now willing to take a long journey in order to play in such games. Before very long the committee decided that the International team should be composed entirely of Scotsmen, which was a very just rule.

Gate Money and Its Troubles

Amongst the teams which made their mark in the early development of Association football might be mentioned the Wanderers, the Queen's Park, Glasgow, Old Etonians, Harrow Chequers (which soon merged in Old Harrovians), Royal Engineers, Clapham Rovers, and Civil Service. With the growing popularity of the game the troubles began. Gate money flowed in, and how it was to be spent became a substantial factor in the game - the question of players receiving payment pressed for consideration. Personally, I took the view that it would be better to recognise what was bound to come. It did not need the gift of prophecy to foresee that, with large sums of money coming in there was a danger of it being illicitly spent if the professional was not permitted. Many of my friends differed from my view that, in football as in cricket, there was room for development, not only among amateurs, but also among professionals.
   I will not, however, enter at length upon the thorny question of professionalism. Suffice it to say, that I find professionals play just as fair and sound a game as amateurs. Some of the roughest games in which I have taken part have not been with Northern or professional teams, but in matches with clubs representing public schools and universities - more especially the games between the old rivals Eton and Harrow. While, however each side played a hard game, there was nothing in the way of mean or unfair play.
   With reference to the development of the game itself, the first football tour was undertaken by a team of officers of the Royal Engineers, under the able captainship of the late Major Sir F. A. Marindin, who was for so many years president and chairman of the Football Association, and very few of its meetings took place at which he did not preside. As might be expected from a team comprised of scientific men, the Royal Engineers were the first to develop that style of play (so different from the public school game), which is now known as the combination, or passing game, and which has been carried to such perfection both by Association and Rugby players. Football is a game possessing many advantages. It may be played in any weather and at a time of the year when few other games can be so advantageously played. One of the roughest days in which I ever played was in a match at Glasgow - Old Etonians v Queen's Park - just the day before the sad Tay Bridge disaster, but none of us were any the worse for our game.

The Future of Football

As to the future of the game, I am often I asked: 'Do I not regret the part I have taken in promoting the development and popularity of football?' I unhesitatingly say 'No!' I look on the increase of athletic sports as one of the most important elements in improving the physique of our population, and producing a sound body and a healthy spirit amongst the young men of the vast population herded together in our great cities. I admit that I cannot now speak with the same accurate personal knowledge as I could have done ten years ago of all the districts in the United Kingdom; but even if it be granted that there are sometimes blots on the game in small areas of the country, I believe that all right-minded people have good reason to thank God for the great progress of this popular National game, and it is the duty of all good citizens to do what they can by personal influence and presence, and by associating themselves with the various clubs, to see that the game - both Rugby and Association - is fairly and honestly played. In this game numbers, variously estimated at 300,000 and 350,000, take part every week.
   I wish further, that rich men would acquire freehold land for open spaces sufficiently near the centre of our large towns for cricket and football, and secure these under trust deed with rules prohibiting the sale of intoxicants and forbidding betting and gambling.
   The Football Association has steadfastly set its face against all gambling and betting in connection with football matches, and we are always ready to come down with a heavy hand on any infringement of our rules on this point, and we invite the aid of all who are interested in the well-being of young men of the rising generation to encourage them to take part, not as spectators, but as players, in some of the many branches of athletic sports which are now brought within their reach. Of all these, I personally think that football is the best for the development of true manliness and unselfishness of character, helping to fit the young men to take part in after years in the more serious competition of life, whether for the Churches or for the Empire.

First published in Progress, the monthly magazine of the United Free Church of Scotland, January 1901

When writing the book 1824: The World’s First Foot-Ball Club, we took a close look at the lengthy pre-history of football in Edinburgh. This led to the rediscovery of some remarkable seventeenth century drawings which include what is probably the earliest illustration of football goalposts yet discovered – not to mention the oldest picture of football in Scotland.
   It was drawn by Archibald Flint, a student who graduated from Edinburgh University in 1673. He doodled extensively in the margins of his lecture notes (known as dictates) and on the title pages of two surviving volumes are four little pen sketches which show men – presumably students – taking part in sport. They depict billiards, tennis, football and target archery.
   The importance of these drawings was first recognised by Charles Pringle Finlayson, who was keeper of manuscripts at Edinburgh University library. He wrote a lengthy analysis in the Scottish Historical Review, published in 1958, but his paper has been largely forgotten and deserves to be better known among sports historians.

The football scene is fascinating, with two men in hats kicking a ball between a curious set of three-barred goal posts. Finlayson speculates that the bars may be associated with some kind of scoring differential, depending on which bit of the goal the ball crosses. Alternatively, he says, they might relate to the Edinburgh field where football was played, Gallowgreen, because of their similarity to the shape of the gallows.
   Finlayson also notes that the Latin translation of one of James VI’s works calls football 'pila Scotica quae pede propellitur' (a Scottish ball which is propelled by the foot).
   The drawings confirm that sport of various kinds had became respectable in late 17th century Scotland, when attitudes relaxed again after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. It was not just football: emerging from years of negativity by the Kirk and the civic authorities, golfers started to knock balls around Bruntsfield and Leith Links, horse racing began again on Leith Shore and Musselburgh, and bowling greens were laid out in the city by landowners on their estates.
Archery was strengthened by the founding in Edinburgh of the Royal Company of Archers in 1676, the nation's first sporting society. From Alexander Flint’s drawings we can deduce that tennis was popular – there was a tennis court at the Abbey of Holyroodhouse – and so was billiards.

Students were at the forefront of this activity, and around the same time, there is an account of the money spent by Alexander Heriot, who was perhaps a factor for the Gilmour household, on behalf of Alexander Gilmour of Craigmillar (just south of Edinburgh), reflecting what the young man about town needed in 1671-3: 'A great comb to his periwig, half a dozen golf balls, a football at fastern's even'.
Golf was also considered a suitable game for a student of that era, as Thomas Kincaid, an Edinburgh surgeon’s son, reveals in his diary for 1687-88. Aged about 26 years old, he played golf on Bruntsfield Links, 'near the Tounis College', and on Leith Links. Kincaid went on to describe 'the only way of playing at the Golve', giving instruction on how to adopt the correct stance and hit the ball, and elsewhere in his diary he outlined how golf clubs were made. He also developed a talent for archery and went on to be an active member of the Royal Company of Archers, becoming just the third winner of the Edinburgh Arrow in 1711.
 It all goes to show that football games, archery butts, tennis courts and billiard tables were an accepted part of the landscape for Edinburgh gentlemen towards the end of the 17th century. The enthusiasm of the university authorities for some of these sports appears to have waned in the following century, before John Hope and his friends revived football as a respectable pastime when they founded their club in 1824.
 
With thanks for the Centre for Research Collections, Edinburgh University Library, for rephotographing Archibald Flint's dictates, and giving permission for reproduction.
 
CP Finlayson's article was entitled: Illustrations of Games by a Seventeenth Century Edinburgh Student. The Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 37, No. 123, Part 1 (April 1958), pp. 1-10.

One of the most important developments in football in the 19th century was the creation of rules, a common code by which all the players had to abide.
   Pictured above is the world's earliest known set of football rules, written by John Hope in Edinburgh in 1833 to guide the members of his Foot-Ball Club which had been established in 1824. This crucial document now resides in the National Records of Scotland, and is a priceless piece of footballing history.
   It is worth examining why Hope felt it necessary to lay down the rules in writing, and what they implied for the players.
   By 1833 the club had been going for nine years, it was buoyant and attracting new recruits from a variety of backgrounds and schools. Therefore many of the players may not have had the implicit understanding of how to play and how to behave that former High School boys would have had.
   The club's membership records indicate that football games involved up to 40 men playing at the same time, wearing caps to distinguish sides. Their football was of a robust and healthy nature, played within a defined area on rough grass fields in summer and winter. All games were played within the club membership as there simply was no other club with which to play competitive matches.
   Their football was clearly a competitive game with a code of behaviour to avoid serious injury - the members were young men who needed to be able to walk to work or study the next morning. Their game had progressed from the schoolboy pastime of the High School Yards, and Hope probably felt he needed to establish some guidelines. His rules therefore appear to mark a step on football's evolutionary path from its often violent origins in the folk games of a less sophisticated age to the more sanitised, codified form which emerged in the 1850s. Hope wrote in his own hand:

1. Single soled shoes, no iron
2. No tripping
3. Ball to pass imaginary line
4. A free kick if ball out of bounds
5. Pushing is allowed. Holding not illegal
6. Allow the ball to be lifted between fields

Underneath, he noted the attributes of the game:
Aff [affirmative] Fun, air, exercise
Neg [negative] No tripping

These rules are brief, and leave much to the imagination, but they are highly significant not just in what they say, but what they do not say. In many respects this is similar to the early editions of Rugby School's laws in the 1840s, which stated they were to be regarded 'rather as a set of decisions on certain disputed points in football, than as containing all the Laws of the Game, which are too well known to render any explanation necessary.'

   Hope's first two rules indicate a concern for safety and a desire to avoid injury. Therefore the players could be robust (a founding member wrote of 'such kicking of shins') so there was clearly a risk of being kicked, but they were expected to avoid hurting their opponents unnecessarily. It seems to have worked, as there are no mentions anywhere in the correspondence or club records of serious injury.
   Rules three and four introduce the concept of a method of scoring. The game needed winners and losers so a goal (or 'hail') was scored when the ball passed over the 'imaginary line', and we know from the financial records that there were painted hail sticks which operated as goalposts. Similarly, to stop the play wandering off into the distance, this imaginary line extended right round the pitch; so, if the ball went beyond the agreed boundary it would be retrieved and kicked back into play.
   Rule five is interesting as it permits an element of physical aggression, allowing players to push and hold their opponents (as rugby allows to this day within defined circumstances such as tackling and scrums). However, pushing and holding are a long way from the 'no holds barred' approach of traditional folk football.
   The final rule is harder to analyse, particularly as this is the only rule that Hope redrafted. He crossed out some words and perhaps had difficulty in condensing accepted practice into a short sentence. It appears to mean that the only time the ball could be lifted, i.e. picked up or handled, was when it was out of play 'between fields'. If that interpretation is correct it confirms that this was a forerunner to the non-handling code that ultimately became association football.
   While Hope's football rules are brief and open to interpretation, it has to be remembered he was the first to attempt the task. This was ​decades before the versions created by footballers at Cambridge (1848), Sheffield (1858), the Football Association (1863) and several prominent schools. He was a man ahead of his time.

The story of The World's First Foot-Ball Club is on sale now, price £11.99.

In sport there has to be a first time for everything, and the earliest known football medal dates from 1851, this beautiful silver prize which was presented by Edinburgh University students to the soldiers of the 93rd Regiment.
   Engraved with a detailed action scene of soldiers in kilts challenging for a ball against students in ordinary outdoor clothes, on the other side it has the match details. This silver medal provides an indisputable record of a competitive game of football taking place, and is of exceptional historical value as the sport's first trophy, in the sense that it was a prize for the winners.

How did it all come about? There was already a tradition of organised football in Edinburgh, where John Hope had founded his Foot-Ball Club in 1824 and ran it into the 1840s. There was then a ten year gap before a flurry of football match reports were published, somewhat incongruously in the London-based Bell's Life rather than the Scottish newspapers.
   The first of these related to a momentous game played on 25 January 1851 'in presence of a vast multitude' in the Queen’s Park (next to Holyrood Palace). It was contested 20-a-side between the Edinburgh University Foot Ball Club and the 93rd Regiment of Foot (later to become the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders), who were garrisoned at Edinburgh Castle. The reporter gushed: 'The students looked all confidence and appeared active, fine, athletic fellows. The Highlanders took their places coolly but with resolute determination, arranging themselves in a manner which displayed excellent training.'
   The teams kicked off at half past two for the best of five games (goals), with ends changed each time a goal was scored, and two hours later the soldiers were declared the winners by a convincing 3-0 margin.
   What made this contest particularly noteworthy is that the teams had agreed beforehand that the losers would present the winners with a medal – originally meant to be gold, but in the event only silver. It was commissioned from the silversmith James Mackay, whose son Robert had been a member of John Hope's Foot-Ball Club from 1824-26; he may have been able to advise his father on the design. This priceless object is now on display in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders' regimental museum in Stirling Castle.
   The soldiers were no strangers to football. The previous month they had played a match at Spark's Cricket Ground in Grove Crescent, reported in the press, and that helped to provide clues to the identity of the winning captain. He was Lieutenant William Donald Macdonald, born in 1827 in Strathmartine, Angus and who joined the regiment in 1847 as Ensign. He had a much-decorated military career in the Crimea, China and the Indian Mutiny, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before he died of cholera in India in 1862.

Much to my delight, I found that Edinburgh University Library holds his manuscript account of a 'Pedestrian tour round the west coast of Scotland in 1849' together with the above carte-de-visite photo of Lieut-Col Macdonald in his hunting clothes. This picture of the first prize-winning football captain has never been published before.
   While the medal match was important, the students were not done yet. A month later Bell's Life published a report headed 'University of Edinburgh Foot Ball Club’' of a 24-a-side match between 'the Scotch and English members composing this club'. I believe this is the first known example of a football match of any kind being played according to nationality.
   The game started at two, the teams identified 'on the Scotch side by a green badge, and on the English by a red', and it was agreed that they would play for three hours. The Scots scored first with 'a lucky hit', then the English scored twice and were declared winners when five o'clock struck. The writer counted 500 spectators, named seven players from each side and two umpires, and gave us one of the most complete football reports of its day.
   Although the participants were identified only by their surnames, it is possible to work out who some of them were. The English (Russell, Broadbent, Cobbold, Aldridge, Frost, Jones and Cousens) all appear to have been medical students, including William Henry Broadbent (1829-61) of Cheshire, Thomas Spencer Cobbold (1828-86) of Ipswich, and one of two Aldridge brothers from Hampshire.
   The Scots (Nasmyth, Smyth, Currie, Frazer, Dickson, Bone and Christison) also featured future doctors such as John Barclay Nasmyth (1832-55) and David Christison (1830-1912), both of Edinburgh, and one of three Bone brothers from Barbados. The team also included James Currie (1828-86), a Divinity student, and Archibald Dickson (1829-95) of Hawick who was studying Law. The two umpires were probably Robert Paterson, a Law student from Ayrshire, and James Hood Wilson, later a Free Church minister.
   The final report in Bell's Life that spring was of a match played on Leith Links on 21 March 1851, between 'the members of the Edinburgh University club and the gentlemen attending the Veterinary College'. It was won 2-0 by the former after two hours, and the writer noted that 'the arrangement of the forces from the University was decidedly superior, and throughout their play was of a much higher order. This is mainly attributable to the good practice the side has been in since the commencement of their season.'
   He makes reference to a proposed match between the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, 'the first time the rival clubs have competed together', but unfortunately no report of this match has been found, if indeed it took place.
   Thanks to these anonymous articles in 1851, we know that Edinburgh University Football Club was organised, practised regularly and had a programme of fixtures. The soldiers of the 93rd also clearly enjoyed their sport and even after they left Edinburgh for a posting at Weedon Barracks in Northamptonshire they held Highland Games which concluded with a game of football.
   Although there are no further accounts of the Edinburgh students playing football until the end of the decade, that may simply be due to a lack of newspaper coverage. The clear inference from all of this, notably the presentation of the first medal and the number of detailed reports, is that football was played more widely in the 1850s than is generally believed. Long before it was codified into the modern game, football was a popular pastime in Edinburgh.