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.