Yesterday, West Auckland FC lost the FA Vase final at Wembley, to Sholing FC from Southampton 1-0. Despite their best efforts, and this is the second final the Durham club has been in recently, West Auckland could not secure the trophy.
The club is probably best known for its title as first World Cup winners! The story goes that they were entered for the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy in 1909-essentially the first "club" World Cup.
The Trophy was initiated by businessman and sporting
enthusiast Sir Thomas Lipton, who wished to see a competition between the
leading football clubs of Europe. The football associations of Italy, Germany
and Switzerland duly complied, but the Football Association of England refused
to nominate a club. West Auckland, a lowly amateur side of coal miners from the
Northern League entered into the competition, although it has never been
entirely clear why.
One explanation for West Auckland's entry was that an
employee of Sir Thomas Lipton's had contacts in the Northern League and put out
an appeal for a team to take the English spot. An alternative explanation,
popular in the town itself, is that Lipton had wanted to send Woolwich Arsenal
(the fledgling Arsenal FC) to the Championship – an instruction to his
secretary to "contact W.A." led to West Auckland being mistakenly
contacted. There is no documentary evidence however, to suggest any sort of link between Sir Thomas
Lipton and Woolwich Arsenal, so it is unclear why he would have chosen them
ahead of any other English team.
West Auckland duly made the journey to Turin, where the
first tournament was being held, many of the players paying out of their own
pocket to do so. They beat Sportfreunde Stuttgart in the semi-finals 2–0; in
the final, on April 12, 1909, West Auckland faced Swiss side FC Winterthur and
beat them 2–0 as well to take the trophy.
Two years later, West Auckland returned, and after beating
FC Zürich 2–0, they ran out 6–1 winners in the final over future Italian giants
Juventus. By the rules of competition, they were awarded the trophy to keep.
Upon their return home, the club was forced to pawn the
trophy to the landlady of the local hotel because of financial problems. It
remained with her family until 1960 when a village appeal raised money to
return the cup to the club. The cup was then stolen in 1994 and despite the
best efforts of local police and a £2,000 reward it was never found. An exact
replica of the cup can now be found in a secure cabinet in the West Auckland
Working Men's Club.
This is another reason why the north-east region may claim to be the hot bed of English football this season.
For further information on football in the north-east, contact the Durham Amateur Football Trust.
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