IF THE CAP FITS and Bambridge's exciting debut

In the early days of football, the concept of each team wearing a set of matching shirts had not been universally adopted, so each side would distinguish itself from the other by wearing a specific sort of cap. The practice was first approved on 10 May 1886 for association football after a proposal made by N. Lane Jackson , founder of the Corinthians: That all players taking part for England in future international matches be presented with a white silk cap with red rose embroidered on the front.

In sport, a cap is awarded for a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the UK of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby union and association football. In the early days of football, the concept of each team wearing a set of matching shirts had not been universally adopted, so each side would distinguish itself from the other by wearing a specific sort of cap.

An early illustration of the first international match between Scotland and England in 1872 shows the Scottish players wearing cowls, and the English wearing a variety of school caps.

Edward Charles Bambridge (30 July 1858 – 8 November 1935) made eighteen appearances as a left winger for England between 1879-1887, being appointed captain twice. He was one of three brothers who played for England. He was an extremely fast winger, being considered one of England's first notable players. Throughout his career he was known as "Charlie Bam".

Charles Bambridge was born in Windsor, and his parents had been a missionary in Waimate. New Zealand and then the "official" photographer to Queen Victoria. Charles was educated at St Mark's School in Windsor and then Malvern College, Worcestershire and was a member of the college football team.

His football career was spent with Swifts and Windsor Home Park Streatham, Upton Park. Clapham Rovers and Corinthian, also gaining representative honours for Surrey, Berkshire and London.

He made his debut for England against Scotland at Kennington Oval, on 5 April 1879. At half time, England were 4–1 down to the Scots. Bambridge scored early in the second half and his teammates had levelled the score by the 75th minute. With less than ten minutes remaining, the Scots scored what they thought was the winning goal but the referee disallowed it as offside. The English forwards then raced upfield with Bambridge scoring the winning goal, thus enabling England to claim their first victory over the Scots since 1873 in what was described as "the most exciting England and Scotland game to date". He won 11 caps. He was a member of the Football Association committee from 1883 to 1886 and a member of the Corinthians original committee in 1882. He became honorary secretary of the Corinthians between 1923 and 1932.

and here is Billy Wright OBE, of Wolves and England, very much a footballer of "my generation". At 5'8", not what you would expect for a centre half/back. Today is not an anniversary for him BUT, since we are on CAPS, he earned 105 caps, the first Englishman to pass the century, a centre half and captain; long serving Wolves player. Wright also held the record for longest unbroken run in competitive international football, with 70 consecutive appearances, captaining them a record 90 times, including during their campaigns at the 1950, 1954 and 1958 finals. He also played 490 times for Wolves, scoring a modest 13 goals.

Martin Peters, another England international (67 caps and 20 goals) was born on this day in 1943. As we know, he scored a great goal in the 1966 World Cup Final. He died on December 21st 2019.