Charles W.Alcock remembered his schoolboy days at Harrow School, where there was an inter-house competition. So he set up the tournament based on his experience. The clubs paid a subscription to join in, buying a silver cup worth £20.
Only four ties were played in this first round and the first ever goal was scored by Jarvis Kenrick of Clapham Rovers. 15 teams joined in the competition and this led eventually to a final betwen Wanderers (a mixture of public schoolboys originally, 1859, based at Forest School, Snaresbrook, Essex) and the Royal Engineers on the 16th March 1872, at the Kennington Oval.
Queen's Park of Scotland paid a Guinea for the privilege of playing in the cup and Harrow Chequers, Reigate Priory and Donington School scratched before the first round got under way. The school from Lincolnshire was not able to travel to Glasgow to play Queen's Park. The other two clubs just failed to get sorted out!
The Queen's Park team was exempt from the early rounds due to the distance they would have to travel (yes they were expected to play in London!) and were therefore "byed" through to the semi-final. Here they met Wanderers and played at the Oval managing a draw. They could not afford to return for a replay so scratched and let their opponents into the Final!
The Wanderers founded in 1859, won the cup 5 times out of the first 7. The club was revived in 2009 and played an exhibition "Cup Final" in 2013 at the Oval (on the outfield) against the Royal Engineers (who still exist) as part of the 150 year celebration of the foundation of the Football Association.
(left is a photo of the Forest team, the only team group remotely attached to the Wanderers)
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