CAPTAIN BLADE

Having received a social message from a sister in law and husband in Australia, I was drawn towards the attached photo that showed an Australian pirate in full flow. The pirate is the bloke at the back!

This had to be too much of a coincidence to ignore because I was at Bramall Lane last night watching The Blades play Birmingham City. It was a 0-0 draw, slightly exciting, why wouldn't it be? with Billy Sharp brought on by Chris Wilder, albeit too late in the game to make a difference and ex-Independent School footballer Ollie Norwood starting in the home side spraying passes like a quarter-back. 
Billy is a legend of course and Ollie, well he played for St Bede's School, Hailsham against Charterhouse, back in a day and was a star in the ISFA U18 XI.

So where am I going with this, well Captain Blade, the Blades' mascot, was on show, causing havoc around the pitch. If you haven't noticed, the link is "Pirates". 

Captain Blades' home turf was in terrific condition by the way. So Bramall Lane:
-hosted Yorkshire CCC between 1855 (first match v Sussex in August)
-on 29th December 1862 Sheffield FC played Hallam FC, both clubs very important in the history of the game,
-in March 1867 the Youdan Cup, the oldest competitive cup tie was played here between Hallam and Norfolk,
-on 2nd December 1872, the Sheffield FA match v the London FA was played (hoping to settle Association Laws for good since both FAs played to different rules early on),

-1893, and Wednesday CC soon to become a football club,

-the first official floodlit match 1878, 
-their city rivals Sheffield Wednesday in their early days, 
-Sheffield FC's early games,
-an English Cricket test match v Australia in 1902 
-an FA Cup Final replay in 1912 
-several Cup semi-finals. I could go on.

To cap all this, I am going to watch Cambridge United play Mansfield Town on Saturday and the Stags' Field Mill stadium (yes in Mansfield) is the only stadium older than Bramall Lane to host professional football. It also is known to be the site of the first competitive floodlit game in 1878.

Bramall Lane was built on behalf of the Bramall family in Sheffield whose family were File and Graver manufacturers locally, Sheffield of course being important in the steel industry.