DRUMMOND KICKS SEVERAL BALLS

It's December 14th, Hepworth village Pantomime tonight, precipitation outside, at 1000 feet above sea level and north enough (53 deg N) a latitude to be chilly, is snow and hail threatening this afternoon's sport. I chose to stay indoors, I suspect most games locally have been postponed.

On December 12th 1891, an attendance of 300 watched Preston NE and Notts County play a First Division league match. They were all chilled to the bone at Deepdale. The North Eastern Daily Gazette noted that feeling cold was no excuse for the "unpleasant behaviour and remarkable scenes". Preston were known as "The Invincibles" for their previous success in the emerging Victorian football league, including the first Double.

Preston came second to Sunderland in this season, whilst Notts County were 8th out of 14.

Jimmy Ross had scored for Preston from a free kick. Then Preston's Geordie Drummond (below) and County's Jimmy Oswald collided and the latter claimed that Drummond had kick him deliberately in a "dangerous part of the body". The pair had a fight and were dismissed from the field by referee Mr Lockett.
A few minutes later Drummond returned to the field and scored twice giving Preston a 3-0 lead at half time. Drummond made it 4-0 after half time, so the County coach ordered his team off the field and back to the Pavilion, claiming the weather was not appropriate. Drummond played 139 games between 1883-99 and scored 36 goals (note how many he scored in this game) including a hat trick on his debut, at 18, against Accrington FC, the original club.

Half the team obliged but five didn't, Harry Daft (seriously), David Calderhead, Tom McLean, John Hendry and keeper George Toone. There were of course 11 opposition players from Preston.

The County lads appealed to the ref to end the game, if not for lack of numbers but due to the weather that was "closing in". The ref refused and they had to play out the game. Of course, these days, 7 is the minimum numbers of players to complete a game....otherwise the game has to be abandoned.

The remaining County 5 played a remarkable offside trap and caught the marauding Preston forwards offside continuously. When they got through, County's Toone had a special game between the sticks! It didn't continue like that as Drummond scored another goal to make it 6-0.
Drummond, from Edinburgh, played nearly 140 games for Preston, winning league and cup medals, before becoming the club's "trainer".

Preston, who were paying players in those early days (often Scots who had nipped down over the border) won the first ever Division One League Championship in 1888-9, by 11 points, County came 11th out of 12. The Invincibles won the division again the next season, were runners-up in 1890-1, 1891-2, 1892-3 and the bubble eventually burst when they came 14/16 in 1893-4.