NICE NAMES

I'm being serious now. It's nearly time to head to my home county to enjoy the incoming 2020 in the shadow of the South Downs, a landscape a little softer than my present view of the South Pennines. Both beautiful in their own way.

Playing in the Unofficial Internationals between 1870-72 was a mixture of Englishmen and Scots, all living south of the border, mainly around London. There had been an unofficial international on March 5th 1870 at The Oval which ended in a 1-1 draw.
This result encouraged the secretary of the Football Association to announce in "The Sportsman" paper that a match between the "Scotch" and English will take place at The Oval on February 19th so any person "duly qualified and desirous of assisting either party must communicate with Mr AF Kinnaird of 2 Pall Mall, SW or Mr J Kirkpatrick  of the Admiralty, Somerset House, WC. on behalf of the Scotch, OR , Mr Charles W Alcock, Court, Ludgate Hill, EC. or Mr RG Graham, 7 Finch Lane EC, on behalf of the English.

It seemed a good idea to advertise nation wide but in the end only London "livers" applied. Alcock picked the England team and Kinnaird the Scotch. This upset the footballers north of the border, another reason for them to rebel!

Some of the chaps (with nice names) that played included:
John Cockerell, from Camberwell, who played for the Brixton Club and Barnes.
Evelyn Freeth, from London, who was educated at Eton and worked in the Civil Service.
Thomas Charles Hooman, educated at Charterhouse School, and who(man) also played for The Wanderers.
Edgar Lubbock from London also a Wanderer and Old Etonian. He played for the Etonians in the 1875 FA Cup final with his brother, the first pair of brothers to achieve this.
Walter Boldero Paton from London went to Harrow Schoool and also played for Oxford University in the 1873 Cup Final.
Archibald Wayland Ruggles-Brise-YES seriously went to Eton, of course and Cambridge University, Cleverly he married Mabel Coope of the brewing family Ind Coope. (there is some doubt that he played being ill on the day, so William Crake took his place)
Robert Sandilands Frowd Walker, born Chester Castle, went to Brentwood School and played for Clapham Rovers. He went to Malaysia to plant rubber trees!

The game started at 3pm and by then the Scotch team had to import two last minute players, having lost a couple just before the kick off. The game ended 1-0 to England and "The Scotsman" reported that "It must not be supposed that the eleven who represented "us" have in their defeat involved our national reputation as athletes". Following this, the Scots were quick to develop the game of rugby!