PARRAMORE AND MORE

Parramore Sports FC, was an iron founders' works' team, founded by F. Parramore and Sons, in 1936 and one way and another became Sheffield Parramore. By 2012 the owner bought Worksop's disused ground at Sandy Lane and changed the name again to Worksop Parramore. In 2013 they merged with Handsworth to form Handsworth (you guess it) Parramore.

Originally formed a club with Worksop Parramore in 2014 and is now Handsworth Parramore FC, playing at Sandy Lane (Worksop's ground)!
 It's all a bit complicated but Worksop Town FC is "crowd funding" hoping to raise £30,000 to preserve its existence in the Football Pyramid. The Nottinghamshire Non-League club played in the Northern Premier League South last season, gaining promotion to the Premier last season.

Its claim is to have been founded in 1861, making it the fourth oldest football club in the WORLD. Evidence is a little shy, so we may have to do with its foundation being in 1873 when 15 Worksopians (local lads) met 15 Pestalozzians (from the school in town), to play a game. There is evidence for that encounter, and more comes from a meeting with local town. Eckington on the 18th February 1882, by which time football was up and running. Worksop Town played in the Sheffield and District League in 1892, then joined the Midland League in 1900 and......

played in the FA Cup 1st Rd in 1908, meeting Chelsea and getting worked over 9-1! Prior to that in Qualfying Rd 5 they had a bye,
in Rd 4 they beat Castleford Town,
in Rd 3 beat Guiseley Colliery away 3-4,
Rd 2 drew with Horsforth 1-1 and won a replay away 0-2, in
Rd 1 beat Heckmondwike away 0-2.
They didn't have to play in the Preliminary Rd.

For those Penistone and Hepworth folk some local clubs included in the 1907-8 FA Cup early rounds included:
Hoyland Silkstone, merely a village but with some mining history.
Clayton West, another colliery village.
Thorpe Hesley, four clubs from Rotherham and Grimethorpe United....more coal towns/villages.
For those from Guildford area:
Farncombe, Guildford, Godalming-not so many southern clubs evident in the early rounds, which reflected the groewth of the game midst the industrial clubs from the Midlands and North.

AND back to Worksop, who were allowed to ground share their old ground Sandy Lane in 2011 as tenants of Worksop Parramore (see above) The club also has Olive's Mount where the Reserves play.
 Oldest "soccer" clubs still in existence:
Sheffield FC Oct 24th 1857 (above), Cray Wanderers 1858, Hallam FC, Cambridge University FC (1856/7) Notts County 1862, Stoke City 1863 (Charterhouse Rules-founded by OCs), Royal Engineers 1863 and Civil Service, Wrexham 1864, Brigg Town 1864, Sheffield Wednesday April 1867.

THE ENGLISH GAME

Since Shrovetide Football was a feature of this historic blog a couple of days ago, I was not surprised to read in the press that Netflix is featuring a film called "The English Game", produced by Lord Julian Fellowes of West Stafford (from Downton Abbey fame). It is out March 20th.


Actors have been auditioning to show how badly they can play football before they get taken on as part of the cast. They have been trained in how to play like the 19th Century founders of the national game, although they have to have some previous skill for the game.

Obviously the game was in its infancy and virtually anything "went", as the game evolved, so did the "laws" and eventually Football became "The Beautiful Game".

The film refers to the class conflict between the Old Etonians, very much pioneers of the game, and the "toiling workers" from the "lower classes". Below is OEs v Blackburn Olympic FA Cup Final 1882-3, 1-2 at The Oval.

Local lads in northern England and Scotland proved to be victors in establishing the game as they used dribbling skills and neat passing to get round the rugby/mob style of play from the original game that was more like rugby but even more barbaric!

Actors were taken to the Manchester United Carrington Training Ground (courtesy of Lord Fellowes' influence and the generosity of the Glazers) to perfect the violent, cumbersome and antiquated original game. Football historians were employed alongside football coaches to achieve an accurate style of play.Certainly many parts of the game would not be legal in this "snowflake" generation.

The upcoming series stars Edward Holcroft who plays the aristocratic Lord Arthur Kinnaird, a member of nobility, who later sat on the FA committee.

 On the other hand was Fergus Suter, a Glaswegian stonemason, (below) who brought the passing game to England and who is believed to be the first player to be paid to play. It was the working classes who eventually "won" the battle of class in the game. Curious formations, some as strange as 1 (gk)-1-9 and 1-2-2-6 were rigidly kept to with "blockers" acting like NFL players creating a free passage for the man on the ball. "Squashes", rather like rucks, were not uncommon and it was the responsibility of expert, Mike Delaney, to coach the actors in the intricasies of the original game.

The series is launched on March 20th.

I shall add that the Old Carthusians won the FA Cup in 1881, beating the OEs 2-0.

NEVER RELEGATED and over 100

Not that relegation is yet on the horizon, but there are a few Premier and Football League clubs looking over their shoulders and worrying about the next few months of results. In world history the following clubs have NEVER been relegated from and have therefore stayed in their country's top flight division for over 100 years: (there are clubs eg Sporting Lisbon who have survived the drop, but under 100 years), Aberdeen, Athletic Bilbao and few others.....

Glasgow Celtic was founded 1890 Duration in top flight by 2020, 130 years
and the same for these Northern Ireland clubs:
Cliftonville
Glentoran
Linfield all founded in 1890
THEN
Penarol of Uruguay 1900 120 years
Club Nacional de Football Uruguay 1901 119  years
Aberdeen 1905 115 years
Club Guarani of Paraguay 1906  114 years
Club Olimpia of Paraguay 1906  114 years
Inter Milan 1909  111 years
FK Austria-Wien (Vienna) 1911 109 years
SK Rapid Wien 1911 109 years
Upjest FC Hungary 1912 108 years
Club do Regatas Flamengo Brazil  1912 108 years
Boca Juniors Argentina 1913 107 years
Cerro Porteno Paraguay 1913 107 yrs
Santos 1916 106 yrs
Ajax 1917 103 yrs
*Arsenal 1919 101 yrs, see below
Curiously no clubs of any serious note seem to be founded in 1920 but these were in 1921 and stayed in the top flight:
Hamburger SV (till 2018), Standard Liege (99 years), Bohemian FC (99), Feyenoord (99).

The club Arsenal, as we know it now, was originally called Dial Square, named after its London location. It then became known as Royal Arsenal FC and in 1891 became the first London club to turn professional. At this time Tottenham Hotspur were still in the Southern League.
In 1893 the club became known as Woolwich Arsenal, playing in Division Two, coming 9th out of 15. The club joined the First Division in 1904 having worked its way up the Second Division, to be runners up behind Preston.

The club was relegated in 1912-13 season to Division Two, renaming as Arsenal.

In 1919, The Football League voted to promote The Arsenal, to the newly enlarged First Division instead of the local rivals Tottenham Hotspurs. That didn't go down too well in North London although Tottenham won promotion to Division One in 1919-20 winning the Second Division by 6 points and scoring over 100 goals, conceding only 32 in 42 games.

ITS A TOSS UP

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11036255/fascinating-photos-brits-pancake-day-through-ages/

Shrove Tuesday today and its not just pancakes. A live report on TalkSport, this afternoon from the Shrovetide Football match at Ashbourne, gave a vivid description of their local MOB game taking place this afternoon, involving thousands of locals trying to shift a ball of some sort from one part of the countryside to another. Carnage!

Of course Association Football, as we know it now began in this manner, far from the sophisticated sport that we know today. You know the game where gentlemen are gentlemen, the referee has the final word and there is no controversy; until VAR came along!

Below are Blogs from last year's Easter football celebrations and other Shrovetides.....
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2019/04/easter-kegs.html
This is a historical view of the originas of the modern game.
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2019/10/mobs-toffs-and-laws.html
The Shrewsbury original laws insert didn't come out in the above but this below might:
https://footballbh.net/2019/02/15/shrewsbury-school-birth-of-football-laws-of-football/ this link contains a fuller history of Shrewsbury Football

https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2020/02/local-derby.html

Squeeze your lemons.

ITS A HAT TRICK

https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2019/08/dont-leave-before-end.html

This blog above was about hat tricks, you know, when one player is a scorer of three goals in the same match. Some would like those goals to be consecutive and some are really fussy insisting that the perfect hat trick is right foot, left foot and head. Sadly I don't have any evidence of perfection....

Alan Shearer scored a hat trick in his full debut for Southampton against Arsenal on April 9th 1988 in a 4-2 win. At 17 years and 240 days he was the youngest to score a hat trick in the "top flight". He had scored in the previous two games.

The first Premier League hat trick was scored on August 25th 1992, ten days into the season. Eric Cantona playing for Leeds Utd, scored three against Tottenham in a 5-0 win at Elland Road. Earlier in the month Eric had scored three against Liverpool in a 4-3 win in the Charity Shield at Wembley.

Sadio Mane, another Southampton player (then), scored three in 2' 56" in a 6-1 victory against Aston Villa at St Mary's on Saturday May 16th 2015. 21 years earlier Robbie Fowler scored three times in 4' 33" on Sunday August 28th 1994 against Arsenal at Anfield.

Graham Leggatt of Fulham (below), a Scot, scored a fast hat trick of 3 goals in 3 minutes v Ipswich on Boxing Day 1963. The final score was Fulham 10 Ipswich 1. Two days later at Portman Road, Ipswich beat Leggatt's side  4-1 .

Ian St John did the hat trick in 2' 27" for Motherwell v Hibernian on August 15th 1959.

In September 1929, Joe Bradford of Birmingham City scored 3 hat tricks in 8 days against Newcastle Utd, for the Football League v the Irish League and against Blackburn Rovers.

Jimmy Harris was proud to score a hat trick for Everton in 1958-9 against Tottenham at White Hart Lane. I remember it well, because Spurs won 10-4. Here is Jimmy at WHL, scoring.

Gareth Bale created another record for Tottenham whe playing in a Europa League tie against Greek side, Asteras Tripolis, at White Hart Lane. He scored 3 before going in goal to replace Hugo Lloris who had been sent off.

Cliff Holton scored three for Watford against Chester on Good Friday 1960  and then on the following day (Saturday), he scored another hat trick against Gateshead.

Anything goes in South America! Indeed Paraguayan goalkeeper, Jose Luis Chilavert, playing for club side Velez Sarsfield in the Argentinian League, on 28th January 1999 scored 3 penalties against Ferro Carril Oeste in a 6-1 win. The first goalkeeper to achieve the hat trick. He scored 48 goals in 341 appearances for his club and 8 goals in 74 internationals. He also slotted a free-kick from his side of the half way line against River Plate.

ALAS POOR CLAUDIO AND A GOOD OMEN

On managing unfashionable Leicester City, at 5000/1 to become Premier League Champions, you would have thought that Claudio Ranieri would have a job for life. Nine months later, his employers were having higher expectations for the Foxes, but later Claudio's job was hovering on the "brink" and by 23rd February 2017, Leicester were in the Premier League relegation zone with their last league win and league goal way back in December.
On this day, his employers gave him "unwavering support" as his Vice-Chairman, Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, described Claudio as "the most successful manager in Leicester's history", but eventually he had "lost the dressing room".  Claudio was sacked and the old Fox, Gary Lineker, commented that "it was gutwrenchingly sad".

Craig Shakespeare filled in with a "bounce" and for the next six games, Leicester won them all, surviving relegation, finishing mid-table (12th). Leicester hadn't manage six wins on the trot in their PL winning season!
Prior to this main event, Leicester had been Runners-Up in the First Division (top then) in 1928-9,
Second Division Champs seven times and Runners Up 2 and Play off winners 2 in their history. They have never been lower than Division 2.

In 2016, the Leicester City team and manager were awarded the BBC Sports' Team and Personality of the Year Awards.

In 1966, on this day, England played West Germany in a friendly at Wembley, 5 months before their World Cup Final triumph. There were nine potential World Cup winners in Alf Ramsey's choice of team, including Geoff Hurst's with his debut cap. Two players from this team didn't make the World Cup Final however, they were Keith Newton and Norman Hunter, later to be replaced by Ray Wilson and Martin Peters. (they never played in England's qualifiers or knock out rounds). Alf had a plan.

Nobby Stiles (below) scored the England goal in this 1-0 friendly win, the only international goal in his England career......
(below not Dracular)

Hurst 3 and Peters 1, of course, scored in the WC Final.

A CRUSH ON SPURS

Unfortunately, I gave up the midday activity of travelling to a local Non-League club for some outside football, and instead opted to avoid the lashing rain and very cold wind and watched Spurs at Chelsea on TV. I have a soft spot for Chelsea mainly because of Frank Lampard, who as an "Independent Schoolboy" footballer was part of the ISFA U16 Representative squad before he completed O Levels, sucessfully (this is why he makes sense when being interviewed on telly) and left school.
Chelsea v Spurs was a must do. So I'm a little disappointed in the end result...however well done Frank, tough luck Jose!

In 1904 football was becoming a favourite Edwardian past time with crowds growing in numbers. Whilst the game had been firmly rooted in the North, it was beginning to grow in popularity in the South. The south's only representative at the time was Woolwich Arsenal in Division One and Brsitol City in Div 2. There was however a professional Southern League established in 1894, with Tottenham and Southampton sharing the glory. Spurs of course were the only club outside the Football League to win the FA Cup, a feat they managed in 1901, beating the northern Sheffield United!
In 1903-4, Spurs had beaten Everton away 1-2 in Round One (last 32).

On February 20th 1904, Spurs were  pitted in a Second Round Cup tie (the equivalent of the last 16 clubs) against five times League champions and 3 times FA Cup winners, Aston Villa. This was a plum draw and many supporters flocked to White Hart Lane. With the admission cost raised to One Shilling (5p now?) the club was not expecting huge crwods-they were surprised. It was estimated that by kick off 50,000 were surrounding the pitch. It didn't take long before the crowd was spilling on to the pitch.With several encroachments the officials had no choice by to abandon the game.
The referee, Mr J.T. Howcroft, allowed the two teams to play a friendly instead. Vlla took the lead and after only 35 minutes the half time whistle was blown. The second half didn't go on for long before the crowd encroached again and the ref stopped the game.

Despite the crowd behaving themselves and the Spurs club doing all it could to manage the situation, the club was fined £350 by the FA and told to play at Villa Park on the next Thursday.  Spurs won 1-0 and they met The Wednesday (Sheffield) at White Hart Lane, two weeks later in Round Three. Planning for the next game, Spurs ran a 5 foot iron fence around the pitch and  drafted in more police, however many supporters, fearful of another crush, stayed away. Spurs managed a 1-1 draw but lost the replay 2-0.

Photo from the Daily Illustrated.



In the Final, Manchester City beat Bolton Wanderers 1-0, at the Crystal Palace on April 23rd, with the lone goal scored by Billy Meredith.

REPLACEMENTS

Spending an hour or so this afternoon with cake and tea with a "neighbour", the subject of "Substitutes" in Football came up. The Charterhouse footballers playing in the school's Cloisters at the old school site in Charterhouse Square, City of London, noted that "a substitute was used but in the consequence of the non-appearance of some of those who were expected, it was necessary to provide a substitute" from "Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle." February 22nd 1863. The Captain's books of Charterhouse School date back to 1862.

In the 1850s at Eton College, the substitute was referred to as "an emergency" and would replace somebody who had not turned up to play their style of football or if there was a need for a replacement through injury.

On April 15th 1889 between Wales and Scotland at Wrexham, the Welsh goalkeeper, Jim Trainer had not arrived, having not been released by Preston North End. Local goalkeeper Alf Pugh started the match and after 20 minutes was replaced by Sam Gillam. The game ended 0-0. This was the first example of a subtitute being used in international football.

There were no subs in 1953 when Bolton Wanderers had to keep their injured player Eric Bell on the pitch, who was plauying with a torn hamstring. He subsequently was given the run around by Stanley Matthews in a 4-3 win for Blackpool from being 1-3 down. Bell actually scored a goal to make it 3-1 before Matthews took charge.

On October 11th 1953, Horst Eckel of Germany was replaced by Richard Gottinger in their international World Cup qualifier against Saarland. Germany won 3-0.

Between 1952 and 1961, seven out of ten FA Cup finals were subject to a team being reduced to ten men with no sub allowed. Bert Trautmann of Man City was an example of staying on the pitch despite injury-he had a broken neck and his team won! In 1959 IFAB allowed subs for injury assuming national associations agreed. The moment he broke his neck.

The English Football League allowed the first substitute when Keith Peacock of Charlton Athletic on August 21st 1965, when the team's goalkeeper was injured after 11 minutes against Bolton Wanderers. Injuries had to be judged by the referee, before a replacement was used.

On the same day, Bobby Knox was the first substitute to come on and score a goal when he came on for Barrow v Wrexham and Archie Gemmell became the first to be used in a Scottish League Cup game for St Mirren against Clyde, replacing Jim Clunie after 23 minutes.

Subs were for injury only until 1966, after which tactical substitutions were also allowed.

The World Cup allowed subs in 1958 and over time the number of subs and goalkeeper replacements changed from one sub through to 2 subs and a gk replacement in 1994. Three subs were allowed in 1995.

In 1971 Jimmy Pearce of Spurs came on as sub, crammed a full game's activity into ten minutes when he was playing against Rapid Bucharest, he scored a goal, had one disallowed and then was sent off.

Franz Beckenbauer suffered an injured shoulder in the 1970 World Cup Final but the Germans had used all their subs. He came back in extra time with his arm in a sling and played the rest of game one armed......... against Italy! The Germans won.

RABBI THE ROMANY

Here is Rabbi Howell, a Romany, born in a modest house in Wincobank(Sheffield suburb) October 1869. Some records suggest he was born in a caravan.

He won 2 England caps, playing in defence as a 5'5" small for a half back. His first international cap came firstly in March 1895, when he scored against Ireland at the Cricket Ground, Derby, in a 9-0 win in front of 8,000. His other cap came against Scotland at Villa Park in April 1899 winning 2-1, watched by 22,000. Rabbi had his success around the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

Rabbi's first club was Ecclesfield near Sheffield, then Rotherham Swifts and The Blades for nearly 200 games. Originally a centre-forward, he was coverted to the half backs. He scored 8 times. A transfer to Liverpool for £200 took place in 1898, where he stayed for 3 years playing 68 times (a time when Liverpool wore blue and white- below), then Preston NE where he suffered a broken leg in 1903 and brought an end to his career, whilst he was living in Paradise Street, of all places.

With Sheffield United, he helped win promotion from the Second Division, as runners-up to Small Heath and in 1897-8 he helped United win the Championship having been runners-up the season before. He was earning 2 guineas a week.

The fame and "fortune" may have got to him, as he was involved in some wayward activities, including a suggestion of "throwing a game" v Sunderland, when he scored 2 own goals. Nothing was proved, though there was also an extra-marital affair, which ruined his career at a club with good "Methodist Principles".

"The Evergreen in the Red and White" is a biography written by Stephen Kay, an author of several football books. The book vividly describes the lifestyle of Sheffield at the time, bread and dripping sandwiches for "snap", belching chimneys, the "Lane-ites" and the "Grove-ites" locking horns, where the Romanis came across the "Gorgio" non-Romanis in the industrial city.

In retirement by all accounts he ran a fruit and veg stall, whilst one of his daughters married into wealth.

He died aged 68 in Preston.

THE GAFFA

Let's hope this works and the link will take you to the very commendable BT Sports Films (TV) documentary which is part of a series. Its a full length job so yo might get fed up after a while but it tells us everything we already know....don't we?
https://sport.bt.com/sport-hurts/bt-sport-films-the-gaffer-91364387149758

or try this
https://sport.bt.com/football/the-gaffer-the-latest-bt-sport-film-offers-a-unique-glimpse-into-the-world-of-non-league-management-S11364384450364

HARRY GREGG-HERO

It's been an emotional 24 hours or so, as I came across the obituary of Pearl Carr, aged 98. Some of you will have not been moved by that. Teddy died in 2018
Pearl was the singing partner and wife of Teddy Johnson, a duo who won the "national competition"to represent the UK in the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest with a charming little ditty "Sing Little Birdie". They were voted into second place during the main final second to the Dutch!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest
Worth looking at this lot to see how our "stars" have fared.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWCocfbZOOs
Nothing much to do with football of course, but on top of this shock, Harry Gregg's life story has been published along with his obituary. Harry died on February 16th aged 87.

Having played for Linfield Reserves in Northern Ireland he moved the Doncaster Rovers in 1952 playing 94 games. For £23,500, at the time a World record for a goalkeeper, he was transferred to Manchester United in 1957 appearing over 210 games. In 1966, next came Stoke City for a year and two matches before he went on to manage at Shrewsbury 1968, Swansea 1972, Crewe 1975 and Carlisle in 1986-7.
His Northern Ireland career  from 1954-63 winning 25 caps including being voted best goalkeeper in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden.

The Munich Air Disaster is a major event in Gregg's life and I am not going to document what he did to save people, pulling colleagues and a pregnant mother (Vera Lukic) and her 2 year old baby from the wreckage. He returned several times to drag Bobby Charlton, Jackie Blanchflower, Albert Scanlon and Dennis Violet from the burning plane.
Matt Busby put together a new young side known as the "Busby Babes".

Within a couple of weeks from the crash (13 days) he was playing for United against Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup 5th Round victory 3-0, helping his team to reach the Final, despite finding out afterwards that he had a fractured skull.
In the Final, he was bundle unceremoniously into the goal by Bolton's old fashioned centre-forward Nat Lofthouse. United lost 2-0 at Wembley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HbX9DYy7dc  Gregg didn't need this!
On their way to Wembley United played away in Rd 3 at Workington 0-3, Rd 4 Ipswich 2-0, then Rd 5 Wednesday 3-0, Rd 6 WBA 2-2, 1-0 at home, S-Final Fulham 2-2, 5-3 at Highbury and then Bolton.

He was awarded the MBE in 1995 and OBE in 2019.

PLENTY IN REDCAR

Many of you will not know of Redcar. It has a race course, a speedway team (The Bears), it is an industrial town in the North-east of England, north of Middlesbrough. It has three football clubs of note, playing in the National League and below.
"Red" speaks for itself, maybe the colour of the local sands, or reeds and "kjarr" is Scandinavian for marsh. It hosts an "iron" industry and inevitably, a steel industry. Oh there is some tourism...brrrrr!
Redcar Town FC (not to be confused with Redcar Athletic FC or Redcar Newmarket FC) cropped up on the radio this afternoon, mainly because the club is being invaded by "detectorists"-you may remember a very amusing comedy drama shown on the telly which I hope will continue to amuse. The detectorists at Redcar are a bit of a nuisance because they dig up the ground looking for valuables-someone's tooth, a piece of shin bone, ref's !
This, by the way, is the Mo Mowlam Memorial Park, remembering the past local Labour Politician.
As you can see below the pitch is not a bad one, but open to the public, so add to the old coin hunters local dog walkers, travellers and motor bikers, the land owned by Redcar Town FC takes a bit of a hammering. The club wants to fence off the land and make it safe and healthy for their numerous teams, but are aware that there is public space around it and do not want to isolate the club from the local community.
There are teams at every age group from seniors (Over 40s), 2 ladies teams (one in the regional Premier) and 2 adult men, with an U23 squad, through to U8s and so there is plenty going on at the Mo Mowlam.
The teams are also "winners", with the adult teams grabbing a number of local trophies playing against attractive clubs such as AFC Bedale, Staithes Athletic and Thirk Falcons, meeting them in the North Riding Football League Premier, Teesside League Div 2 and various regional cups.

Redcar Athletic FC 

(originally Teesside Athletic) play at a higher level on the pyramid, the Northern League Div 2, having won promotion from the Wearside League in 2017-18. They now lock horns with teams such as Crook Town and Bedlington Terriers, a Step higher than neighbours Redcar Town! The Athletic Reserves playing in Div 1 will eventually meet Whitby Fisherman's Society FC, whom, I believe, are a slippery lot. There is the Cleveland links golf course, the first founded in Yorkshire.

NOT FINISHED...there's another club Redcar Newmarket, also playing in the North Riding Premier.

More importantly, Felicity Finch was born here, she plays Ruth Archer in The Archers! You will remember her need to visit home from time to time from Borcestershire.

IAN WRIGHT-FROM MODEST BEGINNINGS

Having just won the T20 decider against South Africa and seen Spurs nick a win at Villa Park, all is well in South Yorkshire. Arsenal are now playing in a Premier League match.

While I was walking to buy the paper this morning, I listened to the "Peter Crouch Podcast", which is fairly funny and then "Desert Island Discs" featuring the well known Ian Wright. I am not sure this Sunday's programme is available on "catch up" at the moment ( see links below), but here is the gist of Ian Wright's honest and moving story,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1wjfH586Tzht9JnnGJRn1jy/10-things-we-learned-from-ian-wrights-desert-island-discs

The "repeat" will be available during the week or you may get it on catch up, if not now:
you will find a link here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fdxw
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000fdxw

Ian Wright has much to do with "charities", including helping the Young Offenders Prison at Portland in Dorset. His good friend Gary Lineker, had a couple of lads at my school, both keen on football, so the two professionals arranged a trip to Portland from Charterhouse.

We took a group of U18s to the prison to play against the In-mates and we managed a very fair, diplomatic, good natured 2-2 draw, on a sunny Sunday.

We were invited for tea after the game, which had been organised, made by the opposition (all in-mates) and our lads mixed with them over a cuppa. Later they took our kids on a tour to their "cells", which were small and very basic. Some of these young men had photos of family on their shelves, but there were few home comforts and we were assured by the lads that they were unlikely to "come back" to their spartan cells.

Some of their wardens were not so encouraging, a fact they let us know before we left!
.
Ian Wright does much good in the community which I hope you will note in the radio programme.

THE CHAGOS ISLANDS FA

The Chagos Islands have cropped up this week already and indeed in the past. The reason was stimulated by my venture into a Barnsley barber who came from Turkistan and hence a link to the Chagos Islands....really? it goes on. Never let it be said that you don't have some conversation pieces for your post-Valentines' parties this weekend.
Below  the Chagos National Football Team badge which represents the archipelago of Chagos Islands.

https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2018/05/world-football-geography-lesson.html
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2018/01/owah-baht-that-then.html   Nice kit!

The Chagos Islands make up an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, make up a British Indian Ocean Territory and are uninhabited save for a US Military Air Base on Diego Garcia island, the largest in the archipelago. The satellite image and map may give you an idea of where these islands are.


I have no idea where they find room for a pitch above sea level! I do know that the members of the Chagos Islands, mainly Creoles, were evicted by the British government between 1967-73 (for their own good? or to build an air base?), some of whom went to Mauritius and many migrated to England-apparently to Crawley!
Unlike their home atoll, the migrants will have adjusted to playing on grass, in Sussex-including using my last home town pitch at:

The migrants gathered together and formed their own football team, representing their country, they found a local coach, Jimmy Ferrar, who had coached at "semi-pro" Sussex clubs such as Oakwood, Crawley Down and Alfold, members of local Sussex Leagues. Ferrar had taken Alfold, a village side. to the Championship of the Southern Combination Div in 2018-19 (STEP 5).

Their first game was a friendly on December 4th 2011, against the countrymen of Raetia, a region on the South German, Swiss and Austrian Tyrol borders. Chagos won 6-1.
The next was against Sealand at Godalming Town FC on May 9th 2012. Sealand is (was) a micro-nation, sited at the Rough Tower, the Maunsell Sea Fort, 7.5 miles off the Suffolk coast. Training nights must be a challenge! Worth investigating this national team, which may be defunct now!!

The Chagos now lads play under the N.F.-Board involving Non-FIFA teams and are based in the Crawley area. With limited finances but plenty of enthusiasm, the Chagossians, including their "on site" migrants, have played in various friendlies, preparing for the VIVA World Cup (read the Kurdistan blog).

In 2016 the Chagos Islands played a friendly against Yorkshire FA in the "stadium" at Fitzwilliam Village near Wakefield and also took on Barawa (Somalia) and Matebeleland (W. Zimbabwe).

In 2019 they played Surrey FA at Crawley and friendlies against Cascadia (team from Washington State, Oregon and parts of Canada), Kernow (Cornwall), the Parishes of Jersey, Tuvalu and Surrey FA. 

In March 2020 they play in the Atlantic Heritage Cup in Yorkshire (at Ossett Utd and the CNG Stadium, Harrogate Town) hoping to qualify for the next CONIFA World Football Cup in Skopje, North Macedonia.