YORKSHIRE PUDDINGS

Today, the Hepworth U18s played at Brighouse Juniors and we won nicely. There were few incidents in the game, the referee used his common sense and there was no need to worry about whether the ball hits the arm. We went away happy and excited knowing that Sheffield United v Leeds United, a famous Yorkshire derby, was due to kick off , when we all got home. 

I thought I would test the lads' knowledge of this fixture since they are all Yorkshiremen and sure enough one of our squad came up with the answer to, "When was this fixture first played?". "1924" was the correct answer, which caused a few jaws to drop, considering the long history of the football game. Surely both teams had their origins in the 19th Century?  He knew what this was all about!                                                                    Here is a history of Leeds City and then Leeds United.

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/3994718670252035536/7978820413875833018?hl=en-GB

Leeds City and Sheffield United met in the Midlands Section Principle Tournament between 27/12/1915 and March 9th 1918....a War tournament....Sheffield won 3, Drew 1 and Lost 2.

The first Yorkshire derby between these two great clubs was held as late as November 8th 1924, when Leeds United was finally "in being", They drew 1-1 with hosts Sheffield United . The return game on March 25th, was also drawn at Leeds.

Sheffield have now won 29 fixtures, Leeds 31 and 23 drawn in all competitions. 

31 fixtures have been in the "Second Tier" ie League Division Two or the Championship. 

43 fixtures in First Division  or Premier League. 3 have been FA Cup ties, 3 League Cup ties, one Full members Cup and ONE in the Simod Cup.

Sheffield United is based, of course, in Sheffield and it was here that the first football clubs were formed. Sheffield United's ground, Bramall Lane, is regarded as the oldest major league ground in the world, dating from its first game in 1862. The club was first known as the Sheffield United Cricket Club (1854), the first sports' club to use the word "United".  Local referee, J.C.Clegg, was in charge of the 1889 FA Cup Semi-final between Preston NE and West Bromwich Albion at Bramall Lane. Over 22,000 watched the game and the money raised was around £570. This convinced the Sheffield ULnited Cricket Club that football could help finance the summer sport. Although the club was very much against "professionalism", a vote was held and the football club idea was passed by ONE!

It is not well known that Sheffield Wednesday were first known as "The Blades" with reference to the city's steel industry. This changed when Wednesday moved to their new ground at Owlerton in 1907 and became known as "The Owls". United then adopted "The Blades" nickname.