JOHN ALEXANDER BRODIE AND OTHERS

Well, Chisnall didn't go down too badly, did it? With over 2,300 editions of this blog, over the past few years, I sometimes get over excited when I find a subject that is more interesting than usual. Not that they aren't all fascinating, however occasionally I have to dig deep to get a subject matter that tickles my fancy. So today I have found a little cracker.......since it's an FA Cup round weekend, there is no better subject than the oldest cup competition in football history. This blog is about the the 21st cup final and the last to be held at the Kennington Oval.

On the 18th March 1892, The Oval "Sports' Ground"....yes the cricket pitch and surrounds was use it for soccer in the winter, and by March for the FA Cup Final, a venue used since 1872. 

Around 2,500 eager spectators crowded into the "stadium" to watch West Bromwich Albion beat Aston Villa 3-0, with goals from Geddes, Nicholls and Reynolds. What made this final so unusual? There were goal nets! It's hard to ponder why these hadn't been in place earlier, it seems so obvious, but it was the invention of  John Alexander Brodie, who later became the Chief Engineer of the Mersey Tunnel, to develop something to drape over the goal posts, to stop the ball from travelling miles beyond the pitch and to confirm that a goal had been scored! 

Brodie, in photo, also inspired the Liverpool ring road, electric trams, the East Lancs Road (a motorway) and notably pre-fabricated housing to speed up house building using concrete slabs as displayed at Cheap Cottages Exhibition in the new town of Letchworth Garden City. Needless to say, there was a demand as the national population expanded. He gained many other recognitions world wide later in his career, mainly in India, helping to plan New Delhi.

The FA Authorities, including the famous Charles Alcock, were becoming concerned about the size of crowds being attracted to this now, annual event. 

In  their cup run, Albion had first beaten the amateur, Old Boys of Westminster School, a school whose pitch is still sited in the shadow of the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. My school, Charterhouse, first played Westminster School in an annual fixture, first played in 1862. Games were played either at the Westminster School pitch or at the original Charterhouse School site near Spitalfields......this is reputedly the oldest school fixture?

Albion then denied the professionals from Blackburn Rovers, a hat trick of cup final victories beating them in the next round, then Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest, reaching their fourth final in seven seasons. Billy Bassett scored two for Albion and John Reynolds (in photo), a late third from 30 yards. This was the last final held at The Oval; the referee was JC Clegg.

FA Cup Final programmes were becoming "adventurous" with music hall advertising!