The FA Cup was first played for in the 1871-2 season; 15 teams competed in the first Round 1. The FA Cup Final was played as early as March 16th 1872, that season and was held even earlier in the year, in 1876, on March 11th. The reasons for this are obvious; there were fewer teams involved; by the 1875-6 season, only 32 teams signed up for the first round, there were no extensive league commitments and of course no Football League until 1888. All the earlier competitors were amateur (eg 105th Regiment, Forest School and Sheffield FC) and the footballers gave a fairer share of the Spring, Summer and early Autumn to cricket matches and other summer sports than they do now.
The first FA Cup Final to be held in May was on the 1st May 1937. In 1963 the Final was played as late as the 25th May. This, of course, leads me to the FA Cup Semi-finals played this weekend (i.e. mid April) and this year's final is due for May 15th- a 5.30pm ko.
This then leads me to the FA Vase, a wonderful competition for the lower ranked clubs including village/small town teams such as Bridgewater Town from the Somerset, West Auckland Town in the north (County Durham), Cobham FC from south Surrey and Mulbarton Wanderers from South Norfolk. Their 1st team plays in the Eastern Counties FL.
Who are the Wanderers? well they hosted Hanworth Villa from Surrey, on Saturday in the Buildbase FA Vase 4th Round and lost on penalties 1-3 at home after a 0-0. I suspect the Wanderers were knacked after holding the Villa at bay. Just guessing.
You will be wondering where this is all going-well it's Mulbarton that caught my eye. I was privileged to sit through two terms of Historical Lectures given by a Professor Harold Darby, an expert on "placenames" i.e why settlements are called what they are! Mulbarton is not obvious. With a poplation of 3,500, the village is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. (this was an historical record of the nation demanded by the king-who wanted to know what was going on).The name Mulbarton is an Old English settlement once called "Molkebertuna", translated from the OE as "outlying dairy farm". The first section Molke (from "meoluc") you might work out means "milk" and "barton" comes from beretun or barey town....hence "farm".
Well it gets better because as you know I am a Spurs' fan and Maurice Norman who played in the famous 1960-1 "Double" team (below) (357 apps from 1955-1966) and for England briefly. He was born in Mulbarton. I love it when there's a surprise like this. Before Spurs he was at Norwich City. A double fracture to his leg in 1965 against a Hungarian Select XI brought an end to his career at 31 years old. On May 8th he will be 86 years old.
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