ANNIVERSARY AND FLOODLIGHTS

 

The plaque above is displayed at the Freemasons' Tavern, Long Acre, Covent Garden, London, to commemorate the founding of the Football Association in 1863. Below is the programme centre fold for a celebratory match between England and the "Rest of Europe" in 1938 (do the maths), at a time when the England FA deemed their association far too important to share "their game" with the rest of the world, in the competition known as The World Cup. The FA didn't join the FIFA World Cup tournament until 1950, so beating this select team including, four Italians, who were World Cup winners, was regarded as a big victory and sort of justified the FA's arrogance. (apologies for the poor presentation of the programme).

26th October 1955: Wembley was slow to install floodlights, the stadium being opened in 1923. At a cost of £22,000, the stadium hosted its first match under lights, an Inter-Cities Fairs Cup tie between capital London and the German Frankfurt.

The first sport to ever use floodlights was polo. On the 18th of July 1878, a game was played in Fulham between Ranelagh Polo Club and the Hurlingham Club and the new technology helped the two clubs to see out their match into the evening. Other sports weren’t exactly quick to follow suit, with Australian Rules Football being the next to use floodlights more than seventy years later. On the 16th of June 1952 floodlights were used in a game between Essendon Football Club and Geelong Football Club at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground.

Later that same year cricket decided to get in on the act, with a match played under floodlights in England's oldest sport for the first time on the 11th of August 1952. Millions of people watched the new night game on their own burgeoning new technology: televisions. Incidentally, cricket floodlights are slightly different to other sports as they stand on huge poles that go quite high in the sky. This is because batsmen tend to hit the ball high and lights have been smashed in the past, plus the higher lights allow the ball to stay in sight for longer for the fielders.

Association Football has always been a bit different, of course, and whilst cricket and Australian Rules Football both took their time to catch up, English football was straight onto using the technology at the same time as polo. An experimental game was played under floodlights at Bramall Lane in Sheffield in 1878. The lights were powered by batteries and dynamos as the famous old club attempted to use the technology to brighten up a gloomy winter afternoon in South Yorkshire.

In the top-tier of Association Football, as well as in many of the lower tiers of the Football League, floodlights are a requirement at stadiums hoping to host professional football. The installation of permanent floodlights has therefore become common practice, with only a few clubs still using temporary ones are a useful alternative.

It took a while for that to be the case, however. During the 1930s Herbert Chapman at Arsenal decided to install permanent lights at Highbury. The Football League, in its infinite wisdom, refused to sanction their use, though, so only friendly and unofficial games were played using the newly installed lights.

It took until the 1950s for the FA to change its mind. Even then it wasn’t because the powers that be realised how useful the technology would be, but rather they were being used so commonly in friendly games that they realised they had no choice but to relent. In 1949 Holly Park, home of South Liverpool Football Club, became the first ground to host a match in England under ‘permanent’ floodlights when they played a friendly against a Nigerian XI.

In 1950 The Dell, where Southampton then played their games, became the first ground to have floodlighting installed permanently in England. On the 31st of October 1950, they played their first game there, welcoming Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic to the ground for a friendly. The first ‘official’ game played under floodlights took place when a Football Combination XI played Tottenham Hotspur on the first of October 1951.

The first international game to be played under floodlights was England v Spain on the 30th of September 1955, with England winning the match at Wembley by four goals to one. On the 22nd of February 1956, Portsmouth played Newcastle in a game at Fratton Park under floodlights, with the match becoming the first official Football League game to be played with the now ever popular technology aiding the players’ performances and the supporters’ enjoyment.

Irvine Meadow FC, based in North Ayrshire, was formed in 1897, The "Medda" is one of the most successful Junior clubs in Scotland. Based in Irvine, Meadow plays in the West Of Scotland League and has set many attendance records at other Junior clubs' grounds and were at one stage invited to turn senior and play in the Scottish Football league, but the club decided to remain in the 'juniors' and at present compete in the Western Region Junior League. Irvine Meadow FC has set many attendance records such as the record for a Scottish Junior Cup Final in 1951 when Petershill defeated Irvine Meadow 1-0 in front of 77,650 spectators at Hampden Park. An attendance that will never be overtaken. 

They also played in 1958-9 beating Shettleston 2-1 in front of over 65,000 and again in 1962-3 2-1 v Glenafton Athletic (21,384) and in 1972-3, 3-3 and 1-0  Cambulsang Rangers with over 24,000 in attendance. They have also been runners twice in 1947-8 and 1950-1.

In 2021 the club installed floodlights at Meadow Park, as well as enjoying numerous other ground upgrades, to try to get an SFA license for start of 2021-2022 season. Local rivals are Irvine Victoria.