The Corinthian Football Club might be regarded as the most famous football club in history. I have written about the club before, so you might chase them up...or just use www. They were elected members of the Football Association 1884.
Records of their matches date from 1882, their matches, played purely as amateurs and as crusaders, carrying the wonderful game across the world. In the early stages, it was England that benefitted from their exhibition games, but this soon expanded over wider areas.
In the 1884-5 season I came across a match on their winter tour in north-west England played on December 16th at Darwen, Lancashire. You might need to look at Darwen in more detail; they hold a fair bit of history in their "coffers". Amongst the club members were W.N.Cobbold and A.Amos, both Old Carthusians.
The Corinthian FC were on tour in 1884, playing twice in November away against "Notts" lost 1-7 and Cambridge University 0-5. When the club set off on their north-west tour on December 15th, they were clearly strengthened. Matches were played against Blackburn Rovers (holders of the FA Cup and who retained the cup that season) on the 15th, won 8-1, Darwen 1-2 (1881 FA Cup semi-finalists) on the 16th, Blackburn Olympic (1883 FA Cup winners) 4-4 on the 17th, Sheffield 2-1 on 18th, Bolton Wanderers 0-6 on 19th, Preston North End 1-3 on the 20th and Notts again 2-3 on the 22nd.
The club also toured at Easter, "spreading the word"! At Easter, on tour, between the 6th and 11th April, The Corinthians met Preston again (1-0), Derby County (3-3), Rovers again (2-1), Blackpool (2-1) and Aston Villa, winning all excpet the draw and a defeat to Villa 0-1 at the end of a challenging tour.
Having started their tours or "Crusades" in 1882-3, the Corinthians ended their official tours at the beginning of the Second World War, although the club has managed various tours during recent years, but perhaps without so much glamour! Just before the Second World War broke out, their last match was against Charterhouse (School) on February 2nd 1939. This fixture is still honoured in March seasonally at the school as part of the Corinthian Casuals, schools' programme.
If you want to search this blog index, you will find more about the club and its link to the famous Corinthians of Brazil.
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