| Capacity | 2,000 (75 seating) |
|---|---|
| Manager | Gary Forrest |
| League | Northern League Division One-9th Tier of the F.L. |
The Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, is one of the world's first international footballing competitions, won twice, in 1909 and 1911, by the club founded as "West Auckland F.C." in 1893.
WAFC initially played in the Wear Valley League (1896–1900), South Durham Alliance (1900–05) and Mid Durham League (1905–08). In 1908 they joined the Northern League.
The Trophy was initiated by businessman and sporting enthusiast Sir Thomas Lipton, who wished to see a competition between the leading football clubs of Europe.The football associations of Italy, Germany and Switzerland agreed to join in, but England FA refused to nominate a club. West Auckland, a lowly amateur side of coalminers from the Northern League were entered into the competition, although it has never been entirely clear why!! One plausible explanation for West Auckland's entry was that an employee of Sir Thomas Lipton's had contacts in the Northern League and put out an appeal for a team to take the English spot.
An alternative explanation, popular in the town itself, is that Lipton had wanted to send Woolwich Arsenal to the Championship – an instruction to his secretary to "contact W.A." led to West Auckland, being mistakenly contacted. However, a review of the facts casts doubt on this theory; at the time Woolwich Arsenal had only just been promoted from the Second Division and were not the famous club they are today, being relatively small and unsuccessful compared to many other Football League sides. In addition, there is no documentary evidence to suggest any sort of link between Sir Thomas Lipton and Woolwich Arsenal, so it is unclear why he would have chosen them ahead of any other English team. Indeed, recent research clearly shows evidence that West Auckland were the expected team.
West Auckland duly made the journey to Turin, where the first tournament was being held, many of the players paying out of their own pocket to do so. They beat Sportfreunde Stuttgard in the semi-finals 2–0; in the final, on 12 April 1909, West Auckland faced Swiss side FC Winterthur and beat them 2–0 as well to take the trophy.
Two years later, West Auckland returned, and after beating FC Zurich 2–0, they ran out 6–1 winners in the final over future Italian giants, Juventus. By the rules of competition, they were awarded the trophy to keep in perpetuity.
Upon their return home, the club was forced to pawn the trophy to the landlady of the local hotel because of financial problems. It remained with her family until 1960 when a village appeal raised money to return the cup to the club. The cup was then stolen in 1994 and despite the best efforts of local police and a £2,000 reward it was never found. An exact replica of the cup can now be found in a secure cabinet in the West Auckland Working Men's Club.
The story of the club's first success was turned into a TV Movie in 1982 – The World Cup: A Captain's Tale, produced by Tyne Tees Television and starring Dennis Waterman.
Bishops have recently beaten Bridlington on August 5th in an FA Cup Extra Preliminary Rd 3-0. On August 19th, Bishops beat Seaham Red Star 7-0 in the FA Cup Preliminary Rd.
On September 2nd, the two Aucklands (Bishop and West) drew 0-0 in the FA Cup First Qualifying Rd. and on the 5th Sept. Bishop won the replay over West, 1-2. Bishop therefore qualified for the FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round on the 16th, a tie against locals South Shields...so, still a proper North-Eastern cup tie!
No comments:
Post a Comment