FM08 - The Return of the Legends

NOW FOR A HISTORY LESSON

As I’m sure many of you know the first Football Association Challenge Cup final was contested between Wanderers and Royal Engineers at Kensington Oval. On that day, Wanderers prevailed with Morton Betts scoring the only goal. In the next few years, various teams (all of which now don’t exist) fort it out for the most coveted prize on the planet. Finalists over the next few years were glorious teams such as Oxford University, Old Etonians, Clapham Rovers, Old Carthusians and Blackburn Olympic.

SO, WHAT THE HECK HAS THIS GO TO DO WITH THE CSE FORUM?

Well, I’ll be editing the FM database and placing Wanderers, Royal Engineers, Oxford University, Old Etonians, Clapham Rovers, Old Carthusians and Blackburn Olympic (Yes, they are in the database but with little detail) in the Blue Square South/North depending on the teams location. So, it will be an AI experiment in the fact that I well be testing on how the AI deals with these historic teams with a massive trophy cabinet – it will also be interesting to see who makes the Premiership first!

Team Details coming shortly!

THE TEAMS

First off, I’ll start off with the leagues they’ve been put into.

Blue Square South

Wanderers

Royal Engineers

Oxford University

Old Etonians

Clapham Rovers

Old Carthusians

Blue Square North

Blackburn Olympic

Team Overviews

Blackburn Olympic - Their greatest success came when they overcame the dominance of local rivals, Blackburn Rovers, and the amateur teams of southern England to win the FA Cup in 1883. Well organised and trained, their ability to switch play from wing to wing, stretched an Old Etonians team reduced to ten men due to injury. A long pass to the left gave Jimmy Costley the opportunity to score the winner in extra time.

As a result of this victory, Olympic became the first team from North of the capital city to win the FA Cup, thus bringing to an end the Southern domination of the competition.

Clapham Rovers - Rovers greatest achievement was winning the FA Cup in 1879-80 with a 1-0 win over Oxford University at The Kennington Oval. Their 1880 FA Cup winning team was as follows:

Reginald Birkett, Robert Ogilvie, Edgar Field, Vincent Weston, Norman Bailey, Arthur Stanley, Harold Brougham, Francis Sparks, F Barry, Edward Ram, Clopton Lloyd-Jones.

Lloyd-Jones scored the only goal of the game.

The previous year, Clapham Rovers had also reached the final, but lost 1-0 to Old Etonians. In this match, Clapham Rovers' James Prinsep set a record for being the youngest player in an FA Cup Final, at 17 years and 245 days, a record that held until 2004 when it was broken by Millwall's Curtis Weston.

Clapham Rovers were also one of ten founder members of the Surrey County Football Association, in 1877.

The date of the club's dissolution is unclear, although the last time they competed in the FA Cup was in the 1885-86 season, when they were disqualified without playing a match. Their most successful player, Norman Bailey, was still described as a Clapham Rovers player when he made the last of his 19 England appearances on 19 March 1887. The club was still playing in Wandsworth in 1892. On Saturday 1 January 1898 The Times announced that Old Carthusians would play Clapham Rovers at Crystal Palace.

The club probably survived until World War One as there is a reference to their annual dinner in The Sportsman in 1911.

Old Carthusians - Old Carthusians Football Club is an association football club whose players are former pupils of Charterhouse School in Godalming, Waverley, Surrey, England. The club was established in 1876[1] and won the FA Cup in 1881, as well as the FA Amateur Cup in 1894 and 1897. Nine Old Carthusians were capped for England.

Old Etonians - Founded by Lord Kinnaird, they were the last amateur or "true blue" club to win the FA Cup on 25 March 1882 when they beat Blackburn Rovers 1-0 at The Oval. They lost 2-1 after extra time to another Blackburn club, Blackburn Olympic, the following year.

In all, they reached the final six times in nine years between 1875 and 1883, winning twice. They also supplied a number of players for the England team, including three in one match against Wales in 1879.

Oxford University - Formed in 1872, the club was a giant of the 1870s, winning the FA Cup 2-0 against Royal Engineers in 1874 and finishing the competition as runners up in 1873, 1877 and 1880, the last year they competed.

Twenty-two Oxford players were capped for England, including three of the team which took part in the very first international match, Frederick Chappell, Arnold Kirke-Smith and Cuthbert Ottaway.

Royal Engineers – The Royal Engineers AFC is a football team founded in 1863, under the leadership of Major Marindin of the Corps of Royal Engineers, the Sappers. They enjoyed a great deal of success in the 1870s, winning the FA Cup in 1875.

The Royal Engineers were the first football team to go on a tour, which they did to Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield in 1873.

The 'Engineers' were the equals of the northern professional Football League teams, regularly beating them up until the late 1880s and were arguably the last bastion of the once great 'gentleman' teams. They have maintained their character as an amateur team (as was the tradition early on in football history) and have not played in top competition since the 1890s, competing instead in matches against other armed forces teams.

Wanderers - The club was initially formed as Forest Football Club in 1859 by Old Harrovians (old boys of Harrow School) and played in Epping Forest (Snaresbrook). Due to their proximity to Leytonstone they were soon called Forest-Leytonstone. A number of the players also played for another team that was made up of Old Harrovians, No Names of Kilburn. Forest-Leytonstone were a founder member of The Football Association in 1863. They adopted the title of Wanderers a year later, after "wandering" across London to Battersea Park. The team was captained by Charles Alcock, who was also chairman of the FA from 1870 to 1895 and the original proponent of the FA Cup. He described Forest as the first team to attempt "to extend footballon any definite fixed system". Other members included A. G. Guillemard, the "father" of the Rugby Football Union.

They are chiefly noted for winning the first-ever FA Cup final, held at the Kennington Oval, London, on 16 March 1872. They beat the Royal Engineers 1-0, the winning goal scored by Morton Betts, under the pseudonym A.H. Chequer. In all they won the cup five times in its first seven seasons, between 1872 and 1878, and even as of 2007 the club remains equal eighth in the list of all-time winners of the FA Cup. Though Wanderers never had a permanent home ground (as their name suggests), they are known to have played at Lillie Bridge and Battersea Park.

The club was eventually disbanded in 1883, by which time individual schools had set up their own clubs (such as Old Etonians and Old Carthusians).

So - who are you supporting?

I think I'll support the Royal Engineers.

Are you go to supply detailed info (starting rep and squad etc.) or just leave it?

I'll be following the wanderers i think. They've got a long way to go if they are going to return to their glory days

Squad will be full of Regens, starting rep will be based on how many FA Cups they've won.

I'll be supporting Blackburn Olympic I think. They're already huge underdogs and in the shadow of Rovers, so it'll be a big battle for them to get anywhere.

The database has just been completed.....

I captain the Old Carthusians, so if you need any information on them I'll be happy to help you out.

Here's a link to our site; http://www.clubwebsite.co.uk/oldcarthusians/

Thanks,

Henry