America

A book has just been digitased and put online about football in America during the 1920-21 season. It must have gone on in the last few days. In it red writes on of the main articles about the current condition of football in America, the good bits and how it can be improved.

It totals 3000 words long and is very good. He comments on teams he has watched and is his usual outspoken self. I can't believe that in the space of a couple of months we have gone from knowing that Fred was in the US in the early 20's to now haing enough research for a complete chapter.

The internet has been amazing for us. when I started this research 17 years ago I had no idea that one day an American University Library would digitise an odd book about Soccer in 1920 and you would be able to see each page digitally photographed.

Also, Fred gets a mention in a 1925 newspaper called Truth that was published in Wellington, NZ. Commenting on the work he has done in American and Mexico. This has also been digitised and put online in recent weeks.

Swine

Well, rather annoyingly, I've finally been struck down by the Swine Flu. I guess this was always going to happen in my line of work and Last thursday it finally did. I'm nearly recovered now, but it explains the lack of updates.

The book is ticking along. Nothing too exciting to report, just that it is being done.

Rather more exciting is that I got an email from Bernard Thompson from Prague, saying that he is writing a book about Johnny Maddan. This is very good news as he is someone who really does deserve to have a book written about him.

Update

Well, not much activity to report from the lat week or so.

The interview and photograph of Charlie Booth arrived and was just about worth the money. Mainly becasue of the photograph. We had never been quite sure if Charlie Booth featured in any of the photographs we had of Gainsborough Trinity, and evidently he does not! He should have done as we have the 1887 Gainsborough News Charity Cup winning side with trophy, a team which he played in. But the player who is sat in his position and for a time we believed to be Booth is far too old and not him.

One of the strong parts of our research is the number of illustrations. Hopefully there wo't be much of a problem with copywrite on them. Obviously I will be doing my best to clear copywrite on as many as possible. There is a likely hood that in some cases we won't get it.

Putting faces to the names of the players is important and brings them to life. Hence why I am so pleased to get a photo of Booth. It is from his Wolverhampton Wanderers days 3-4 years after leaving trinity, but it'll be the best we get. It may be the only surviving photograph of him. Although there probably is an arsenal photo buried away somewhere with him in the team.

The interview was not as good, but did fill in a few gaps. And combining this with other research we should be able to get a fairly decent pen picture together of a player who really is lost in History.

Favourite Victorian Footballers

All that news about Charlie Booth has made me think I should list a few more of my favourite footballers from the 1890's

This is by no mean a complete list and is not a list of the 'best' players as such more to do with character too. But obviously some were the very best. They are not in order either.

1. Jack Madden http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Madden
2. Billy Bassett http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Crabtree
3. Jimmy Crabtree http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Crabtree
4. G.O. Smith http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_Oswald_Smith
5. John Goodall http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Goodall
6. Earnest Needham http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Needham
7. Ambrose Langley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Langley
8. Steve Bloomer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Bloomer
9. Jack Robinson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Robinson_(footballer)
10. Tommy Crawshaw http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Crawshaw
11. Charlie Howlett
12. Harry Walkerdine
13. Charlie Athersmith http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Athersmith
14. John Reynolds http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Reynolds_(footballer_born_1869)

I have said before. Our book will contain selected pen profiles of footballers such as these. They will vary in size depending on what research we have. So Madden will probably get 2 pages, where as others may have one paragraph. The idea is that it will act like a glossery at the back of the book, so as a significant player enters into the story we don't have to explain everything about them. Instead the reader can turn to the back and check out who they are and what they did. I hope thi will make our book even more significant for football history at this time.

There are of course many many more. Many people may wonder why I left out a big fat goalkeepr. In truth evidence would suggest hat he wasn't actually that great, nothing compared to Jack Robinson. But he was a great character, that is fo sure.

Good Ebay News

Yesterday I said that I had some news but didn't want to say until today. This was all because it was about an item that appeared on ebay and I was bidding on. Not that I would lose it to anyone reading this blog, but simply because I hadn't won it yet.

It was a Sports newspaper from 1892 containing a large interview (so I'm lead to believe) with Charlie Booth and a photograph of him too.

One of the best things about researching Fred is discovering other forgotten hero's of victorian football. I do find it facination stuff. They are far more intereting than any footballers around today, and in my biased opinion more interesting than nearly any set of plaers from any period of the game.

Chrlie Booth is one such Character.

He was the Gainsboough Trinity left winger before Fred. He used to train fred when Fred was 15/16 years old. He used to teach Fred in sprint racing but also spent many hours kicking long passes to eachother ona large field.

Fred used to steal eggs from the family hen coop to pay Charlie for his coaching, but he got caught by his parent! All was forgiven when fred started winning races and bringing back prize money.

Fred played against Charlie Booth for Gainsborough Wednedsday and with him on 3 occassions for Trinity.

This important mento of Fred is someone who got lost in history, but he went on to play league football for Wolves and then for Arsenal, which he was made captain. Unfortunately not much has ever been discovered about Charlie. And this magazine may well turn out to be the only thing that has ever been written at length on him.

Obviously I was keen to get hold of it. I can tell you that it took some very nifty ebay bidding to get hold of it within my budget. But I managed to stay cool and out thoght a very keen bidder, who would probably hve gone higher than me if he hd the opportunity.

I may well sell the article once I've finished with it though, as it was a little pricey for what it is. The going rate for these things is never over £10, but this was quite a bit more. Not sure why someone else would be so interested.

Historical Football Kits

I've been adding a few things to this website in recent days. Mainly helping out with Scotland's victorian kit design. It's a brilliant site, take a look.

http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/

A lot of work has gone into Fred's early performances in recent days. We have newspaper reports which list him playing for his school team. The earliest we have found is from 1883 when he was 13 years old. We have a couple more from a year latter. These along with all Gainsborough Institute, Gainsborough Wednesday, Jubeliee Swifts and Gainsborourgh Trinity matches are are all now in statistic tables, including all team line ups. This is Every Match he played (that has been reported) up to 1891

We do have the complete Alliance stats too for his first season at Wednesday and of course his League and cup stuff for Wednesday. But are currently missing friendly matches/united counties league matches/ and warncliffe charity cup matches for Wednesday.

We have all stats for Glossop, Leeds City and Watford. But unfortunately Southern United is very difficult to research. I have some but not all matches.

I have an illustration from the 40's that is of fred and says he scored over 350 competative goals in his career. I have for a long time dismissed this as a missunderstanding. But the more we get close to completing all the statistics the closer he gets to the total. I'm not sure it will catually get there, but it may be close.

Although our book will have a stats section it will not be the important part of the book, just an appendix at the back.


I have an exciting find, but due to one technicality I don't want to hare it just yet. Maybe tomorrow.

steady progress

Well, progress is being made, but it's a little bit slower these last couple of weeks. Time has been spent in Gainsborough Library looking for rogue matches Fred may have played in.

We found an extra one for the Gainsbourgh Working Mens Institute and another for Gainsborough Wednesday. We also found a couple of Lincolnshire FA repreentative matches.

I don't think we will ever get a full list of every game he played in. I'm sure that some willhave not been reported anyway. But it's very difficult to find all the Lincolnshire FA matches. I have struggled to find the odd Shefield FA matches to. I think I'm 2 Glasgow matches missing, and of course he may well not have played in those games anyway.

I think the biggest challenge would be all the united counties league matches and club matches (friendlies) that were played at the time by The Wednesday.

Fred at FA Cup Exhibition

The Exhibiton containing the 2nd FA Cup trophy (the one which fred won and was first presented in 1896) is currently in Leeds. With it so close to me I had to visit. I have wanted to see the trophy for a long time. Thanks to David Gold the trophy has been saved for the English public to see.

The First thing you see at the Exhibition is a big enlarged photograph of Fred. Which was totally unexpected. There is a board for each final (for the trophy) and because 1896 was the first Fred is obviously on the first board. Shame that I wasn't able to take a photograph of this., although it was the easy picture to find of Fred that is seen in most publications.

I am biased of course in thinking that the trophy is far superior than the current and familiar shaped trophy. It is obviously Victorian in design and may be considered a little fussy by some, but there is no doubt it is a special trophy.

The craftsmanship is obviously superb and the trophy is still in mint condition. It was smaller than I thought it would be, but this made it more delicate and even better than I thought it would be.

There were a few other things at the exhibition although they could have made more of it to be honest. But it was worth the £2 to get in.

There was also a leeds Utd, exhibition in the same room. If anything this proved what a poor history that club has. Either that or the exhitibion was just rubbish.

German Translation and Gainsborough Wednesday

My German friends have been helping translate some of my material on 1FC Nuremberg. So that's good news.

Also, we have discovered that Sheffield Wednesday was not the first 'Wednesday' club that Fred played for. We have discovered several Summer matches that he played for a team called Gainsborough Wednesday. This was in the summer of 1887. So far we have found 5 games, quite a few goals were scored in the games but on the most part they were left uncredited. Fred did score 2 in a 3-2 defeat to another summer football team that contained several excellent Trinity players.

Pensilvania

Was just doing my weekly google searches to see if anything new has hit the internet recently. A weekly ritual that usually brings up something new once or twice a year.

Today it did.

A new book has been digitised and put on line by an american university. It's a book about football in America in 1922. It's a pretty big book. At first I was reading a text version that made little sense, but when I was just about to give up I discovered you could actually look at the original scans. Noticing that phoographs were numbered and that the Google search had a number 2 infront of Fred's name I realised that all I had to do was look at the pictures. 2 minutes later and I'd found it.

A portrait of Fred, and not only that but the realisation that he was a major player in the Eastern Pensilvania Football Association. This is excellent news and fits in perfectly with all other research.

What makes me even more pleased is that the picture is one that I had discovered before but had never been able to copy due to the newspaper libraries rules and regualtions to that particular document. Obviously, this has been a frustration for me for the 3 years since I saw the photograph, and it was brilliant to be able to get it finally. Probably better than finding a brand new photograph, becasue at least it can not longer bug me!

1894

Just a couple of interesting points. The Celtic football history message board has come up with some interesting info about the floodlights I have discussed in a previous post.

Apparently, all the floodlights and all their electrical cables made the ground resemble a dockyard and therefore got given the nickname - Madden's Dockyard. This is after Jonny Madden their centre forward who used to work in the ship building docks.

Madden just happens to be one of the most important players to have played with Fred. He efectively was Fred's mentor at Gainsborough Trinity in the 1887-88 season, Fred's first season with Trinity aged 17.

Madden is a bit of a lost hero. But was possibly the greatest coach of his era. Only thing was that he coached in Prague and therefore his achievements there are not well known here. But they are in Prague!.

I urge people to read about him here and also check out the picture on this page of Madden and Fred sat next to each other in 1887 (front two players Madden on the left fred on the right).

http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Gainsborough_Trinity/Gainsborough_Trinity.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Madden

Bloomer and other research.

Whilst on my travels I have been reading the excellent Steve Bloomer biography by Peter Seddon. I have read parts of it before, but I have yet to read it in it's entirety. It is exchanging hands now for between £30 and £50, which is a shame as it should be more readily available. I guess it's good that the number of books that actually got published have all sold.

Bloomer, was without doubt, a fantastic footballer, the best goalscorer of the era by far. I have enjoyed reading the book and am pleased that him and Fred were such good Friends. I resently found out that Fred did indeed travel to his funeral.

What has amazed me is how many similarities there are between the two players. Apparently Bloomer missed out on playing a 'comeback' international in Derby, he lost a vote 5-6. I learnt today that in 1903 that Fred had had such a fantastic season that he was actually the main contender for the Scotland match in 1903 in Sheffield. This would have been a sensational comeback, considering what he had gone through from 1900-1902. Apparently it was a surprise that he didn't get selected. But he did the English League International that year and scored.

England Photographs

Well, I've been away on holiday for a week in France, but got back in the UK on Saturday and have stayed down south and been into London yesterday and today. Main aim was to end all the research from the National Archives and The British Library.

Mission accomplished!

I was rather excited because I had located two rather important photographs. The England team photographs for the 1894 and 1898 matches against Scotland. Playing in these matches was by far the biggest honor for an individual player at the time (The FA Cup was the highest for a team) and Fred was lucky enough to get three scottish caps. Maybe a little unlucky not to have got a few more.

My resent reading has revealed that the 1898 team was considered to be a legendary side. They were considered the greatest england side right into the 1920's and Fred was part of it and played well by all accounts.

To get a photograph with a forward line up including; Athersmith, Bloomer, G.O. Smith, and Fred is pretty special. The photograph also includes Wreford Brown, Earnest Needham and Robinson (possibly the best goalkeeper from the Victorian Era). It is very special for me to have seen an original and to be able to of copied it too.

Copying it proved very tricky, it was a large photograph, and I had to photograph it (like every other photo) in a security room with video cameras watching me. The artificial light was a complete pain and the photograph was creased down the centre too. I think I've done a good job, but will have too see when I eventually get home.

I have some very good close up shots of Fred and the other players.

The 1894 photograph was easier to copy, and also contains some very find players included. I hope that I can arrange copywrite for their use in the book. They will be very fine inclusions. Team line ups can get a bit repetative and boring, but England photographs elevate themselves enough, and they are good examples. Both were shot in the studio, with the same background as the 1895 one if anyone is familiar with it.

FA Cup

The 2nd FA Cup is currently on display at Leeds City Museum. I will at some point venture across to see it. I have wanted to see it for a long time and can't believe it is now so close to where I live.

Obviously the trophy has a special connection to Fred as he scored both goals that enabled Wednesday to be the first team to lift this particular trophy. I personally prefer it to the current shape, and apparently it is a very beautiful object when seen close up.

The exhibition is called 'Saved for the Nation' and is at Leeds until January. The museum itself was only opened a year ago and is meant to be worth a visit. I believe it won best museum award for the whole of the UK this year.

The FA Cup for me is the heart and soul of Football. I love it.

Going Away

I'm off on holiday for a bit, so will not be able to update this blog for a short time. When I get back I'm going to be doing a couple of things.

Stopping off in London to get hold of those England and Scotland team photographs for the 1894 and 1898 matches. May stop off at the National Library too and read some more of John Goodall's book from 1898.

I am excited at the prospect of getting a copy of the England 1898 picture as this was regarded as the best ever England team to take to the field for a long time. Even in the 1920's it was considered the best team in the history of the game - according to the times newspaper. Although Fred thought that the 1892 side, which he did not play in, was slightly better.

I do have several live action shots of the 1898 match. Although most are very poor quality I have two excellent ones, unfortunately one is of Scotland scoring their only goal. I was very pleased with this, but had to spend many hours digitally resorting it.

this week

WEll, I went to Sheffield Library and printed off the final match reports needed for Sheffield Wednesday. One was for an 1898 match where Fred missed a penalty in the last minute in a 2-1 defeat against Blackburn.

Fred seemed to forget this penalty in his autobiography. He had told a story of a previous miss much earlier in his Wednesday career and claimed that he never took any more penalties. Ambrose Langley rememebered this miss and that's why I looked it out.

It is unusual for Fred to have forgotten something, becasue out ofthe hundreds of stories he documented this is probably one of only 3/4 that are not exactly how he stated. And out of 20 years of stories I think we can forgive him a couple of facts. Especially as he was writing some of them 30/35 years after the event.

So I did all that work. My dad is getting closer to finishing the 1890-91 Midland League Triumph season chapter. Probably still a couple of weeks off.

Some nice Sheffield United cigarette cards have gone on ebay this week, they are from about 1901/02 and I have certainly not seen them before. Shame they are Shefield United. I like cigarette cards like these becasue they picture players that I will have read about or got a story about.

I recently found one of the Burnley player who broke Fred's ribs in 1893. Hopefully I'll be able to get copywrite passed to include as many cards in the book as possible.



I had to buy an extra potfolio for the photo's/illustrations for the book this week. I think we are close to 350 different illustrations for our book. But how many we manage to pass copywrite on is anyone guess. I'm working hard to get as many original source images as possible. But I think we will have to pay something at some point.

Anyone wondering if there will be any new stuff on Sheffield Wednesday in the book - I promise you that you will be amazed with some of the images that I have that have NEVER been published. (Well some of them were published in the 1890's but good luck finding them.) My greatest find is possibly 4 live action shots of the 1896 FA cup final, or the 5 live action shots inside Olive Grove. There are plenty of treats to be seen!

Research this week

Well, looks like I'm off to Sheffield Library again this week. Been given a long list of matches that we need reports for. Most of which relate to Sheffield Wednesday escaping a relegation play-off match in 1894. It's quite a good story really. Will also be trying to find match reports for 2 elusive Sheffield Vs Glasgow matches. I struggled to find them last time.

Sheffield Wednesday Books

Decided to write out a bibliography for all the Sheffield Wednesday books we have been using/have copies of.

I must say that we have been so fortunate with Wednesday books. There are few clubs with such a collection of well written history books.

The main heros have to be Farnsworth, Sparling and Jason Dickinson of course.

It may be worth pointing out that since The Wednesday Boys the quality of books has plumited somewhat. Examples being -

Legends of Sheffield Wednesday, possibly the poorest book ever made about the club/it's players;

Head to Head - Breedons attempt to redo the 'A Complete Record' series, and completely and utterly failing. The Complete Record is a Bible of a book when it comes to stats. Thank goodness they made them. All they should have done was update them and republish, would have been much better than the Head to Head books.

I recently purchased 'The Steel City Divide' for £2 in a bargin bookshop in York. They have loads of the things. It was worth the £2 but not a great deal more. The Sheffield Wednesday half is of far superior quality to the United half, which I had to stop reading after a while.

Top books are (in no particular order)

The Romance of the Wednesday - Sparling

A complete record - Farnsworth

A hundred years at Hillsborough - Dickinson

Wednesday! - Farnsworth

Sheffield Football, Volume 1 - Farnsworth

Football in Sheffield - Percy Young

The Wednesday Boys - Dickinson and Brodie

Book Jacket

I thought I should just add a little bit about the Book Jacket design, which is on this page.

It way end up being different from this. It is basically just an idea at the moment and my name will probably be added at some point. I quite like it though.

The image is a section of a larger photograph that shows Fred on the wing playing at Olive Grove. It was taken in Wednesday's last season at Olive Grove and therefore Fred is looking a little older and in most images I have of him as a footballer.

The match happens to be the last ever Sheffield Derby at Olive Grove. I am particularly fond of the image because it shows the stretch of ground where Fred made his name as the 'Olive Grove Flyer'. The rammed grandstand adds to the atmosphere, no doubt it was a buzzing ground to play on.

I am very lucky to have been able to locate this photograph, a good friend of mine bought it and has let me use it.

In the past books on Sheffield Wednesday's history have always regarded the photograph of Olive Grove from a distance to be the only surviving image of the ground. It captured the ground by accident when someone was photographing their allotment. It appears in Romance of the Wednesday and Owl's vs Blades and probably an other book I can't remember.

Anyway... I have managed to track down 5 images of football being played on Olive Grove. Most in the 1898 season. 3 show the stand in the background and 2 looking the other way. These combined with numerous drawings and illustrations have made it possible to work out what Olive Grove would have looked like in 360°.

Midland League 1890-91

My dad has been writing the Midland League Champions chapter today. It's a good story. The Midland League was a strong league that Fred played in for Gainsborough Trinity. He won it with them the season before he left to join The Wednesday.

My dad has just got to the point in the season where Fred agrees to join Wednesday. He still played out the rest of the season with Trinity.

The transfer to Wednesday is a story that has been told many many times. We have got Fred's version, which is much more detailed than other versions. He tells it in his 1920 autobiography.

The Midland League could be considered the 2nd division of football at that time as there was only one league for the Football League at the time. The next rung of football down was spread across two leagues, The Midland League and the Alliance. Many consider the Alliance to be the stronger of the two, and in truth I think it did contain a higher proportion of strong teams, including The Wednesday and Nottingham Forest. However, the top few of the Midland would probably be as good as the top teams in the Alliance and therefore the Midland should not be considered a 3rd division.

Fred Spiksley the imposter

Some Sheffield Sednesday supporter has given themselves the screen name 'Fred Spiksley' for a Wednesday message board.

He posts quite a lot and ever time he does he makes it harder to search the internet for new items that are actually about Fred. Believe it or not they do surface occassionally, but are hard to spot. Now it'll be even harder.

But part of me likes the fact that he called himself that, so all's good!

1894 Scotland Match

Just got my recent ebay purchase. It is a page out of a victorian magazine with a full page (a3) illustration of the 1894 England Vs Scotland Match at Celtic Park. I am particularly pleased with this 'find' for two reasons.

1. This is a bit of a lost match. Fred played in 2 matches against Scotland, the greatest honor for an English footballer of that time. The 1893 and 1898 matches are historically much more important and also easier to access in terms of what is out there about the matches.

The 1894 match was a 2-2 draw and therefore a little forgetable considering it was the year after the match at Richmond. I have never been able to gather much research on the match, but things are changing. I am now aware of original photographs of the two teams, which I will be obtaining copies from soon, and then there is this picture.

The illustration seems to be a reproduction of a watercolour. It is in the crowd undercover of the main grandstand. Scotland have just scored and the crowd are animated. Importantly there is also another interesting feature, which is my second point....

2. The picture clearly shows Victorian floodlights, that were being used at Celtic Park at that time. I managed to get some Celtic historians to confirm they used them at this time, apparently the first trail was Christmas 1893, which links in perfectly with April 1894. When the picture arrived they are clearly electric pendant lights hanging from very tall posts.

Obviously they were no used for this match, but I am pleased that the victorian flood light experiments can be linked quite smoothly into the biography. A little footnote will be all hat is needed.

I have never seen an illustration of victorian floodlights before, although I may have seen a diagram of them once, but not in a picture of a game. 1894 must have been close to the end of the experiments as they were not very successful. I think the first trail of floodlights was in 1878, so it's not new news in terms of our book. But a great and unusual illustration.