futures�FOOTBALL IN HERTS
between teams based upon schools in Hertfordshire with major figures in the game. A notable example of this occurred in 1867 when a team based upon former pupils from Bishop Stortford Grammar School took on The Wanderers, a team made up of significant former public schoolboys, which included CW Alcock, a man who is sometimes referred to as the father of British sport because of his multi-faceted involvement in a variety of activities, notably football and cricket, as both player and administrator. This involvement of football’s elite with the sport in
Hertfordshire found its first significant expression in 1865 when Hertfordshire Rangers were created. In large measure they were made up of former students from Cambridge University and they played at Wood’s Field near Watford railway station. The club enjoyed acute social connections and this meant that they played matches, generally twelve a-side, against teams of old public schoolboys, fixtures occurring against sides representing the institutions including Eton, Harrow and Westminster schools.
Above Children playing football in the late Victorian/ early Edwardian period.
They also conducted matches against other major teams, such as No Names and CCC (whose members were old boys from various public schools). Despite this exclusive pedigree and their connections with the social elite, Hertfordshire Rangers were slow to join the FA and while they made some impact on football’s progress eventually ran out of suitable players, disbanding in 1882. From the perspective of the historian, given the
area’s long involvement in football, it is no surprise that the first national involvement of a football team from Hertfordshire stemmed from Hitchin, the place where the game had proved so popular one hundred years earlier.
Hitchin School’s team was founded in 1865 and two years later were recorded playing against a side from Hatfield. The Hitchin side evolved into Hitchin Football Club and in 1868 joined the FA. At the time the FA consisted of thirty clubs, two of which stemmed from Hertfordshire. The identity of these come as some surprise for they did not include Hertfordshire Rangers, who despite the elite nature of its membership did not join the FA until some years later. Instead the members were Tollebridge Park FC and Hitchin. The author must confess that he has been unable to uncover anything about the former body, except for the fact that they were members of the FA from 1868 until 1871, by which time they appear to have disbanded. By contrast, Hitchin enjoyed a vigorous life, reaching the second round of the newly created FA Cup in 1871-2, before being eliminated by the eventual runner’s up, The Royal Engineers.
Hitchin were a semi professional club until 1911, when they disbanded. In 1869 two further clubs appeared in Hertfordshire: Cheshunt, who were founded in December 1869 and became the first team in the area who used the rugby code (joining the newly created Rugby Football Union in 1870 and leaving as the last members in 1874) and the soccer playing St Alban’s Pilgrims (who joined the FA in 1873). The future of football in Hertfordshire did not lie with any of these clubs, but rather with two that appeared in the 1880s, Barnet and Watford. Barnet were founded
Hertfordshire has enjoyed some success at football
in 1888 and nine years later a photograph of the team appeared on page 451 of the 20 November 1897 issue of The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. The club enjoyed a long and distinguished semi professional career that peaked in 1991 with their elevation to football league status, a position which they have generally managed to retain. Watford have been far and away the most successful team in Hertfordshire. The club was founded as Watford Rovers in 1881 and played at Cassiobury Park. Their career was patchy but from the late 1970s they enjoyed major success, peaking in 1983, when they finished second in Division One. The following year they were runners up in the FA Cup.
By comparison with such amazing achievements, the years that have followed might seem somewhat disappointing but currently they are secure in the second tier of English football, an unexciting though respectable position to have. Essentially, Hertfordshire has enjoyed some success at football. From the more specific perspective of the University of Hertfordshire, organised football was certainly present in the 1860s. In 1866 Aldenham School created a team and on 9 November 1867 The Field magazine records a match being played by a team from Hatfield. Collectively, the written records show that football in the area occupied by the University of Hertfordshire reaches back almost 150 years.
A print of football being played at Barnet in 1750 can be found in the John Johnson Collection Sports box 7, of The Bodleian Library, Oxford University. The British Library Newspapers, London contains a copy of The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. The author would like to thank Molly Barton for providing him with information on football at Aldenham School and Amy Rolph of the RFU for supplying information about Cheshunt RFC. f�
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Photography: Istockphoto
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