The year 1857 was drawing to its close. In the reign of Victoria few years are dull in retrospect, and this year had its quota of significant events: a general election; the start of the Indian Mutiny; the laying of the first part of the trans-Atlantic telegraph cable; the establishment of divorce courts; the publication of "Tom Brown's Schooldays"; Robert Baden Powell, Rudolph Diesel, Ronald Ross, Edward Elgar were born.
Christmas was approaching and some of Liverpool's young men were bored with their usual pastimes of shooting and coursing. Some of them thought back to their recent years at public schools, where football had developed under many codes of rules. It happened that the moving spirits, merchants' sons and articled clerks, had been at Rugby School. One of them, Frank Albert Mather of Bootle Hall, near Liverpool, wrote to his old friend Richard Sykes, a Manchester boy who by then was captain of football at Rugby, inviting him to take part in a game of football and to bring one of the balls which were made by Lindon a Rugby bootmaker. Lindon at that time made the balls for the Bigside games at Rugby. Gilbert's made only the puntabouts.
Christmas was approaching and some of Liverpool's young men were bored with their usual pastimes of shooting and coursing. Some of them thought back to their recent years at public schools, where football had developed under many codes of rules. It happened that the moving spirits, merchants' sons and articled clerks, had been at Rugby School. One of them, Frank Albert Mather of Bootle Hall, near Liverpool, wrote to his old friend Richard Sykes, a Manchester boy who by then was captain of football at Rugby, inviting him to take part in a game of football and to bring one of the balls which were made by Lindon a Rugby bootmaker. Lindon at that time made the balls for the Bigside games at Rugby. Gilbert's made only the puntabouts.
Click on picture to enlarge
The game was arranged for the Saturday before Christmas, 19th December, when the school term would have ended, and permission was obtained to use the ground of Liverpool Cricket Club, who had played at Edge Hill on the boundary of Liverpool and Wavertree for nearly thirty years.
Some fifty players arrived, and it was decided to play "Rugby versus the World", probably since there were more Rugbeians present than representatives of any other school. The game, described as a pleasant one, was played very much as a trial, not of players but of the game
Extract from the official history of Liverpool Football Club, 1857 -1982, by J R A Daglish .
Bigside, Rugby School, 1856/7, Richard Sykes holds the ball
Click on image to enlarge
THE FORMATION OF LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL CLUB
The question is often asked as to what happened next? What sort of fixtures were played and who played them?
In all probability in the absence of any other local Rugby Football club there would not have been any fixtures but games would have been played amongst the members themselves. (This was often the practice at Universities and Colleges where organised opponents were difficult to find).
Tony Onslow and John Sturgeon in their book “ Dogs and Ladies Not Allowed” The 200 year History of Liverpool Cricket Club, record that immediately following the game on 19th December “ The rugby players were now to form a strong link with the cricket club as the popularity of the game began to increase. They could be seen, during the winter months, playing their matches on the Spekefield ground”. For completeness it is also important to note that they added “Cricket however, still dominated the location.”
Daglish sums up the situation as follows “A large proportion of what we know about the events of that December day in 1857 comes from the letters written by Richard Sykes. Writing from California in 1910 to A.G. Melly. Sykes recalled in great detail those events and the names of those who had taken part. Melly in turn corresponded with other survivors and a consensus was reached that the club had indeed been formed there and then, on that December day in 1857.”
Richard Sykes went on to help form the Manchester Club, three years later in 1860 thereby giving Liverpool their first known opponents.
In all probability in the absence of any other local Rugby Football club there would not have been any fixtures but games would have been played amongst the members themselves. (This was often the practice at Universities and Colleges where organised opponents were difficult to find).
Tony Onslow and John Sturgeon in their book “ Dogs and Ladies Not Allowed” The 200 year History of Liverpool Cricket Club, record that immediately following the game on 19th December “ The rugby players were now to form a strong link with the cricket club as the popularity of the game began to increase. They could be seen, during the winter months, playing their matches on the Spekefield ground”. For completeness it is also important to note that they added “Cricket however, still dominated the location.”
Daglish sums up the situation as follows “A large proportion of what we know about the events of that December day in 1857 comes from the letters written by Richard Sykes. Writing from California in 1910 to A.G. Melly. Sykes recalled in great detail those events and the names of those who had taken part. Melly in turn corresponded with other survivors and a consensus was reached that the club had indeed been formed there and then, on that December day in 1857.”
Richard Sykes went on to help form the Manchester Club, three years later in 1860 thereby giving Liverpool their first known opponents.