With The Big Weekend of Rugby and Football Approaching...

[kushiro]

We're making so much history at the moment it's hard to keep up.

 

As you know, we're now the first team to win twelve of the first thirteen games in the second tier since Bristol City in 1905/06..

 

And with the Rugby World Cup Final coming up, that date has an unmistakable resonance. 1905/06 was a pivotal season in the development of the game. It was the New Zealand rugby team's first ever tour of the UK - a tour which has attained legendary status.

 

You might wonder if these two stories - of round ball and oval ball - overlap. And indeed they do. Let's have a look how.

 

On successive weekends in late September 1905, sports lovers in Bristol and Leicester were faced with an agonizing choice between watching the most exciting rugby team ever seen on these shores, and a truly mouth-watering game of association football.

 

The New Zealand squad arrived at Plymouth on September 8th. They weren't called The All Blacks' yet - it was during the tour that the name was attached. Their first game was a tough one, against Devon, one of the top sides in the country. The result was a sensation:

 

 

It finished Devon 4 New Zealand 55.

 

They followed that with a 41-0 victory over Cornwall, and their third fixture was against Bristol. 

 

It kicked off at 3.30 at the County Ground, home of Gloucestershire cricket. The tourists repeated their Cornwall score against Bristol, 41-0, and the press were raving again: Their exhibition was a revelation - surpassing in individual and collective merit anything previously seen at the County Ground .

 

Four miles away at Ashton Gate, Bristol City were playing Blackpool in Division Two, and their 2-1 victory was the fifth game of that record breaking start to the season in which they would win fourteen of their first fifteen games - a sequence still unsurpassed more than a century later (we have to beat QPR and Leeds to match it). 

 

This was the first real breakthrough for association football in the west country.  In what was a rugby stronghold (like Leicester), the club would win the Division Two title that year, becoming the first from that part of the world to play in the top flight. The following season they finished second in Division One - the first team in the whole of the south of England to challenge for the title.

 

Meanwhile, anticipation was growing in Leicester. The following Saturday the New Zealanders were due at Welford Road to play the Tigers. Local schools applied to have their rugby games swiched to a later kick-off so the boys could see the tourists play. Before the game, in midweek, they kept up their remarkable start to the tour by beating Northampton 32-0. 

 

The day arrived and what the local press described as 'the largest ever gathering at Welford Road', estimated at 16,000, saw another thrilling display of attacking rugby, New Zealand winning 28-0. 

 

Here's a couple of fine action shots from the game:

 

 

Just like in Bristol a week before, it must have been hard for sports lovers to choose between the rugby and the football. Leicester Fosse were playing at home, and while unlike Bristol City, we had not made a good start to the season, the attractiveness of the fixture was provided by the opposition.

 

A brand new club had just been formed in London, and they were visiting Leicester for the first time. This was 'Chelsea Football Club', who had hurriedly brought together a host of well-known stars to try and achieve instant success.

 

The biggest star, in every sense,  was William 'Fatty' Foulke, the famous goalkeeper, who weighed over 20 stone (almost certainly more than anyone in action at Welford Road that day).

 

 

 

This was how the local press saw it:

 

The appearance of Foulke, the biggest goalkeeper in the world, considerably increased the attendance, and those who went to see him perform got good value for money. His bulky figure reduced the space at which the Fosse had to shoot, and the ability with which he intercepted the ball when it did not go straight towards him was remarkable. 

 

Chelsea won 1-0 and would spend the season chasing Bristol City at the top of the table, ultimately finishing just out of the promotion places in third. They realised for the first, but not last time, that it takes more than just throwing money at the problem.

 

Leicester Fosse struggled to make any impression throughout the autumn and winter. The next visitors to Filbert Street were - Bristol CIty, and they kept their run going with a 2-1 victory.  As you'll recall from the last story, that run ended with our shock win at Ashton Gate in February.

 

The All Blacks, as they gradually came to be known, continued their remarkable progress around the UK, steamrollering everyone in sight - apart from Wales, who beat them 3-0  in what has been called 'The Match of the Century'.

 

So that's how the rugby and football narratives intertwined back in 1905. 

 

Bristol City were unbeaten throughout the whole four month span of the All Blacks' UK tour, and now, in 2023, Leicester City have won every League game they have played during the seven weeks the Rugby World Cup has been in progress.  Let's hope we can still say that on Saturday night.

 

Fortunately for those who love both codes, there will be no agonizing choice. There's time to get back from Loftus Road and see the Final at 8pm.

Edited 25 October 2023 by kushiro

[ultrafox]

Some nice research and interesting events there. A 20 stone goalkeeper for Chelsea.   keeping a clean sheet because he filled the goal .

[davieG]

1 hour ago, kushiro said:

This was 'Chelsea Football Club', who had hurriedly brought together a host of well-known stars to try and achieve instant success.

 

1 hour ago, kushiro said:

They realised for the first, but not last time, that it takes more than just throwing money at the problem.

History often repeats it self.

[MPH]

5 hours ago, ultrafox said:

Some nice research and interesting events there. A 20 stone goalkeeper for Chelsea.   keeping a clean sheet because he filled the goal .

 

 

I read some time ago that Foulkes once ate the food that was intended for both teams. Infact, he is accredited with being the person ' who ate all the pies" was first song at

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Ate_All_the_Pies%3F

[ultrafox]

49 minutes ago, MPH said:

 

 

I read some time ago that Foulkes once ate the food that was intended for both teams. Infact, he is accredited with being the person ' who ate all the pies" was first song at

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Ate_All_the_Pies%3F

Brilliant.  I love it! 

 

Who'd have thought the chant was first sung in 1894 . 

 

.......though as they say later in the wiki...it can't have been to the tune of  Knees up Mother Brown, as that originated in 1918

Edited 25 October 2023 by ultrafox

[WigstonWanderer]

Do you know what the scoring system for rugby was in those days? If I remember correctly it was 3 points for a try and 1 for a conversion by the time I started playing at school in the late sixties.

[kushiro]

Just discovered something else - after that weekend of Tigers v NZ and Fosse v Chelsea, the rugby tourists' next game was four days later - at Stamford Bridge. 

 

Fine shot of the game here, with Chelsea's first Main Stand not yet ready. Unlike most main stands, it was built facing not east but west, so spectators had to face the afternoon sun.

 

 

New Zealand won 34-0. 

Edited 25 October 2023 by kushiro

[kushiro]

5 hours ago, WigstonWanderer said:

Do you know what the scoring system for rugby was in those days? If I remember correctly it was 3 points for a try and 1 for a conversion by the time I started playing at school in the late sixties.

Seems it was three for a try, two for a conversion. Four for a dropped goal. But the terminology was different.

 

NZ 28 Leicester 0 was 'five goals and a try' - which meant five converted tries and one unconverted try. If you converted a try it became a 'goal'. 

 

Clear as mud!

[kushiro]

We've not got a very good record in matches played on the same day as the Rugby World Cup Final. Five games played, only one win. But that win contains one of the most thrilling counter attacks ever seen. 

 

 

October 31st 2015. 

[kushiro]

On 25/10/2023 at 22:47, ultrafox said:

Who'd have thought the chant was first sung in 1894 . 

 

.......though as they say later in the wiki...it can't have been to the tune of  Knees up Mother Brown, as that originated in 1918

Ha ha!  Facts getting in the way of a good story again.