Beschreibung:

AN IMPORTANT POCKET JOURNAL FROM 1870/71 RELATING TO CLAPHAM ROVERS, THE HISTORIC SPORTS CLUB, WITH HANDWRITTEN ENTRIES BY REG BIRKETT (1849-1898)Reg Birkett documents matches played in season 1870/71 by Clapham Rovers, revealing the chaotic nature of Victorian sport as players juggled between Rugby football and Association football. The 1870/71 season was crucial to the future of both sports. The journal with leather hardcover & lined paper, 15.5 x 10.5cms. in excellent condition. Entries in handwritten ink and newspaper reports. To accompany, a photocopy of the Rugby Football Union First General Meeting, 1871. The 1st page within the journal inscribed ‘Clapham Cricket Club Matches, 1867’ then 20 or so pages with opposing cricket clubs to be played against by Clapham, together with players for the fixture, and location of venue. From page 24- 34 these fixtures are repeated in much the same way, except with comments as to the outcome of the match. There also some changes to the previously selected players. We do not believe this part of the journal involved Reg Birkett.Entries relating to Clapham Rovers begin on P.38, as follows;‘Clapham Rovers / foot-ball club / Captain – R H Birkett / Committee – A Nash, J Field, A W French, E Field, E C Lygath (?), W R Bryden, A Luzzer (?) / Secretary & Treasurer W E Rawlinson / Season 1870-71’.The next pages lists the ‘Addresses of secretaries not on the foot-ball association’ with addresses for the following representatives / Sydenham – R W Abbott / Hornsey – E N Alfie (?) / Lausanne – F H Moore (?) / Mohicans – Geo Ellis (?) / Harlequins – E Ellice Clark /Brighton - Walter Foster (?) /Barnes – Walter Powell’ The next entries are ‘Members Playing Rugby Rules’ with R, P & L (Reg, Percival and Louis) Birkett at the top. Then following this is a list of ‘Association Rules’ with R & P Birkett as the second entries on the list.Then ‘A good Association team to play against first rate club like Charterhouse & Wanderers’ with Reg Birkett at top of this page suggesting he would be the first on the team-sheet if all available. Evidently Reg is now club-captain so receives the journal and the remaining pages are handwritten by the 21-year-old. Each page Reg includes a match fixture, the venue, Rovers’ selected players, and the outcome of match with comments, usually with a cut-out newspaper report. The matches are divided using ‘rugby’ rules and using ‘association rules’. 42 fixtures entered, 22 for the Rugby fashion, the remainder for Association code. Note that some of these entries were not played. Reg Birkett was in the team for 27 matches, mostly as captain (top of team-list). Many of the opponents were inaugural members of the 1st Rugby Union, ie. Richmond, Gipsies, Harlequins, Ravenscourt Park, Lausanne, Civil Service, Marlborough Nomads & Mohicans. There is evidence of the frustrations of acting as club captain during this period - many of the fixture dates having the two codes played on the same day. Adding to Reg’s problems would have been that 13 matches were called off (the winter of ‘70/71 was cold). Two other fixtures were called off as one of the sides could not raise the numbers. While on Feb’ 18th, with resonance to present times, a clash against Wimbledon was off ‘on account of vaccination’ (likely to be smallpox vaccination). The 1870 / 71 season was a critical season for the future of ‘foot-ball’ and especially that in the Rugby School tradition. Rugby until 1871 had been played to various rules. But in 1870 Edwin H Ash, secretary of Richmond Football Club wrote a letter to the newspapers stating, ‘those who play the Rugby-type game should meet to form a code of practice, as various clubs play to rules which differ from others, which makes the game difficult to play.’ So, 32 members of London and suburban football clubs gathered on the evening of 26th January, 1871, in the Pall Mall Restaurant, London, ‘to codify the rules of the game and to provide a central governing body.’ At