Extract from Epilogue: ‘The ghosts of football past’ | Mudball in Harrow
These, so I am told, are perfect conditions for Harrow football. It is strangely mild for January, with rain falling intermittently, but the last few days have seen an almost constant downpour. On the Hemstall Fields, a long downhill trudge away from the school buildings, the ground is as boggy as anything I can remember. These fields form a part of the school’s farm, and they have the cow-pats to prove it.
Harrow football recently lost its ‘major’ status among the school’s sporting activities, displaced by soccer. Perhaps it was inevitable that the opportunities for inter-school play provided by soccer and rugby would push the old game aside, even if it did take nearly a century and a half (the Harrow football school XI can play only against old-boy teams, such as an Oxford University side who visited recently). But, whatever its official status, Harrow football is thriving. There is huge enthusiasm for the game, and around 350 pupils – nearly half of the school – are taking to the mud on this Sunday afternoon to play in three competitions.
Top of the bill is the inter-house tournament, now at the end of its initial round-robin stage. This is the same competition that Charles Alcock played in, back in the 1850s, and which was almost certainly an influence when he dreamt up the FA Cup in 1871. I catch the first half of a match between the strong Moretons House team and the less-fancied West Acre, before wandering off to see some action in another set of playing fields (stupidly clambering over a mud-caked stile to get there), returning later to see Moretons complete a convincing win.
For the first few minutes of play, to these untrained eyes, it is difficult to work out what on earth is going on, even after studying the rules and hearing so much about the game. It seems as if nobody quite knows what they are trying to do, as the ball bobbles back and forth repeatedly between opposing players. Soon, though, it starts to make sense.
Harrow football recently lost its ‘major’ status among the school’s sporting activities, displaced by soccer. Perhaps it was inevitable that the opportunities for inter-school play provided by soccer and rugby would push the old game aside, even if it did take nearly a century and a half (the Harrow football school XI can play only against old-boy teams, such as an Oxford University side who visited recently). But, whatever its official status, Harrow football is thriving. There is huge enthusiasm for the game, and around 350 pupils – nearly half of the school – are taking to the mud on this Sunday afternoon to play in three competitions.
Top of the bill is the inter-house tournament, now at the end of its initial round-robin stage. This is the same competition that Charles Alcock played in, back in the 1850s, and which was almost certainly an influence when he dreamt up the FA Cup in 1871. I catch the first half of a match between the strong Moretons House team and the less-fancied West Acre, before wandering off to see some action in another set of playing fields (stupidly clambering over a mud-caked stile to get there), returning later to see Moretons complete a convincing win.
For the first few minutes of play, to these untrained eyes, it is difficult to work out what on earth is going on, even after studying the rules and hearing so much about the game. It seems as if nobody quite knows what they are trying to do, as the ball bobbles back and forth repeatedly between opposing players. Soon, though, it starts to make sense.