Something to Shout About E-Book

Tim Barnard

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 653

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Forest Green Rovers have risen through the ranks to reach the pinnacle of non-League football. As founder members of the Mid-Gloucestershire League in 1894 – the first football league in Gloucestershire outside of Bristol – they have always been forward looking. Their rise has not always been smooth but the ambition of those involved with the club has seen them through and they are now the longest-serving members of the Conference National. This comprehensive history of Forest Green Rovers looks back at the highs and lows of their 125-year existence, right up to the start of the 2014/15 campaign. Taking in the glory of cup wins, promotion campaigns and the drama of several last-minute escapes from relegation– not to mention 1982's FA Vase win – it will delight Rovers fans of all ages and prove just why the Rovers have something to shout about.

Leseprobe

All Royalties from the sale of this book are donated to Forest Green Rovers Football Club.

Acknowledgements

My wife Sue and my kids, Catherine and Isabelle. All those who have helped behind the scenes including Richard Grant, Tom Vick, the late Roy Close, Colin Timbrell and Heather Cook. Bruce Fenn, Shane Healey and The Citizen for the photographs. All of those who have contributed their stories, and, of course, Trevor Horsley and Colin Peake for getting the club to a position that required its history to be told. And to Dale Vince for stepping in and taking over Forest Green Rovers again.

CONTENTS

Title

Dedication

Introduction

Acknowledgements

PART I: 1889-1919

1 Where is Forest Green?

2 ‘Rugby’ Rules and ‘Association’ Rules

3 ‘Socker’ Comes to Forest Green: 1889-1894

4 The Mid-Gloucestershire League: 1894-1899

5 A New Century with the Red and Whites: 1899-1905

6 Not so Hot on the Football Front: 1905-1911

7 Nailsworth and Forest Green United: 1911-1914

PART II: 1919-1945

8 A New Beginning for Forest Green Rovers: 1919-1922

9 A Countywide Competition: 1922-1926

10 County Cup Success: 1926-1936

11 A Great Leap Forward: 1936-1939

12 The War Years: 1939-1945

PART III: 1945-1975

13 Post-War Success: 1945-1950

14 The Start of the 1950s: 1950-1955

15 Under New Management: 1955-1968

16 The County League: 1968-1975

PART IV: 1975-2006

17 The Hellenic League: 1975-1981

18 Double Success – The Vase and the League: 1981-1982

19 Another Step Forward in the Southern League: 1982-1988

20 Stroud FC: 1988-1992

21 The Rovers Return: 1992-1996

22 Reach for the Top: 1996-1998

23 The Conference: 1998-2006

24 Life at The New Lawn 2006-2014

25 The Future

FGR Statistics in The Conference 1998-2014

Bibliography

Image sources

Copyright

Introduction

This is the story of the ‘Friendly Club on the Hill’, Forest Green Rovers, founded in 1889. The history of other local clubs, including Shortwood FC, Stroud Rugby Club, Stroud AFC and Nailsworth AFC are also touched on in this book.

From the first reported match, the club has risen through the ranks to reach the pinnacle of non-league football. Forest Green Rovers were founder members of the Mid-Gloucestershire League in 1894, the first football league in Gloucestershire outside Bristol and, since that date, have always been forward-looking. Their rise has not always been smooth, but the ambition of those involved with the club has always seen it through.

A major step forward was taken in 1936 when the football club attended an auction, bid for and secured a ground of its own. The club will be forever indebted to Mr Owen Davis, a successful Nailsworth businessman and nineteenth-century player, who loaned the club the money to pay for the ground.

The dedicated band of officials and supporters, who have invested considerable amounts of their own time, money and energy in The Lawn, have been repaid as their club has continuously risen through the ranks. The result has been the creation of a football club with first-class facilities, admired throughout Gloucestershire and beyond.

The club moved forward after the Second World War under the chairmanship of first Peter Vick and then John Duff, winning the FA Vase in 1982 and gaining promotion to the Southern League. Following a disastrous name change to Stroud FC in 1989, the club reverted to the name of Forest Green Rovers in 1992 and entered a new phase in its history under the guidance of Trevor Horsley, another ambitious and forward-looking chairman.

Trevor Horsley oversaw the relocation of FGR to its new stadium in 2006 before handing over the reins to Dale Vince in 2010, with the club now looking to progress once again on and off the pitch. This second edition of the book has been published to coincide with the 125th anniversary of the football club.

Part I

1889-1919

1

Where is Forest Green?

Forest Green is a long-established community situated on the hill above Nailsworth, near Stroud in Gloucestershire. It is not in the Forest of Dean and nowhere near Forest Row, Forest Gate or any other forest. It isn’t in Surrey, as the Worksop Town Supporters’ Club found out when they arrived at Forest Green near Gatwick Airport a few years ago for an FA Trophy tie against Rovers. It isn’t on many maps either.

The Origins of Forest Green

Back in the 1500s, the Nailsworth Valley and the surrounding hills were covered with woodland, with the odd mill in the valley bottoms below and no appreciable settlement. In 1598 (and again in 1685) the persecution of the Huguenots in France caused a large number to flee to England with many settling in the Stroud Valleys, where their skills in the manufacture of cloth were put to good use. Names such as Marmont, Malpas, Clutterbuck and Freem can all be traced directly to these settlers.

The history of Forest Green really starts in 1662, when around 2,000 clergymen refused to sign an act of religious conformity and were ejected from the Church. Many carried on their ministry as Nonconformists, wherever they could find a safe place. A place was found in a clearing at Colliers Wood in Forest Green and the Nonconformists worshipped here from the 1660s until the first chapel was built at Forest Green in 1687. The Act of Uniformity was repealed in 1689. Forest Green was the earliest dissenting chapel to be set up in the area, and it was registered in 1690. It is from Forest Green and Shortwood that nearby Nailsworth’s development as a town can be traced.

The area known today as Nailsworth consisted of the outer reaches of three different parishes. Forest Green itself was in the parish of Avening, neighbouring Shortwood was in Horsley Parish, and Watledge in the parish of Minchinhampton. A Baptist chapel was eventually built in Shortwood in 1837 and, by 1840, the congregation numbered nearly 700, including most of the principal mill owners in the area.

Forest Green.

The first school open to the public in the area was started in Forest Green chapel in 1773, two years before a similar school was founded in Gloucester, with a further Baptist school in Shortwood by 1785. New mills were built from around 1780 in the valley bottom served by the new Turnpike Road, which ran along the line of the current A46 from Nailsworth to Stroud. With time, the two communities of Shortwood and Forest Green expanded down the hill and into the valley. Shortwood Baptist church was physically moved down into Nailsworth in 1881 and is now known as Christchurch. By the late 1800s the town of Nailsworth, into which Shortwood and Forest Green had expanded, replaced Minchinhampton as the chief town in the area. It had a thriving brewery from 1820, famous for a strong stout, with pubs including the Foston’s Ash at Birdlip, among many others.

Tithe maps of Forest Green and Shortwood, 1840. Field reference 1260, called Two Acres, was the site of The Lawn, until 2006. Hurdle Ground, 973, and Tanners Piece, 822, were both owned by Forest Green Congregational church, just about the right sizes for a football pitch. The parish boundary between Avening and Horsley ran at the back of Two Acre Field. Forest Green and lower Nailsworth were in the parish of Avening. Shortwood was in the parish of Horsley.

Ordinance Survey map, 1902. Not as built up as it is today. Field 358 was the site of The Lawn until 2006.

The railway arrived in the town in 1867. The Church of England made Nailsworth a parish in its own right in 1892 and it became an urban district authority in 1894, both after the formation of Forest Green Rovers FC. Today, half of the 6,000 population of Nailsworth now lives up on the hill in Forest Green, a vast increase from the 300 or so people living there in 1861.

2

‘Rugby’ Rules and ‘Association’ Rules

In the early 1800s in Britain, football as an organised sport was a public-school affair. In the absence of any official rules of the game, two styles of play emerged: football (where the ball could only be kicked and dribbled) and rugby football (where the ball could be handled and carried). Rugby football is said to have originated at Rugby School in Warwickshire in 1923, when a pupil named William Webb Ellis picked up the ball during a game of football and ran with it. Soon after, in August 1845, pupils from the school wrote up the first set of official rules of the game, which boosted the sport’s popularity. Three years later, Cambridge University compiled a new set of rules known as the ‘Cambridge Rules’, which stressed kicking over carrying, but were not widely adopted. Football’s popularity gradually grew, and in 1855 the first non-school football club, Sheffield FC, came into existence. Notts County, the earliest surviving professional football club, was formed in 1862, and by 1863 a sufficient number of organisations were playing some form of football. The rise of the sport’s popularity meant that the lack of nationally recognised rules was becoming a problem.

Influenced by the Cambridge Rules, the Football Association was formed at a meeting in October of 1863 by Forest (soon to change their name to Wanderers), NN (No Names) Kilburn, Barnes, War Office, Crusaders, Percival House, Blackheath, Crystal Palace, Kensington School, Surbiton and Blackheath School, and the first priority was to establish and finalise the rules of football for all members to abide by. Below is printed the original set of rules:

First ‘Football Association’ Laws, 1863

1. The maximum length of the ground shall be 200 yards, the maximum breadth shall be 100 yards, the length and breadth shall be marked off with flags; and the goal shall be defined by two upright posts, 8 yards apart, without any tape or bar across them.

2. A toss for goals shall take place, and the game shall be commenced by a place kick from the centre of the ground by the side losing the toss for goals; the other side shall not approach within 10 yards of the ball until it is kicked off.

3. After a goal is won, the losing side shall be entitled to kick off, and the two sides shall change goals after each goal is won.

4. A goal shall be won when the ball passes between the goalposts or over the space between the goalposts (at whatever height), not being thrown, knocked on or carried.

5. When the ball is in touch, the first player who touches it shall throw it from the point on the boundary line where it left the ground in the direction at right angles with the boundary line, and the ball shall not be in play until it has touched the ground.

6. When a player has kicked the ball, any one of the same side who is nearer to the opponent’s goal-line is out of play and may not touch the ball itself, nor in any way what ever prevent any other player from doing so, until he is in play; but no player is out of play when the ball is kicked off from behind the goal-line.

7. In case the ball goes behind the goal line, if a player on the side to whom the goal belongs first touches the ball, one of his side shall be entitled to a free kick from the goal-line at the point opposite the place where the ball shall be touched. If a player of the opposite side first touches the ball, one of his side shall be entitled to a free kick at goal only from 15 yards outside the goal-line, opposite the place where the ball is touched, the opposing side standing within their goal-line until he has had his kick.

8. If a player makes a fair catch, he shall be entitled to a free kick; providing he claims it by making a mark with his heel at once; and in order to take such a kick he may go back as far as he pleases, and no player on the opposite side shall advance beyond his mark until he has kicked.

9. No player shall run with the ball.

10. Neither tripping nor hacking shall be allowed, and no player shall use his hands to hold or push his adversary.

11. A player shall not be allowed to throw the ball or pass it to another with his hands.

12. No player shall be allowed to take the ball from the ground with his hands under any pretext whatever while it is in play.

13. No player shall be allowed to wear projecting nails, iron plates, gutta-percha on the soles or heels of his boots.

The rules made it clear that the ball was not to be handled, and that ‘hacking’ was forbidden, and this led to many clubs refusing the join the FA, instead leaving to form the Rugby Football Union. ‘Association Football’ was born, but the game in the 1860s was still a far cry from soccer today, and would have appeared more akin to rugby football.

Forest Green in 1861

In 1861 the total population of the hamlets of Upper Forest Green, Lower Forest Green, Dunkirk, Inchbrook and Northfields numbered 580. The community had, for many years, if not centuries, been held together by their religious beliefs and their involvement in the local wool industry. Of the 580 people recorded in the 1861 census, nearly 200 people were actively employed as clothiers, weavers, shoddy manufacturers, dyers, wool-spinners and the like. The dyers would hang their cloth out on ‘tenterhooks’ to dry in the sun on the valley sides, making life a colourful experience. Around 100 people worked at home, as they had done for centuries before, while others were employed in the local wool and flock mills in the valley below.

Forty-two people were involved with agriculture and forty-five worked as servants. The residents included eighty-one-year-old army pensioner John Guy, three Almsmen and an Almswoman, a turnpike gatekeeper and two people of independent money. One hundred and twelve of the 580 people recorded were scholars, a tribute to the Non-Conformist tradition of education of the youth. Five people in the census are listed as schoolmistresses. The oldest working woman at that time was Ann Vizard who, at seventy-eight years old, was still employed as a woollen spinner.

The population would never be thirsty: there were six beer houses for the population of less than 600 in the hamlets, including the New Inn, which was one of thirty pubs owned by the Minchinhampton Forewood Brewery. The pub was soon to be renamed the Jovial Forester and is the only one of the original six pubs to survive today.

Pointing to the industrial times ahead, twelve people in 1861 were working in the local pin and zinc factory run by Mr Marmont. Names that crop up in the history of Forest Green Rovers also show up in the May 1861 census, including Furley, Evans, Tanner, Gardner, Teakle, Brinkworth, Marmont, Horwood, Iles, Dyer, Smith, Bruton, Walkley, Donohue, Harrison, Herbert, Burford, Clift, Mills, Close, Fletcher, Marks, Hill and many others.

An early photograph of the Jovial Forester pub. The date is not known but it was probably around the turn of the century. Joe and Gary Brown, stalwarts of the Forest Green team from 1911 onwards, lived in the cottages which were demolished to form the modern-day car park for the pub.

The Development of the Association Rules National Game

Away from Gloucestershire, the national Association Rules Football scene was developing rapidly. The Football Association had been formed in 1863 and received a major boost when the Sheffield Association clubs joined in 1870. Until that time, they had played to their own ‘Sheffield’ rules, as was the case with many other areas which played under their own local rules.

Early Association Rules Football favoured a playing formation of a goalkeeper, full-back, half-back and eight forwards. The full-back kicked the ball quickly up the field where the forwards would then play in a close pack, backing up the man on the ball, who could then dribble the ball at his discretion. Heading and short passing were introduced by the Northern Associations. The FA Cup was first played for in 1871 with few clubs competing. It was not unusual at this time for two semi-finals to be played simultaneously on adjacent pitches. However, by 1878, the game’s popularity within the working classes meant a vast increase in spectators, and sparked the formation of many new clubs in large and small towns across the country. Growing demand for the game as a form of entertainment led to organisers being able to charge the public for entry. This in turn raised funds for the larger clubs, who were encouraged to seek out ‘professors’ of the game. These players were often imported from other regions, primarily Scotland. Until this time, the game had been almost completely amateur, played by people from each club’s own locality.

By 1883, Preston North End was known to be paying some of their players up to £1,200 per year, a fortune at the time. This led to outcry from other clubs and supporters who condemned the teams with paid players. The Football Association could no longer ignore the situation and, at the end of 1884, matters were brought to a head when a group of the Northern Clubs threatened to break away from the FA and form a British National Football Association if professionalism within football was not legalised. In July 1885, in order to avoid the breakaway, the FA accepted professionalism. All matches were termed either cup matches, where teams would either play in the FA Cup or in the County Cups, or ordinary matches where a fixture list would be prepared for a series of friendly games between chosen teams. There were still no leagues but the fixture list was becoming more and more complicated to organise, which prompted a meeting to be held in Manchester on 17 April 1888, and from this the Football League came into being.

Further skills that started to emerge in the game at this time included the use of wingers to ‘middle’ the ball into the goal area. A new team formation had also emerged, consisting of a goalkeeper, two full-backs, three half-backs and five forwards.

Sport in Gloucestershire

In 1862, Dr H.M. Grace urged the establishment of a county cricket club in Gloucestershire and, in 1868, a first-class game was played against the MCC at Lord’s, ending in a fine victory for Gloucestershire by 134 runs. Gloucestershire County Cricket Club was formally founded in 1870 with Dr H.M. Grace as treasurer. Gloucestershire’s opening first-class county match was against Surrey, who they beat by 51 runs with a team that included E.M. Grace, W.G. Grace and G.F. Grace, all sons of Dr H.M. Grace. It was very much a family affair.

By 1870, the game of Rugby Rules football was also very popular in Gloucestershire. Painswick Rugby Club is the oldest village rugby club in England, a fact commemorated in the Museum of Rugby at Twickenham. Gloucester Rugby Club was started in 1873, although the first season when records were kept was 1879–80, and Stroud Rugby Club was also formed in 1873.

The first recorded Association Rules football match in Gloucestershire took place in 1882 between two Bristol clubs, St George and Warmley, and in March 1883 Warmley also met Wotton-under-Edge, soon to be one of Forest Green’s regular opponents. Later in 1883, two further clubs were formed in the Bristol area, the Black Arabs and Clifton.

The Gloucestershire Football Association was formed in September 1886 by Clifton, Warmley, St George and Eastville Rovers (the Black Arabs changed their name to Eastville Rovers, and then Bristol Rovers in 1898). The first County Cup competition was held in 1887 and 2,000 spectators watched the final on the Downs, the match being drawn. Mr W.G. Grace was one of the two umpires assisting the referee. Clifton won after a replay.

It was into this footballing environment that the minister of Forest Green Congregationalist church launched his football team late in 1889.

3

‘Socker’ Comes to Forest Green: 1889–1894

‘Association Rules Football’ was a bit of a mouthful for journalists, and a shortened version ‘Assoc Rules’ soon appeared, which was then shortened to ‘socker’ and then to today’s ‘soccer’.

First Signs of the Forest Green Rovers: 1889

Despite still being officially made up from the back end of the parishes of Horsley, Avening and Minchinhampton, Nailsworth was feeling optimistic in 1889 and looking forward to recognition as a parish and a district council. In its ‘Notes from Nailsworth’ section, on 25 October 1889, the Stroud News reported the following:

Nailsworth is looking up. This phrase has been applied to Nailsworth so many times that to use it once more would certainly not be out of place. The young men especially seem to be well catered for. Here within the last week or two the Reverend E.J.H. Peach of Forest Green has started a night school for their special benefit, and with a staff of energetic assistants has created no small amount of interest among the large number of his younger Congregational friends.

The same gentleman has also started a football club. Several years have elapsed since there was a club of this description in the neighbourhood, which perhaps accounts for the enthusiasm with which the game has been taken up. This, unlike the lads’ reading room just started by the Nailsworth incumbent, and held every Monday and Friday in the parish room, is not restricted to sex, and there is but little doubt if any of the feminine gender evinced a desire to join, neither the members nor the captain would raise an objection – the other way round, perhaps.

This is the first reference to a football team at Forest Green that has been found to date. It says that ‘it is some years since a club of the same description existed in the neighbourhood’. If one did exist, it would most likely have been a Rugby Rules football club rather than an Association Rules club. The search goes on for earlier references and for whether any ladies did play the game back in 1889.

The 1 November 1889 issue of the same newspaper states:

Nailsworth has started a club

and on 8 November 1889 ‘Half-back’ records:

So Nailsworth have forsaken their first love, and taken on with the non-handling code.

It is not surprising that the Football Club was set up by the local church. In Victorian times, the changes brought about by the onset of the Industrial Revolution and the phenomenal number of pubs in the area, meant that the Church was very keen to ensure that young men did not err from a righteous path. More than half of the teams now playing football in the Premiership were also started by local ministers and churches across the country. Football was seen as a way to keep young men occupied and to provide an entertaining outlet for both players and spectators alike.

The findings of the 1891 census for Forest Green are very different from those thirty years before, in every way except the population count, which was 590 in 1861 and 589 in 1891. Outwardly, little had changed, but the occupations of those living in Forest Green were now very different. Only seventeen of the 589 inhabitants were recorded as cloth workers, wool sorters, weavers and the like. New occupations included stick makers (at the local umbrella factory), tinplate workers, timber cutters, carpenters, a bookmaker, photographer and a travelling hawker. Three people were employed on the railway, with many other occupations similar to those found today, too numerous to mention. The revolution had hit Forest Green and Nailsworth below, where many new industries had sprung up in the old wool mills, now put to different uses. The old clothiers’ and weavers’ way of life, hard but simple, were almost gone forever, but the number of scholars and schoolmistresses was still very similar to that from 1861.

The Jovial Forester, which was to become the home of Forest Green Rovers for more than seventy-five years, was recorded as the New Inn in 1861, but had been renamed by 1871. The landlord and landlady were George and Kozia Brinkworth, the pub continuing with Kozia as landlady into the late 1880s. It may not be a coincidence that the Brinkworth family ran the pub for around thirty years just prior to the formation of the club and that the first recorded team in 1893 had three members of the extended Brinkworth family playing for it.

‘Socker’ Rules

By 1889, the Football Association’s rules had changed slightly. Some are more recognisable as rules used today, whereas others still sound more like the Rugby Rules game:

A goal shall be won when the ball has passed between the goalposts under the bar, not being thrown, knocked on, or carried by any one of the attacking side.

No player shall carry, knock on, or handle the ball and any pretence whatever, except in the case of the goalkeeper, who within his own half of the ground, shall be allowed to use his hands in defence of his goal, either by knocking on or throwing, but not carrying the ball. The goalkeeper may be changed during the game, but not more than one player shall act as goalkeeper at the same time.

In no case shall the goal be scored from any free kick.

No player shall wear any nails, excepting such as have their heads driven in flush with the leather, or iron plates, or gutta-percha on the soles or heels of his boots or in his shin guards.

Each of the competing clubs shall be entitled to appoint an umpire, whose duty it shall be to decide all disputed points when appealed to; and by mutual arrangement a referee may be chosen to decide in all cases of difference between the umpires.

In 1889, in the Football League, Preston North End became the first league champions and won the FA Cup, becoming the first team to do the double. Other clubs formed in 1889 included Sheffield United, Brentford and Wimbledon FC.

The State of the Local ‘Football’ Game in 1889

On 8 November 1889, the Stroud Journal reported Rugby Rules football matches between Farmhill and Dursley, Lydney and Stroud and Painswick and Cheltenham Town (this was definitely a Rugby Rules fixture). Both the Stroud News and also the Stroud Journal included the following identical reports and letters on a match between Farmhill and Dursley:

The match resulted in a draw, each side scoring a try and a minor. Play was very even, Dursley scoring a try towards the latter end of the first half. In the second-half Farmhill was awarded a free-kick in front of the goal, when the greater part of the Dursley men unaccountably left the field, still wanting five minutes to time. By the direction of the umpires and the referee, the kick was made, and resulted in a try.

Simple. A drawn match. But on 15 November 1889, the following letter was published:

Sir, the account in your last week’s paper re the football match, Farmhill v. Dursley, is very imperfect and needs correction ... At the commencement of the game I compared my watch with the Referee’s but when time should have been called, the referee insisted on playing another five minutes. The Referee granted a ‘free kick’ for ‘handball’ to the home team, but this was a wrong decision, and a ‘scrum’ ought to have been formed, as only in the case of the ‘lineout’ is the ‘free’ taken for ‘handball’.

Owing to the eccentric and partial habits of the Referee, the visitors lost many points, but succeeded in fairly defeating their opponents by one try and one minor to nil.

Kindly publish above in your next issue and oblige,

Yours obediently, W. E.Loxton, Junr. The Dursley Umpire.

Shortwood in the 1890s, looking across to Forest Green. The above photograph is taken from below the current Shortwood United ground and looks across the Newmarket Valley with Forest Green at the top of the hill in the background.

Everybody knew the rules better than the referee, even in 1889! The argument continued on 22 November 1889:

Sir, Mr Loxton, the Dursley umpire impunes the correctness of the reporting of your valuable paper, and accuses me of partiality in the game. He says that a free kick was granted for handball; in this he is incorrect: the kick was awarded not for handball, but for offside.

I would remind Mr Loxton that the club he had the honour of representing has already obtained a considerable notoriety with local teams on account of the entirely new meaning they ascribe to certain rules when the game is going against them. Indeed, it is a common bye-word among footballers in this neighbourhood that it is not’ Rugby’ but ‘Dursley’ rules when playing this particular club. Trusting you will do me the favour to insert this,

I remain yours truly, Frederick Elliott, Referee FFC

Was the referee right or wrong? Most likely, it depends on whether you supported Dursley or Farmhill. Whatever the case, it is clear that football was as hotly debated a subject then as it is now.

The First County Matches in Gloucestershire – W.G. Grace and Football

The first president of the Gloucestershire Football Association in 1886 was Mr W.G. Grace and Gloucestershire’s second ever Association rules county match was reported in the Stroud News on 8 November 1889, against Wiltshire:

The match ended as disastrously as the first one this season, only the beating was a trifle more severe. In being able to draw nearly the whole of their team from the Swindon Town club, the Wiltshire authorities are extremely lucky and the easy victory of their eleven on Saturday was due to this fact …

Swindon Town were a well-established club by that time, having been formed in 1881 when the Reverend W. Pitt formed a club for the town’s railway workers. They were still an amateur team, not turning professional until they became founder members of the Southern League in 1894. They then played continuously in the Southern League until it was absorbed as the Football League Third Division (South) in 1920.

On the cricket scene, Dr W.G. Grace was still going strong, having been a founder member of Gloucestershire County Cricket club some twenty years previously. In October 1891 the Stroud News stated:

Dr W. G. Grace has replied as follows to a correspondent who inquired whether there was any foundation for the report that he did not intend to take any active part in first-class cricket in England:- ‘I have no more intention of giving up cricket than I had 20 years ago.’

And so on he batted and in 1896, as usual, cricket was the game of choice in the summer, with Gloucestershire playing on the County Ground against Sussex and winning by an innings and 123 runs. W.G. Grace was out for 301 while W.G. Grace Junior, was out for 1. At that time W.G. Grace’s innings was only the sixth of over 300 that had ever been made in first-class cricket, the highest being 424 while other innings of 344 and 318 were both from his bat in 1876, twenty years previously. The following rhyme was published in his honour in the local papers:

Not for strength alone, provide power to ‘place’

Thy stalwart form, by quick resource, O ‘Grace’

A nation agreed to be with its tribute praise,

And crowns the champion with Olympic Bays

Not for thine heart at ‘point’ thy subtle skill

To vary the pace and pitch and twist at will

Not for thy giant drives and sure defence

Though all accord thee proud pre-eminence

Not for thy scores; though this our century dies

Envious at thy long role of ‘centuries’

Oh high acclaim bids praise spontaneous wing

O Peerless amid ‘Lords’ O Cricket King !

Tis thine endurance and the power ‘to stay’

Keeps green as Gloucester’s sward thy fame for aye.

Oh for a nation with thy courage, will,

Thy heart undaunted and thy ready skill!

The boldness that would ever first confront,

And at the dangerous onset bear the brunt

The thews of steel, the grip, the Lion heart,

A leader still, e’en in subordinate part,

The eye to mark with eagle glance and swift

The vulnerable points, the armour’s rift!

Oh for a manhood that like thine conserves

Its lusty health, its fire, its iron nerves!

The temperate habits and the vigorous health

A State’s reliance and an empire’s wealth.

By the beginning of the 1890s, plans were well advanced with regard to the creation of the civil parish of Nailsworth. Almost no local Association Rules football was being reported early in the year although problems with the local trains were a popular subject, just as they are today:

Stroud Journal, Friday 11 April 1890

It is rapidly becoming a proverb with Stroud and Nailsworth passengers travelling by a Midland train that it is more wearisome and unpleasant to get the last 4 miles of the return journey than it was, perhaps, to travel the whole portion of the trip besides. Yesterday, for example, myself and about a hundred other passengers were kept waiting a full hour on the platform at Stonehouse Station, on a cold, windy night, and were tantalised by seeing our train standing on a siding nearby, with steam up, ready to start, but didn’t …

I trust, sir, this letter will meet the eye of whoever is responsible for this mismanagement, and that in the future these wearisome delays will be avoided, but if there is no alteration for the better, and if the company persist in neglecting our fair requests to be brought home with reasonable punctuality, then I would recommend my fellow tradesmen to follow my example in the future, and when tempted to go by a Midland excursion remember the hour’s delay at night at Stonehouse and don’t!

I am, serve, yours faithfully EXCURSIONIST

A very early photograph of Nailsworth during the construction of the parish church. A temporary church was erected, which can be seen in the foreground. Forest Green rises to the right of the photograph with Shortwood in the background.

‘Association Rules’ Rears its Head

At the end of March 1891, the Chalford Association football team was reported in a match against Swindon GWR Painters as winning 4-1. The match was not reported in any sports section but under a heading entitled ‘Chalford’ in the ‘District News’ section. A further Chalford win was reported in mid-April against Swindon Temperance, ‘bringing Chalford’s first season to a close’ having played a total of 6 matches, 3 against Swindon teams easily accessible by train. Towards the end of 1891 the Stroud News started to publish a column called ‘Football Gossip (By Olympian)’. On Friday 20 November 1891 the following Football League report was given:

In League matches the greatest surprise of the week was the defeat of Everton by Darwen 3-1. This is a result that requires some explanation other than the vagaries of football form. It is true that the Everton team, who won the league championship last season, are only the shadow of their former selves... the Everton sharp shooters are a long way from their best. The Darwen team thoroughly deserved their victory, which was the result of superior football. In Alexander, Darwen have a first-class centre forward, who can keep his team together as well as score goals.

On the local front, a Forest Green fixture was reported against Brimscombe, Forest Green losing 3-1 on 13 November 1891. On the Rugby Rules front, in late November 1891, Gloucester played Newport, a fixture that had not occurred for three years. A special train was laid on for Newport spectators to travel to Gloucester, resulting in a crowd in excess of 4,000 for the match, which Newport won by a single try having beaten Cardiff the previous week. On the same day, Chalford beat Stroud Casuals 4-1, while in the Football League the Stroud Journal reported:

Notts County defeated Accrington by no fewer than nine goals to nothing but in the previous week Accrington, at home, defeated Notts by two goals to none. There is no accounting for such a variation of form, excepting that most clubs are only seen at their best when cheered on by the encouraging cries of their enthusiastic supporters. To the visiting team, again, this must have a correspondingly depressing effect – which soon tells up on their play, for football, I am convinced, is made up of three-fourths pluck and one fourth skill.

The vocal spectator was having an effect well over 100 years ago!

In December 1891, Stroud Football Club (i.e. rugby club) opened its own clubhouse and also opened up two sides of the ground to spectators, charging 6d and 3d for admission. Off the pitch not much love was lost between the Rugby rules and Association rules fraternities:

Stroud News, Friday 18 December 1891

Now, Mr Editor, I am on the warpath. A few fighting lines. At a public dinner in Stroud last Thursday week a well-known supporter of athletics in this district… went so far out of his way as to make a violent attack on Rugby football … but when he brings forward that silly well-worn ancient joke of the umpire (or his remains) being carried off the field in a bag, let me tell him that incident referred to a game under his pet ‘Association’ rules. As to his general sweeping comments on bad language, rough play etc etc coolly ascribing all these to the Rugby game, nobody who knows anything of football will hesitate to say that rough play, broken bones, referee baiting, fighting, gambling etc in connection with the ‘Association’ game far exceeds the records of the ‘Rugby’ code. He made some remark as to putting his views before the public. Let him do so, and if you can find room for the controversy I shall be pleased to take up the cudgels on behalf of our beloved amateur game under Rugby rules. The following referring to Association appeared on the contents bills of a Nottingham evening paper of Saturday last: Extraordinary scenes at League matches. Stand up fight between Oswald and Drummond. Notts finished with five men. Similar scenes at Burnley.

The First Leagues in Gloucestershire: 1892–1893

The first Association Football League in Gloucestershire came into being in 1892/93, starting life as the Bristol & District League, with nine members, and then changing name to the Western League after three years (it is still in existence today). The South Bristol & District League came into being for the season 1893/94, its first champions being Bristol South, whose imminent collapse would lead to the formation of Bristol South End, later to be renamed Bristol City.

Forest Green Fixtures Come Thick and Fast: 1893–1894

It is clear from the way matches were reported in the early papers that it was the responsibility of the team to provide the report to the paper, rather than the paper sending a reporter. The first descriptive report of a match involving Forest Green, against Chalford, printed in the Stroud Journal on Friday 3 February 1893, proves that match reporting was not at the top of Forest Green’s list of priorities:

Stroud News,Friday 3 February 1893, Forest Green v. Chalford

The return match between these teams took place at Nailsworth on Saturday last. Forest Green kicked off against the wind, when the visitors at once commenced to press, and during the first half scored four goals. They succeeded in adding two more in the second half, thus winning a rather easy game by six goals to nil. The passing among the visiting forwards was the chief feature of the game. The following are the teams.

Chalford: C. Pearce, goal; F. Whiting, E. Kilminster, backs; S. Smith, W. Staddon, J. Ollerenshaw, half-backs; G. Jeffries, C. Liddiatt, C. Bowen, T.H. Workman, H. Whiting, forwards.

Forest Green: F. Brinkworth, goal; E. Allsopp, G. Holt, backs; Mr Harvey, A. Hallem, L. Williams, half-backs; E. Lock, W. Brinkworth, J. Birch, H. Place, W. Browning, forwards.

In early 1893 all matches outside Bristol were still classed as ‘ordinary’ matches because no league existed yet for the teams to compete in. Association matches briefly reported one week earlier in the year included Stroud (Thursday) v. Stonehouse, Stroud Excelsior v. Thrupp, and Chalford v. Stroud Alliance. The Thursday team related to the early closing, or half day given to most trades on a Thursday, similar to the Wednesday given in Sheffield.

The 3 March 1893 paper includes a very long report of Stroud Rugby Club v. Cheltenham, and results of Association matches between Wycliffe College and Marling School Boys’ teams, Wycliffe v. Crypt School Gloucester and Wycliffe Second XI v. Wotton Grammar School. It also includes the following report of the game between Forest Green and Marling School:

Stroud News, 3 March 1893, Association Football, Marling School v. Forest Green

This match was played on Saturday last on the school ground. In the first half the game was fairly even, but shortly before change of ends Mr Richards scored for the school. Playing up the hill, after half-time, the school immediately attacked, and Mr Greenstreet added a second point. Unfortunately, however, he was hurt soon after, and compelled to leave the field. With 10 men only the school held their own, and Mr Bruce scored again with a long shot.

The school thus won by three goals to nil; the following played for the school:

Goal, Davies; backs, Rowlands, Samuel; halves, Hagger, Mr Bruce, Mr Thomas; forwards, Thomas, Ward, Mr Richards, Stone, and Mr Greenstreet.

Marling School opened in 1892 and played Association Rules rather than Rugby Rules for many years in common with many other schools, and included masters as well as pupils in its team. The team in the photograph on the following page were early opponents of Forest Green and Mr Greenstreet, the school’s first headmaster, can be seen second from right, on the back row.

The 7 April 1893 edition of the Stroud Journal includes reports of Stroud Rugby Club’s matches against both Chepstow and Pillgwennly, together with a single Association Rules report of the match between Chalford and Forest Green. Chalford won 3-0. No further Association matches of note can be found until 27 October 1893 where a brief report is given of Forest Green v. Brimscombe:

Marling School Association Football team, 1892/93.

Stroud Journal, 27 October 1893

The above teams met on the ground of the former on Saturday. The visitors won the toss and elected to kick with the wind behind them. The home team started the ball when some very fast play ensued, but 40 minutes passed before either side scored, when Brinkworth put the ball between the uprights from a good shot for the home team. After half-time Brimscombe restarted and soon became dangerous and but for the good play of Hallam at the back would have scored. After this the ball was chiefly confined to the visitors’ end, the ball on several occasions just narrowly escaping the goal. At the call of time, nothing further having been scored, the home team were the victors by 1 goal to nil.

On 10 November 1893 a very short report is given of Forest Green’s home game v. Gloucester Reserves, with Forest Green winning 3-2, the club’s first recorded victory over a Gloucester team.

The previous two meetings were wins for Forest Green. The team was improving all the time and reported fixtures were becoming a regular event.

Gloucester Association Football Club

Gloucester AFC were formed in 1883 with a first reported match on 2 January 1886 losing 1-0 to Eastville Rovers (soon to be renamed Bristol Rovers). W.G. Grace was the referee.

Gloucester joined the Bristol & District League for the 1893/94 season and stayed in the league for three seasons. All of the other teams in the league were from the Bristol area or further south and it is likely that the financial burden of playing in the league led them to leave and move to leagues closer to home. Travel was very difficult in the 1890s. They became founder members of the Gloucester & District League in September 1897. The Gloucester & District League started initially in an attempt to create a county league open to all clubs in Gloucestershire. It shrank to its final title probably as a result of the same travel difficulties that caused Gloucester’s withdrawal from the Western League. They also ran a reserve team who played regular fixtures against Forest Green at this time.

Gloucester foundered before the First World War and finally went out of existence when the players defected to the Gloucester YMCA Club, which was renamed Gloucester City in the 1920s.

The ‘Rovers’ Appear

The Forest Green ‘Rovers’ name is first reported in 1893 and, on 15 December 1893, Forest Green Rovers drew 1-1 with Wotton-under-Edge. A week later Forest Green ‘Rovers’ beat Dursley St James 2-0 at Dursley. The following week’s paper contained a report of Stroud Rugby club’s game against Cardiff reserves in front of a record gate, Stroud going down, with no disgrace, to the reserves ‘by the kick’. Forest Green again beat Dursley St James in January 1894 and, in the same paper, Forest Green Rovers seconds beat Woodchester Athletic 3-1. This is the first reported match of a Forest Green reserve team and gives an idea of how strong the team was becoming. The Stroud Journal on Friday 26 January 1894 gives a report of the Gloucester Reserves v. Forest Green Rovers return match as follows:

The return match between the above teams was played on Budding’s Field (Gloucester) on Saturday. The reserves had got together a strong team with the intention of reversing the defeat sustained at the hands of the Rovers earlier in the season. Edwards won the toss, and elected to play with the wind. Brinkworth kicked off, and the Rovers were soon attacking, till Alsopp secured a pass from Gardiner and landed a neat goal. The Rovers still held the upper hand, but had not scored when the whistle sounded half-time. On changing ends Gloucester played with great determination, and from a scrum in front of goal the home team equalised. The game was now taken from one end of the field to the other, but neither side had scored when the whistle sounded no side, leaving a fast, pleasant and well contested game in a draw of one goal each.

The following played for the Rovers: goal, H. French; backs; A. Hallam, W. Brinkworth; halfbacks; L. Williams, E. Gardiner, and R. Blake; forwards, E. Alsopp, A.J. Marmont, T. Brinkworth, and J. Birch.

The National Game

On 27 January 1894, in the Dursley Gazette, there is an interesting sports report covering ‘The League, Midland League, The Amateur Cup, Middlesex Senior Cup, Lancashire Cup, Scottish Cup, Scottish League, London Senior Cup and Ordinary Fixtures.’ Association football had definitely arrived.

In the Football League, Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers were first and second respectively while Newton Heath and Darwen were bottom and second from bottom. In the Midland League, Leicester Fosse beat Doncaster Rovers 2-1. In the Amateur Cup, Sheppey United beat Folkestone. In the Middlesex Senior Cup, the 3rd Grenadiers beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1. In the Lancashire Cup, Burnley beat West Manchester 2-1, Blackburn Rovers beat Liverpool 4-3, Bolton Wanderers vanquished Preston North End 4-1, Blackpool beat Fleetwood Rangers 4-1, Darwen beat Heywood Central 2-1 and Bury beat Accrington 6-0. Rossendale beat Ardwick 4-2 and Everton beat Newton Heath 7-1 at Everton. What a difference between the Lancashire Cup and the Gloucestershire Cup at that time!

In the London Senior Cup, Millwall Athletic withdrew, enabling Chiswick Park to pass to the second round. London Caledonians lost to Crouch End, the Casuals beat the City Ramblers, Old Westminsters beat Old St Marks 18-0, Crusaders beat Old Harrovians 4-1 at Harrow. Wimbledon Polytechnic beat Royal Ordinance Factories 2-1, Old Foresters ousted Ilford 2-1 and Old Carthusians drew with Clapton. There were certainly a lot of ‘Old Boys’ teams around in London at that time.

Ordinary matches played that week included Corinthians defeating Aston Villa 3-2, Woolwich Arsenal beating Chatham 4-0, Millwall Athletic vanquishing Reading 4-1, Luton Town beating West Herts 3-2 at Watford and Swindon defeated 2nd Scots Guards at Swindon 5-1.

There was certainly no shortage of reporting of national football by 1894.

Modern Reporting Techniques

In 1894, the Stroud Journal hit on the novel idea of reporting Association rules matches involving Stroud AFC as if the reporter was the match ball. On Friday 2 February 1894, a match between Stroud and Forest Green Rovers, at Forest Green, was reported as follows:

Saturday was about the worst kind of day possible for playing Association. The wind was very high, and the rain came down in sheets, at every gust of wind. The match was played nevertheless at Forest Green, right on top of the hill. Forest Green men were evidently bent on winning, and seemed to think Stroud would fall an easy prey to their good play. Captain Payne won the toss, and chose to play with the wind. Forest Green kicked off and I was soon down their end. The wind was blowing very strongly from corner to corner of the field, and Stroud had their work cut out to get me up to the top of the field from which place was the only chance of getting in a shot.

They came very near getting a goal several times, but did not quite manage it. The game continued for the most part in the Forest Green 25, till half-time; and when the whistle blew nobody had scored.

This looked rather blue for Stroud, and after I had been kicked off, I immediately went down into their quarters. The Rovers got very near scoring several times, but Fawkes defended smartly, and once when he missed me and Forest Green were coming down upon him, he got in a very neat kick, saving a goal but not himself. Stroud were not confined so much to their 25, for they made several very good rushes, which came near scoring once or twice.

I noticed that the Stroud men played a wise game in the second half, for whenever they could they would put me into touch, thus wasting time and giving the Rovers less chance.

The match ended in a draw …

‘The Ball’

At the end of February, Forest Green Rovers beat Chalford 3-2 and by early March the Rovers’ forthcoming game against Dursley was anticipated as an easy win:

It is hardly expected that Dursley will come out winners against such a good team.

In fact, Dursley St James’ won 3-2. It just goes to show that nothing is certain in football.

By the end of the 1894 season Forest Green Rovers had begun to establish a reputation for themselves and had managed to run the whole season at home undefeated but for the last reported game against Dursley St James.

Formation of the Mid-Gloucestershire League

The success of the National Association game, together with the formation of the Bristol and District League two years before, started people thinking about a league for other teams in Gloucestershire. The following letter appeared in the Dursley Gazette on 21 April 1894:

Dear Sir, Seeing the great amount of interest taken at the present time in football in this district, where there are now so many clubs, I think the game would be made more popular still if a league was formed, similar to the Bristol & District League. That league is, I believe, open only to those within a certain radius of Bristol, and therefore clubs outside that radius are debarred from joining, when but for the obstacle named they would do so. Could not therefore a league be formed somewhere in the centre of Gloucestershire, and thus give a number of unattached clubs an opportunity which I venture to think they would be only too glad to avail themselves of. If the matter was taken up by one or two of the secretaries of the leading clubs here about, and the proposition brought to the notice of other secretaries and a meeting called, I feel sure that a league for Mid-Gloucestershire would rise and be not only a success in itself, but a good thing for clubs and members generally.

Thanking you in anticipation for the publication of this letter in your paper, I am, dear sir,

Yours faithfully, ONE INTERESTED IN FOOTBALL.

Wickwar, 18 April, 1894

The Mid-Gloucestershire League came into being that summer in anticipation of the 1894/95 season with Forest Green Rovers as founder members.

4

The Mid-Gloucestershire League: 1894–1899

1894/95

The Mid-Gloucestershire League began on Saturday 29 September 1894 with a match between Brimscombe and Stroud. Rovers played their first ever league match at home against Brimscombe on 6 October resulting in a 1-1 draw. Wickwar were beaten at home on 13 October 1894 1-0 and on 20 October Chalford were beaten 4-0 at Forest Green, the scorers being Marmont, Timms, Birch and Caldicott. Not a bad start to league football for the Rovers. And then Forest Green played Stroud, and the dramatic style of reporting as ‘The Ball’ returned, a shortened version of which follows:

Stroud Journal, 2 November 1894

WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN?

This is the question, Mr Editor, which is raging in many of the Stroud men’s minds just at present. Are the Stroud men going to appeal, or are they not? And if they do appeal, what will come of it? But I am premature in asking questions before anyone knows what they are all about. After a very hard-fought game, which I will describe further down, a ‘hands’ was given to Stroud on the very brink, so to speak, of their opponent’s goal. Of course they took me, put me down, rolled me over, and kicked me through before anyone had time to look around, including the umpire, who was trying to get the Forest Green men on to the goal line. A very laudable occupation, no doubt, and the right thing to do, but I can’t agree with him as to his next step. Considering he had been keeping Forest Green talking, and had not given them a fair chance, he blew the whistle and had me brought back. The Stroud men were dumbfounded and I am sorry to say commenced wrangling; but Mr Umpire was firm, and there I am with him, for I think that if an umpire decides a point to his satisfaction he should stick to it at thick and thin.

He awarded Stroud another kick, but it was not successful, and Stroud were left at the end of the game losers by one goal to nil.

Now I will give my promised description of the game itself. The wind was blowing down the field when the captains tossed up and Forest Green, winning the toss, chose to play with the wind. That made a considerable difference, for they began to press at once, and but for the admirable defence of S. Hooper and the backs, Payne and Coucher, I should have been often forced through these goals. Timms put me through once. He seems to kick most of the goals for his side. Stroud played up gallantly, nevertheless, and managed to keep their opponents out till the whistle declared half of the game over. Meanwhile Forest Green had been playing a fast game, doing their best to make the most of the wind. Nothing more than one goal came of it although Birch, otherwise ‘Jimmy’, and Marmont ought to have scored.

Both teams took their places on the field after the usual five minutes, looking like giants refreshed, and both determined to do or die. Now came Stroud’s turn at the fun, and they commenced at once, making desperate rushes down the field with the evident intention of scoring, but were again and again repulsed. Stroud worked like galley slaves, but could not get me through in a more satisfactory manner, until the eventful free-kick that I have described.

The difference between the Forest Green team of today and that of last year is wonderful. Of course, they have got valuable additions in Timms and Rev. Cruickshank, but the general play is vastly improved. The Stroud forwards might take an object lesson from Timms in passing.

Stroud did lodge an appeal and lost, but their deposit money was returned to them.

Reporting on football leagues was a new business and there weren’t any local precedents for journalists to follow when compiling league tables. In November, the Stroud Journal attempted its first ever table:

Stroud Journal, 16 November 1894

The following is a form showing at a glance how the different clubs in the Mid-Gloucestershire League are progressing. It will be seen that 2 points register a win, and 1 point to each of the combating teams registers a draw. The totals will be added up across the columns, so that if a 2 is seen opposite Stroud and under Brimscombe, it will show that Stroud beat Brimscombe:

LEAGUE SCORES UP TO DATE

Brimscombe

Chalford

Forest Green

Gloucester Res

Stroud

Wickwar

Wotton

Total

Brimscombe

–

–

1

2

–

–

–

–

Chalford

2

–

–

–

2

2

–

–

Forest Green

1

2

–

–

–

2

–

–

Gloucester Res

–

–

–

–

–

2

1

–

Stroud

2

–

–

–

–

2

–

–

Wickwar

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

Wotton

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

The teams were listed in alphabetical order making it difficult to establish who was actually top and bottom of the league and the points total was not given. The points don’t add up either; three teams have 1 point.

On the same weekend is a report of a match between Woodchester Association FC and Forest Green Congregational FC, with the Congregational side being beaten 4-0. It was now five years since the first report in the papers of the commencement of the team at Forest Green by the Congregational minister. It is assumed that the team he created became Forest Green Rovers. By 1894, it is possible that his team had moved into the world of competitive sport, playing games to win at all costs rather than as a pastime. Perhaps the minister, buoyed by the success of football in Forest Green, decided to recreate a church team or maybe the report in 1889 purely relates to the church team and the Forest Green Rovers team sprang up separately. This would appear unlikely, given the small size and extremely close nature of the community and the nominal population to choose from.

By December, Forest Green had 7 points to be joint top of the table with Wotton and Brimscombe, although Wotton were bottom of the table in alphabetical order.

In the same paper a match was reported between Marling School and Forest Green Congregational FC, with the school losing 4-2. In Friday 21 December 1894’s Stroud Journal, a report is given of the match between Stroud and Cheltenham, the result being 2-2.

Another report by ‘The Ball’ of the game between Stroud and Forest Green was given in the Stroud Journal on 25 January 1895:

25 January 1895, Association Football Mid-Gloucester League, Stroud v. Forest Green

Defeated again! What is Stroud coming to?

This makes two league matches lost straight off the reel. The visions of the cup are fading away. Stroud men must wake up or I shall never have the chance of making my notes immortal by writing such a poem as the Chalford bard did two weeks ago. By all appearances I shall never be able to say as he did ‘Bravo, Stroud you are wreathed in glory, someone’s felt your sting again.’