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May 30, 2011

The Football Association Challenge Cup

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 4:34 pm

The FA Cup, or Football Association Challenge Cup to give it its full title, is the oldest football competition in the world. It was started in 1871, when it was suggested that “a Challenge Cup should be established in connection with the Association”.

Merely eight teams were entered for the first round which was played on the 11 November 1871. The final was played at the Oval on 16 March, 1872 and was won by The Wanderers who defeated The Royal Engineers by the only goal of the match.

Not only is the FA Cup the oldest association football competition in the world but it is also one of the biggest. It is open to teams who play on most degrees of the English football league system and during the 2009 – 2010 season, 762 teams entered the competition.

Because it is the one competition that mixes teams of all degrees of playing ability, it does allow for the occasional ?upset? when a ?minnow? from a lower league defeats one of the more fancied upper echelon teams.

While at least one such giant killing act will happen in any given season, no non-league club has ever won the tournament since Tottenham Hotspur won the trophy in 1901 while playing in the old Southern League.

For some reason, certain clubs seem to gain a reputation as giant killers and Yeovil Town holds the current record for most wins against teams playing in the league. There are several sporting records associated with the FA Cup, some of them standing for a considerable period of time .

One name connected with many early records is that of Lord Kinnaird. He played in the second final in 1873 and then played in a further eight, thereby setting up a record which still stands to this day of playing in nine finals. He played for the winning team no fewer than five times, another record which is still unbroken.

However he is also accredited with a less happy record, that of scoring the first ?own goal” in cup history in 1877. He was playing in goal and involuntarily stepped back over his own goal line.

In 1886 Blackburn Rovers were the second club to win three successive finals, and is the only club still in existence who can assert this feat as the first club to do so. The Wanderers went out of existence in 1883.

The record for the largest win in FA Cup history is held by Preston North End who in 1887 defeated Hyde 26-0. One of the longest standing sporting records was ultimately broken in 2009 by Everton?s Louis Saha whose 25 second goal beat that of the 30 second goal scored by Bob Chatt of Aston villa in 1895 . A record which had stood for 115 years!

After a timespan of seven years when the Cup final was played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, while the new Wembley Stadium was being rebuilt, The Cup Final has come back to its traditional home at Wembley where it has been played since 1923 when the famous ?White Horse? took place between Bolton and West Ham. This match also holds the record for people attendance when an estimated 200,000 fans crammed in.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is at present concerned with tickets for London Olympics. Click a link if you are interested in 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

May 19, 2011

The Beautiful Game

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 11:59 am

Football, soccer or ?The Beautiful Game? – are all names employed to describe the most well-liked team game in the world. Although the words football and soccer are largely interchangeable in the UK they have quite different meanings in North America.

In the USA the word ‘football’ is taken to mean American Football, a game more akin to the British rugby football, whereas soccer refers to the game known to the rest of the world as football.

It is peculiar that the word soccer is in fact an English slang term of the word association in the same fashion that the word ?brekkers? refers to breakfast.

The regulations of football were first set down in 1863 by the Football Association in the UK and these are in essence the same rules by which the game is played by today. However they were merely the first endeavour to codify and standardize the vastly varying types of the game being played in 19th century public schools in England.

However the game has a much longer history and references to a game comparable to today?s football can be found in the texts of one William Fitzstephen in the late 12th century. At various times during the medieval period edicts were passed prohibitting the playing of football, largely, it is supposed, because it detracted from the time dedicated to archery practice.

So it could be said that England?s supremacy in France at battles such as Crecy and Agincourt , brought around largely as a result of the success of Welsh and English longbowmen, was a direct result of deficiency of expertise on the football pitch!

Football also fell foul of Puritan censorship and attempts to keep the Sabbath holy as naturally the only time a working man had any free time to indulge in such activity was on a Sunday (the Sabbath)

Incidentally, the term ?the Beautiful Game as a synonym for Association football has no vast history to it. Its origins are rather disputed as some claim that it was invented by a Brazilian footballer named Valdir Pereira although the English TV commentator Stuart Hall claims to have coined the expression in 1958.

From its primitive beginnings football has now grown into the world?s most commonly played team sport. F?d?ration Internationale de Football Association, or FIFA as it is more commonly known , now has 208 member countries where an estimated 200 million plus players habitually play the game.

Such is the impact of football that star players from the major European leagues and especially the English Premiership are now household names the world wide and it is common while driving through a remote jungle village in South East Asia to become confronted by a larger than life size portrait of say, David Beckham, advertising something as routine to motor oil.

Little did those men meeting at the Freemasons Tavern in Great Queen St,. London on the morning of 26 October 1863 to set the rules of the game know the extraordinary world wide effect their decisions would make.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on several subjects, but is at present involved with London Olympics 2012 venues. Click a link if you are interested in 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

May 16, 2011

History Of American Football

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 9:53 am

Although there are mentions of Native Americans playing ball games, contemporary American football has its origins in long-established ball games played in villages and schools in Europe for several centuries before America was settled by Europeans.

There are stories of early settlers at Jamestown, Virginia playing games with inflated balls in the the first part of the 17th century.

The first games seem to have had much in common with the traditional “mob football” played in England, especially on Shrove Tuesday. The games were pretty much unorganized until the 19th century, when a lot of colleges took up the sport.

In those days, each school played its own kind of football. Princeton students played a game called “ballown” as early as 1820. A Harvard tradition known as “Bloody Monday” began in 1827, which consisted of a mass ballgame between the freshman and sophomore students.

Dartmouth played its own version called “Old Division Football”, the rules of which were first published in 1871, although the game dates to at least the 1830s. All of these games, and others, shared certain rules.

They remained largely “mob” type games, with huge numbers of players attempting to advance the ball into a goal area, often by any means necessary. The rules were uncomplicated and violence and injury were common .

The violence of these mob-style games led to extensive protests and a decision to abandon them. Yale, under pressure from the city of New Haven, proscribed the play of all forms of football in 1860, while Harvard did the same in 1861

Two basic forms of football had developed by this time: “kicking” games and “running” (or “carrying”) games. A cross of the two, known as the “Boston game”, was played by a group known as the Oneida Football Club.

The club, thought of by some historians as the first formal football club in the United States, was formed in 1862 by schoolboys who played the “Boston game” on Boston Common.

Walter Camp is widely thought to be the most important figure in the development of American football. He thought of many of the rule changes and playing tactics which made American Football the inimitable sport that it has become today.

His first proposal was to reduce the number of players from 15 to 11. The effect of this was to open up the game and put more emphasis on speed rather than strength.

Camp’s most famous change, the establishment of the line of scrimmage, was also designed to speed up play although many teams used it to slow down the play.

Camp therefore suggested that a team be required to progress the ball a minimum of five yards within three downs. These down-and-distance rules, combined with the creation of the line of scrimmage, changed the game from a variation of rugby or soccer into the distinct sport of American football.

While it has had a protracted history as a college sport, professional football is a relatively modern institution . The first completely professional game was not played until 1895 and the first known professional league, the National Football League was not formed until 1902

At the end of the 1932 season, the Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans tied with the best regular-season records. To determine the champion, the league chose to hold its first playoff game.

Chicago won, 9-0. The playoff proved so popular that the league was restructured into two divisions for the 1933 season, with the two winners advancing to a scheduled championship game.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on several subjects, but is currently concerned with London Olympics 2012 venues. Click a link if you are interested in 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

May 11, 2011

English Soccer Teams’ Nicknames

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 5:06 am

A review of the nicknames used by English football teams reveals a beguiling insight into English social history over the last 150 years.

All football teams seem to acquire a nickname, bestowed upon them lovingly by their devoted fans. Although in one very famous case ? that of Manchester United ? the nickname of The Red Devils was in fact invented by the club itself as a marketing ploy, copyrighted and finally the Red Devil himself was incorporated in the team’s coat of arms.

The derivation of the name may seem obvious, or may be lost in the mists of time or even not known today.

In many cases the nickname is derived from the colour of the team?s shirts. Obvious examples of these include:

Chelsea – The Blues Burnley – the Clarets Watford – the Hornets Preston North End – The Lilywhites Liverpool – The Reds Newcastle United – The Magpies Coventry City – The Sky Blues Blackpool United – the Tangerines Weymouth – The Terras Cambridge United – the Yellows Hull City – the Tigers

Other nicknames are far more prosaic in origin, being based upon abbreviations or contractions of the team?s real name. Examples of these cases include :

Middlesbrough – Boro Rochdale – the Dale Gillingham – the Gills Wigan Athletic – the Latics Queens Park Rangers – QPR Blackburn Rovers – The Rovers Aldershot Town – The Shots Shrewsbury Town – The Shrews Tottenham Hotspur – Spurs Swansea City – The Swans Woverhampton Wanderers – Wolves

Location plays an important part in a lot of team nicknames

Sunderland – The Black Cats (named after the Black cat gun battery which was located on the banks of the River Wear) Bournemouth – The Cherries (the stadium was built on the site of a cherry orchard) Carlisle United – The Cumbrians (Carlisle is in the county of Cumbria) Bristol Rovers – The Gas ( their old ground was situated next to the gasworks) Torquay United – The Gulls (Torquay is beside the sea) Tamworth – The Lambs ( the team plays at The Lamb Ground, named after a local pub) Grimsby Town – The Mariners (Grimsby is on the coast) Rotherham United – The Millers ( the pitch is called Millmoor) Sheffield Wednesday – The Owls ( they play in an area of Sheffield known as Owlerton) Kettering Town – The Poppies ( their stadium was built on a poppy field) Blackburn Rovers – The Riversiders (their site is built on the banks of a river) Bolton Wanderers – The Trotters (in the 19th century the ground was situated next to a piggery)

Other nicknames are derived from local occupations or industries:

Sheffield United ? The Blades ( local links with cutlery manufacture) Burton Albion ? The Brewers ( Burton is a foremost centre for the brewing industry ) Hereford United ? The Bulls (from the local cattle industry) Wycombe Wanderers ? The Chairboys ( local furniture industry) Northampton Town ? The Cobblers (from the regional boot and shoe industry) Yeovil Town ? The Glovers (local links to the glove making industry ) Luton Town ? The Hatters (Luton was for many years a centre for the production of hats) Crewe Alexander ? The Railwaymen ( Crewe was built as a railway town

Finally, a short assortment of some of the more amusing, bizarre and obtuse derivations:

Charlton Athletic – The Addicks ( A corruption of the ward ?haddocks? after a local fish and chip shop) Norwich City – The Canaries ( Norwich was a leading centre for the breeding of canaries. The team later adopted the green and yellow of the Norwich Canary as their playing strip) Hartlepool United – The Monkey Hangers (During the Napoleonic wars the citizens of Hartlepool allegedly hung a monkey believing it to be a French spy) Bury – The Shakers (The first Chairman of the club, J T Ingham said before a local derby game against Blackburn ?We will shake them, in fact we are the Shakers?) Peterborough United – The Posh (A previous manager of the team is reputed to have said ?We are looking for posh players for a posh team?)

We hope this trawl though the history behind the nicknames of English football teams has been amusing and enlightening.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is at present involved with London Olympics 2012 venues. Click a link if you are interested in 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

November 10, 2010

Giles The Newspaper Cartoonist

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 2:03 pm

Ronald ‘Carl’ Giles was one of the most well-known British post war cartoonists whose work appeared in the British newspapers The Daily Convey and its sister paper The Sunday Express between the dates of 1943 and 1991.

He was born Ronald Giles in Islington, London in 1916. His school-friends nicknamed him ?Karlo? after the actor Boris Karloff to whom they thought he bore a resemblance. This was later shortened to Carl and it remained with him for the rest of his life.

He left school when he was 14 years old and started working as an office boy for a Wardour Street film company where he was later promoted to an animator for cartoon films. This led in 1935 to his working for the famous producer and director Alexander Korda on the first full-length British sound-tracked colour cartoon film, The Fox Hunt.

After a spell working in Ipswich, he joined Fleet Street in 1937. He worked as a cartoonist on the weekly newspaper Reynolds News where his efforts came to the attention of the editor of the Sunday Express and he was offered a job working for both the Daily Express and Sunday Express at the not petty salary of 20 guineas a week. His first cartoon for his new employers was published in the Sunday Express in October 1943.

The 20 guineas a week proved a portent of greater fortunes to come as by 1955 he was being paid no less than 8,060 GBP a week for an output of three cartoons. He was now a wealthy man.

In 1959 he was given the OBE and among his greatest admirers and fans were members of the Royal family who often received originals of his work.

His most famous character creations were The Giles Family who first appeared in August 1945. They were a family from the more affluent side of the British working class living in a suburban semi-detached house. The head of the family was Grandma a real battle axe of a person who anyone crossed at their peril. She is now immortalised as a bronze statue standing in Queen St Ipswich looking up at the office where Giles used to work.

They were used by Giles to comment on a current events in the news of the day and proved to be highly patriotic although cautious of authority. One amazing attribute of the family was that although their homes, hobbies and clothes reflected the changing values of the day, their ages remained unchanged although the cartoons ran for 46 years.

Today any middle-aged, middle class Englishman ( or woman) will have happy memories of the Giles Annual. This was a very welcome addition to the Christmas stocking and contained a selection of Gile’s output for the previous year. For numerous years this collection was chosen by Giles himself.

Carl Giles passed away in 1995 and in 2000 he was voted ‘Britain’s Favourite Cartoonist of the 20th Century’.

If you want one of our unique, hand-painted, custom cartoons or caricatures from photos suppled by you please click on one of these links History of Golf. If you want to know more, please go to website at Custom Cartoons.

July 22, 2010

Tips About Residing In Alabama

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , — Chris Chandler @ 9:06 am

In your lifetime, you encounter a number of rules that are golden, rules that actually apply. In The state of Alabama, there is another set of guidelines that you will not find any place else. As an Alabama resident, these rules will help you as long as you stay here.

Golden rules really exist to be used, to be implemented, to direct you. Regardless of what your ultimate goal is or what challenge you confront, the guideline is there. Just consider the golden rule that applies and adhere to it…

With that in mind, I thought of life in Alabama along with a number of of its unspoken “golden rules”. Listed here are five of the top “Golden Rules” that are applicable to living in Alabama.

Golden Rule 1: You are either a Alabama fan or Auburn fan. No other choice. You’ll discover that almost everyone you come across in Alabama asks you who “you are for” in the Iron Bowl. The rivalry is sizzling, and you must choose sides. Bear in mind, if you do not choose, people will think you are strange. So, if nothing else, choose your favorite colors, crimson tide red for Alabama or orange & blue for the Auburn.

Golden Rule 2, You Have To Eat Corn Bread… Cornbread is as southern as gigging frogs on a hot summer night at the local pond. Remember that cornbread is real good with pinto juice poured on it or even butter..

Golden Rule 3, Attend Church. The reason that this is important is because at least twice a year, Easter or Christmas, people will need to see you there. Otherwise, expect to be asked to attend on a regular basis, because everybody knows everybody, especially in a small town.

Golden Rule 4, Be Polite! Here in the south, we treat people like we would like to be treated and will go the extra mile to help a stranger. . When we are talking to others, we are sure to say please, thank you, & you’re welcome when the need arises. Also, we address our elders by No Sir/Yes Sir and No Ma’am/Yes Ma’am.

Golden Rule 5, Alabama Based Music Gives You Pride! You have to love any music that has something to do with Alabama. This would certainly include every song that the country music group, Alabama recorded, especially “My Home’s In Alabama.” Also, don’t forget Lynyrd Skynyrd and “Sweet Home Alabama.” It is like a state anthem here!

If you follow these golden rules to living in Alabama, you will find that life will be a little sweeter here in the heart of dixie!

Be a big Alabama fan by going to our Alabama Crimson Tide site at www.AlCrimsonTide.com! Read info on Cyrus Kouandjio there! This article, Tips About Residing In Alabama has free reprint rights.

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