Old and in the way

The world’s first and oldest football club, Sheffield F.C., was formed on this day 149 years ago, October 24, 1857. It was the brainchild of two keen cricket lovers, William Prest and Nathaniel Crestwick (no, I did not randomly take those names from a Dickens novel). They were just looking to keep fit during the winter and thought a football club would turn the trick nicely.

The first order of business for the fledgling club was to elect a secretary and captain. It was decided that Creswick would occupy both of these offices, which must have cheesed ole Will Prest not a little bit. Headquarters were established in a potting shed. I imagine their meetings to have been like the 19th century British edition of Fat Albert.

The club was responsible for drawing up the distinctive Sheffield Rules, which do not penalize offsides or excessive pushing and award a free kick to any player who catches the ball, which sounds to us like a bloody good bit of rough actually.

Still going strong today, Sheffield F.C. plays in the Northern Counties East League, just a notch in the football hierarchy below the much-esteemed Northern Premier League. Or, to put it another way, they play in a glorified t-shirt league for grown men and their mommies drive them to games on Saturday afternoons.

But look, it’s a sodding old club innit and yeah cheers.