Loughburian, a Loughborough-based sports journalist, offered a unique glimpse into the lives of professional footballers in the late 1890s. Before the 1898-99 season, he reminisced about his six years of traveling with The Luffs to their away matches. A fascinating read!
As the representative of the “Herald,” I have travelled some thousands of miles with the team of Loughborough F.C. during the last few years, and I propose in this brief sketch to relate some of the interesting incidents of the journeyings to various parts of the country. First of all, let me describe how the team travels. The conditions are as comfortable as possible, a saloon carriage, lighted, but too often poorly warmed, is reserved for their use, and for the officials and such friends as they care to admit. Except on one single journey, covering a period of six seasons, I have always formed one of the party, and in the great majority of cases I have been the only “ outsider. The saloon party invariably numbered 14, being composed of eleven players and the trainer, the official in charge and myself. When a long journey is undertaken, or when the team has at a very inconvenient time, material for the inner man is often in the shape of a leg of mutton, toast and sundries. At a period of the journey when, in the judgment of the man in charge, or trainer, it was time, dinner was served or rather of hungry players became too strong to be resisted a hamper is bought forth by the trainer, and in an instant players have the tables covered with newspapers serve for tablecloths, and they intent on business. Everything is carried out in picnic style, sometimes the knives and forks have gone astray together with the tumblers. The players lay great store on this meal and are painfully candid if it is not up standard. On one occasion last season the team was going to meet Aston Villa in the Birmingham Cup, and the meal was about over, indeed, every member of the company with the exception of the carver had partaken very freely of the leg, and sounded the praises, when a whisper was heard that the meat was foreign whether such was the case or not matters little, but for rest of the journey we had the liveliest party I had seen a long time. After the tables are cleared the digestion is assisted by a whiff of the weed, for smoking is not prohibited except on special occasions. Several players have circumvented the trainer when an order has been issued against it, by going into the luggage compartment and smoking to their heart’s content. Card playing is the principal method of killing time. Anyone following a football team and having at the same time a fondness for quiet and reposeful travelling. will find himself out of place in the saloon occupied by the players. More often than not there is a brisk fusillade of chaff, and if anyone attempts to steal forty winks he is quickly teased out of retirement by a deftly- aimed missile and forced to “stand his corner” in the general hubbub. For real wholesome mirth and enjoyment the season when Loughborough won the Midland League championship was the best I have ever experienced. Every player was a host in himself, and many were the tricks that clever combination played upon the rail folk. Very little time was spent in card playing, the saloon being otherwise occupied. W. C. Rose evinced a strong attachment for testing the trotting abilities of his comrades, and in this connection Owen was also conspicuous, but after upsetting a guard and smashing a window of the saloon a damper was put on. The ticket collectors generally had a lively time, but you could never have them on that a player was hiding in the lavatory. Going to Grantham once, by the Great Northern, WC. hopped into the lavatory as the collector came, but somehow the show was given away too soon, and the “gentleman was requested to come out.” Something had, however, gone wrong with the works, and Rose had to shoulder the door open. On this very day Loughborough were beaten for the first time in the Midland League that season, and by the club that held the spoon. Nearly every public-house in Grantham is named “Blue” ‘something or other, and the players partaking of a cold, cheerless dinner, remarked almost without exception that they would be “blued” ere the day was over. To the last the players ascribed that defeat to their dinner. The year previous to the one when Loughborough won the championship was also a very pleasurable one, the return journey being more enjoyable than the outward one by the tedium being whiled away by little impromptu concerts. Jesting apart some capital harmony was produced and many where the times Sharpe accompanied songs at the headquarters of the clubs visited. The dullest season’s travelling experienced was the one that closed last April. Verry seldom was a member prevailed upon to give a solo, while some of the players exhibited such quiet tendencies that at times in the silence you could have heard a pin drop. Occasionally, more often of late years, I have had to write some very uncomplimentary things about the play of my fellow travellers, who, as a general rule bear no malice. They have the good taste not to discuss these adverse criticisms of their performances with the author. Many and varied have been the experiences in different parts. One of earliest and the worst was at Mansfield, on November 18th, 1893, when Loughborough beat the Greenhalgh’s by five goals to one. Not only was the day the vilest of the vile, but the reception and treatment of the team by the Mansfield club was anything but pleasant. We were turned out of one place where we had been directed, the landlord refusing to allow us on his premises because a team that had already played a few pranks on him. We went to another place, and were refused there, and some of the players who took French leave had to gather up their clothes and search for more congenial surroundings. Sleet was falling and a terrific wind was blowing, and the ground being in a very elevated position, the full effects were felt of the fearful elements, an idea of which will be gained from the fact that not ten players were on the pitch when the final solo was sounded on the whistle. On the last day of the same year, viz., December 31st, 1893, we went to Doncaster, where fog put a stop to the game after only a few minutes’ play. A desire evinced to catch an early train, and the players raced through the streets dragging their clothing after them. More than one, however, had some article or other that did not belong to him, and, owing to the fog, we got separated. I remember Spiby ran full tilt at boot-black, and that half the team reached the station after the train had gone. It was then found that the clothing was delightfully mixed, and that the players who had gone on had neither the tickets nor the right clothes. We eventually came up with them at Sheffield where they were eagerly awaiting us. The match at Gainsborough, when with only eight players, was the most remarkable I have witnessed, but the most profitable goal ever scored for Loughborough was that obtained by Val Smith at Newark, on November 24th, 1894, as a result of which Loughborough met the Fosse three times in the next round of the English Cup, and reaped a golden harvest, the likes of which they have never since seen. By far the best times were spent while the club was in the Midland League, the last season or so being dulled compared with them, the first time I accompanied the team by train was to Burton on Good Friday, 1893, when Loughborough beat the Swifts by two goals to none, in a friendly, and since that time the Loughborough Club has played 250 matches, of which I have witnessed and reported no fewer than 218. During that period I only remember seeing one player turned off the field, and that was at Gainsborough on February 21st,1894 when a Trinitians was given marching orders for striking Middleton. I will conclude with a table giving the results of Loughborough’s matches in the various leagues they have been associated with:
Melton Mowbray Mercury and Oakham and Uppingham News – Thursday 01 September 1898