Love of soccer takes hold in Peterborough
By 1920, The Peterborough Examiner was reporting on the growth of the game
Soccer’s recent World Cup sparked the publication of several excellent books on the history of soccer. Of these none has been more helpful than Laurent Dumont’s The Language of the Game: how to understand soccer (New York, Basic Books, 2018).
At the urging of Marv Buchan and others I have been looking for ways to write the history of soccer in Peterborough city and county. The story has to have some depth and understanding that goes far beyond chronicling some of the notable games.
One might consider the collective biography approach. This thought occurred to me while reading Grant Wahl’s Masters of Modern Soccer: how the world’s best play the twenty-first century game (New York, Crown Archetype, 2018). Wahl writes for
Sports Illustrated and I saw him commenting on one of the games in the recent World Cup tournament, in which France won the final 4-2 over Croatia.
Wahl’s strategy was to look at outstanding players who were midfielders, forwards, defenders and goalkeepers. As well, he had a chapter on Roberto Martinez as the manager and Michael Zorc, in a position higher than manager. This was a well-paced and interesting book that looked at the international scene in soccer. Wahl’s central issue, it seemed to me, was why could soccer be so internationally significant, drawing big money and big crowds, while in the United
States even with some rising stars such as Christian Pulisec on the horizon. On that, the book is optimistic.
Another book in this World
Cup year had even more optimism. Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski in their book Soccernomics, first published in 2009 and now in its fourth edition in 2018, has a long subtitle: Why England loses; why German, Spain and France win; and why one day Japan, Iraq, and the United States will become kings of the world’s most popular sport. This book makes one conscious of the importance of gathering statistics wherever possible on a vast range of variables. Soccer is not a simple game.
This book is more centred on the experience of European soccer clubs. Even if they do not make money they rarely disappear. Each of the 21 chapters tackle interesting questions. One of my favourites was the discussion of the relationship between wages and success during the years 2007 and 2016. High pay attracts great performers. Their analysis shows that the top seven teams in the Premier League also paid the most compared to the average.
The top teams were Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Everton whose teams on average finished in the top ten. Teams that could afford to pay for good players did so.
Through most of history, soccer clubs could not be run as solid money-making businesses. Apparently, this is because there are always owners who do not worry about profit but love to win. (75)
Soccer clubs might seem risky businesses but they are very stable. In 2008, Chelsea and Manchester United had a combined debt of about three billion dollars. Of 88 teams in the English Football League in 1923, 84 were still active in 2016-2017. The depression was hard but even then clubs assisted each other; teams need opponents. Of the teams that disappeared, Merthyr Town was a victim of the depressed coal in the Welsh valleys and rugby which was far more popular in Wales. Wigan Borough went bankrupt a few games into the 1931-32 season.
Soccer also suffered in the 1980s (called here the “Thatcher recession”) but many survived by “phoenixing”. Clubs were also public limit companies (PLCs); when heavy in debt it goes insolvent and then rises as a new PLC. There were casualties, such as players, banks and the taxpayers.
Subsequently, England followed the American example of treating bankruptcies as preludes to eventual success. Under the Insolvency Act of 1986, stricken clubs could be administered and emerge from administration after making deals with creditors.
As interesting as these books were it was not immediately evident how they could be helpful in understanding local soccer history. Dubois’ book opened up possibilities right from the opening pages.
Soccer and its rules date from England in the 1860s, and by 1900 was played widely, even beyond British influence, in Europe, Africa and Central and South America. Soccer was easy to learn and suited all physical types. Even in the early years soccer was played by women. When the English Football Association in 1921 banned women from its fields and stadiums, women were driven underground. There was wide interest in seeing women play as evidenced by the Women’s World Cup organized in 1970.
“Soccer is a language, probably the most universal language on the planet.” (5) There may be differences but soccer is mutually understood. The back and forth between offense and defense and the efforts by players and coaches to control makes “soccer beautifully unpredictable.” (8) Soccer is often called the “beautiful game” even in Peterborough, but as Dubois notes, because of beautiful plays in which the offense beats a wellplanned defense. More importantly, it is about “interplay, relationships, motion”. “In soccer there are simply no guarantees.”
Players spend long stretches nowhere near the ball. Even in boring games there are moments of surprise.
Closer to home, Dubois describes soccer in America as suburban. He also sees soccer as a building process. Youthful pastime is succeeded by informal play, pick up games, amateur leagues and sometimes higher level training. Even after decades of expansion, soccer never seems to dominate; it cannot compete with baseball, football, basketball; or perhaps, he could have added, hockey in Canada.
Dubois organized the book around the key positions: goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, and forward. In the analysis, each position could feel that it was central to what was happening on the soccer pitch. As well, the manager, the referee and the fans were important to understanding soccer. This was a helpful perspective. In soccer, it is not enough to describe the goals scored. Wherever you look, there is a story unfolding. Sometimes it can be understood against what the coach might have been developing. Or it can be strategy devised on the spot in reaction to what the opponents are doing. Some situations develop over the length of the pitch; some emerge serendipitously. This diversity of possibilities distinguishes soccer from other athletic endeavours.
In the chapter on goalkeepers, Dubois began with a love letter from a great goalie, Gianluigi Buffon, to his goal. During a game he never looked at the goal, unless a goal had been scored on him, but he saw his purpose was to protect the goal, to be the “first and last line of defense.” (23) Another goalie was described as an “anti-footballer” because his purpose was to prevent what everybody was striving to accomplish or hoped to see.
The goal was described as 24 feet across. Later the height was limited to eight feet, and gradually the area he could cover while being the only player on his team that could use his arms was reduced in size. It, the “penalty box”, is now 44 yards across and 18 yards deep, or a little larger than a basketball court. The size of the pitch can vary, but in most stadiums is about 100 yards long and 60 yards across. Soccer is characterized by its movement; the goalie even with a large penalty box, is the most immobile.
The goalie is sometimes the most lonely, with lots of time to think. Dubois mentioned a Christmas 1937 game in England cancelled in progress by fog, but the one goalie never noticed. For some fifteen minutes he imagined how well his team was keeping the ball contained in the other end without scoring a goal, when the play would have returned to midfield. When he was finally told the other players in the locker room had a good laugh.
In early days, there was no defined goalie, and it was the job of the last defender to prevent the score. But in 1871, it was decided that one player could use his hands, and that was the goalie.
Dubois had been a goalie in his youth, and liked Vladimir Nabokov’s insights as a goalie “the keeper of a secret.” In quieter moments he reflected on cultural differences. The English ignored the goalie because they did not like show offs and felt the teamwork was the key to the game. Russians and Latin Americans on the other hand considered protecting the goal was a “gallant art.” The goalie was like a matador.
However, she was not always the hero. The goalie, such as Nabokov or Albert Camus, experience the ups and downs of life. When a goal is scored the goalie is at fault. Other players making mistakes are more easily forgiven.
The goalie can also be a key player in developing strategy and tactics. When facing the penalty kicks, the goalie receives lots of advice but has his own memory bank.
The Examiner soccer reporter in 1920 was more impressed with the offence but did on occasion talk in glowing terms about the goalie. For example, in a story described as “Best Football Ever Seen in the City of Peterboro” (October 19, 1920), Wilfrid Jones, the goalie for the Great War Veterans, known as the Vets, was described as “Brilliant in Goal.”
The reporter commented breathlessly, “Play was of a dingdong fashion until Calder accepting a pass from Wright he gave Jones a hard one to hold that was cleverly picked up. From the punt by Jones the Vets raided Brunton’s goal with Sharman about beating Brunton with a low shot.” Jones made several saves during the game but the opponents were the league-leading Caledonians, who won 5-0. However, several Vets were sick and missed the game, but R. Brunton might have been the better goalie.
In a game between the Caledonians and the Woolens, which the Caledonians won 2-1, the goalies had the respect of the reporter and the fans. For example, in the second half, “A great save by [Sam] Calladine from the foot of [William] Calder brought praise from the spectators.” Calladine repeatedly made great saves.
The Examiner reporter’s good sense of soccer was evident; he recognized that action could come from all players, and even the referee and two linesmen and spectators had key roles in these two games in October 1920. There was an unpredictability in the soccer of 1920 because soccer was a game in which each player was important. Individual feats were important even if the game was never in doubt.
Elwood H. Jones, Archivist, Trent Valley Archives, can be reached at elwood@trentvalleyarchives.com. The Trent Valley Archives are presenting a spectacular show, the Cemetery Pageant, at Little Lake Cemetery on September 29 and 30. For details, www.trentvalleyarchives.com