Skip to content

What if moments, supporting WWFC

1235789

Comments

  • edited January 2023

    1874 semi finals were

    Royal Engineers 2-0 Swifts FC

    Oxford Uni 1-0 Clapham Rovers.

    Did you mean Quarter finals, when losing 7-0 to Royal Engineers?

    They made the quarters 3 years in a row.


  • @Malone I stand corrected. FA Amateur Cup Semi Finalists.

    @Mr67 Maidenhead failed to enter the 1876 FA Cup.

  • Every season except one, @Mr67, I can't remember which. That is if you accept it has been one continuous club, which I am not convinced of. They have had a few mergers in their history, and a merger always means the birth of a new club.

  • Monday night quiz question. Apart from ourselves and Marlow, which other Bucks club has reached the FA Cup Semi-final?

  • If Paul “6 goals in 6 games” Hayes hadn’t been recalled from his loan spell by Charlton (only to sit on the feckin’ bench) would we have stayed up in League One in 2012?

  • I cheated to find out the answer, so i won't post it, but i did guess the 'twist.'

  • Wimbledon?

  • edited January 2023

    I guess Old Etonians - it is a wild guess because I don't know if they ever reached the semi and it would mean that their ground would have to have been somewhere near Slough.

  • Good suggestion @railwaysteve, not the one I am thinking of but, if Eton was in Bucks at that time, then they have won it twice. Did the Thames mark the boundary with Berks at that time, I wonder?

    The team I am after played in Slough, which was in Bucks at that time.

  • Swifts Fc

  • Also Eton was in Bucks until 1974.

  • Well done @ChasHarps. Swifts were FA Cup semi-finalists three times in the 19th century, and played at the Dolphin Cricket Ground in Slough.

    So Old Etonians would be the only winners from Bucks, if they played on the college playing fields.

  • The Thames was indeed the northern boundary of Berkshire to Oxfordshire and Bucks until 1974. Eton was in Bucks, Windsor in Berks. Berks used to stretch up to the south bank of the Thames at Oxford but lost a huge bit of territory in 1974 (which is why Oxfordshire based clubs still play in the B+B cup.) A small consolation to Berks at the same time was it gaining Slough and environs....

  • The Swifts managed to win the B&B cup, where as The Old Etonians never managed to get their hands on the illustrious trophy.

  • Swifts are one part of what became in a merger former arch-rivals Slough Town

  • Having showed myself up by not remembering that Old Etonians had won the FA Cup twice, I did a little research. "The playing fields of Eton" and Old Etonians current ground - Dutchman's Playing Fields, Pococks Lane, Eton- are indeed north of the Thames with either an Eton or Slough address depending on where you look.

    With the Quarters Derby approaching our Gas people may be pleased to learn that the quarters are rooted in a strong Buckinghamshire tradition. Here is a picture of the Old Etonians kit which they wore for the 1881 / 82 Final when they won the FA Cup for the 2nd time defeating Blackburn Rovers.


  • edited January 2023

    Those were the days when, in the words of a wonderful Cole Porter song, “Anything Goes”, ‘a glimpse of stocking was something shocking’ and I’m old enough to remember when official matchday programmes referred to the colour of the players’ stockings rather than socks.

  • edited January 2023

    And indeed @micra shorts were knicks a diminutive of knickers and until just before WW1 keepers wore the same jerseys as their team mates as well as able to catch the ball anywhere in their own half!

  • I prefer Mr Weller's classic lyrics regarding Etonians

    "All that rugby puts hairs on your chest

    What chance have you got against a tie and a crest?"

    Incidentally Swifts FC were originally an egg chasing outfit.

  • Famous for their original and inventive nickname..."The Birds"

  • The Swifts wikipedia age just has a record of their FA Cup games, is it possible that's the only competition they entered.

    They also appeared to play at least some home games at The Oval.

  • edited January 2023

    A hit during our non-league time enjoying “a row goin’ on down in Slough”.

    Paul probably wasn’t to know but Rugby isn’t really a thing at Eton. The Field Game dominates the Lent Half, The Wall Game only on St Andrews Day which leaves plenty of time for Association Football to be played in Michaelmas term.

    Much like other ‘elite’ Public Schools: Winchester, Charterhouse, Shrewsbury, Repton footer is the toffs game of choice.

  • edited January 2023

    Yet at RGS - which isn't a public school but acts like one (it even has fives courts, for goodness sake) - you're taught that football is for reprobates (despite them letting it be played in PE lessons).

  • edited January 2023

    %age of UK mens professional sportsmen (in 2019) who attended fee paying schools

    Rugby 37% fee paying 8% grammar 47% state (8% not accounted for)

    Cricket 43% fee paying 3% grammar 43% state 11% not accounted for

    Football 5% fee paying 5% grammar 89% state 1% unknown

    Olympic medalists (2016) 31% 8% 59% 2%

    Like so many things in this broken country, if your childhood ambition is to be a successful sportsman, try to make sure you have a rich mummy and daddy

  • Do you have the percentages for the population as a whole?

    I’m not sure ‘state’ is the best descriptor there as I went to a state grammar school.

  • edited January 2023


    I believe it is around 7% of kids go to private school, 5% grammar school 88% comps although as ever figures vary on source and whether just measuring England (and wales sometimes) or UK whole.

    Football is broadly in line perhaps because the clubs hoover up and coach talent at a young age regardless of family wealth

    other sports skewed heavily towards fee paying affluent parental backgrounds

    You are correct "state" above should have said "state comprehensive". My bad.

  • Aren't all grammar schools state schools?

  • It's absolutely ridiculous that we should have reached the year 2023 and selective education still exists

  • I'm not sure it's necessarily a problem that it exists (although I absolutely hated my grammar school experience), but it is a problem that it doesn't exist in all parts of the country.

Sign In or Register to comment.