Everything about West Auckland Town F C totally explained
West Auckland Town F.C. are a
football club from
West Auckland,
County Durham,
England, competing in the
Northern League. The club are most famous for being the winners of the
Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, the world's first international footballing competition, twice, in
1909 and
1911.
History
Early history
The club were founded as
West Auckland F.C. in 1893, and initially played in the
Wear Valley League (1896-1900),
South Durham Alliance (1900-05) and
Mid Durham League (1905-08). In 1908 they joined the
Northern League.
Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy
The Trophy was initiated by businessman and sporting enthusiast
Sir Thomas Lipton, who wished to see a competition between the leading football clubs of
Europe. The football associations of
Italy,
Germany and
Switzerland duly complied, but
the Football Association of England refused to nominate a club. West Auckland, a lowly amateur side of
coalminers from the
Northern League were entered into the competition, although it has never been entirely clear why.
One plausible explanation for West Auckland's entry was that an employee of Sir Thomas Lipton's had contacts in the Northern League and put out an appeal for a team to take the English spot. An alternative explanation, popular in the town itself, is that Lipton had wanted to send
Woolwich Arsenal to the Championship – an instruction to his secretary to "contact W.A." led to West Auckland being mistakenly contacted. However, a review of the facts casts doubt on this theory; at the time Woolwich Arsenal had only just been promoted from the
Second Division and were not the famous club they're today, being relatively small and unsuccessful compared to many other
Football League sides. In addition, there's no documentary evidence to suggest any sort of link between Sir Thomas Lipton and Woolwich Arsenal, so it's unclear why he'd have chosen them ahead of any other English team.
West Auckland duly made the journey to
Turin, where the first tournament was being held, many of the players paying out of their own pocket to do so. They beat
Stuttgarter Sportfreunde in the semi-finals 2-0; in the final, on
April 12,
1909, West Auckland faced Swiss side
FC Winterthur and beat them 2-0 as well to take the trophy.
Two years later, West Auckland returned, and after beating
FC Zürich 2-0, they ran out 6-1 winners in the final over future Italian giants
Juventus. By the rules of competition, they were awarded the trophy to keep in perpetuity.
Upon their return home, the club was forced to pawn the trophy to the landlady of the local hotel because of financial problems. It remained with her family until
1960 when a village appeal raised money to return the cup to the club. The cup was then stolen in
1994 and despite the best efforts of local police and a £2,000 reward it was never found. An exact replica of the cup can now be found in a secure cabinet in the West Auckland Working Men's Club.
The story of the club's first success was turned into a
television movie in
1981 –
A Captain's Tale, produced by
Tyne Tees Television and starring
Dennis Waterman.
History since
Debts forced the club to leave the Northern League in 1912 and fold, although in 1914 it was reconstituted as
West Auckland Town F.C., which remains to this day. Although it has never quite reached the same heights it did at the start of the 20th century, it did win the Northern League in
1960 and
1961, and were
FA Amateur Cup runners-up in
1961, losing to
Walthamstow Avenue. They still remain rivals with
Bishop Auckland F.C. to this day. Having been founded in 1889, the
Northern League is the oldest surviving league after
The Football League.
Honours
Further Information
Get more info on 'West Auckland Town F C'.
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