Good to hear Tommy Lancaster was one of the stars overnight in the game celebrating the 150th Anniv. of the English FA, Tommy's side Polytechnic FC won 2 - 1 over Civil Service.
Fitting that a Kiwi was involved in this game as there was a Kiwi playing in the very first game of football under the new Association rules in 1864, the year following the foundation of the English FA which this fixture at the Palace commemorates.
Article on yesterday's match and interview with Tommy Lancaster - "the latest of 17 former New Zealand national league players to turn out for "Poly, as we're known" :
"Civil Service FC, were one of the founders of the FA back in 1863, so they were offered a home game at the palace by Prince William.
"We, Polytechnic FC, are in their league so, luckily, our league fixture corresponded, and we got to be involved.
"The fact [that] it will be a league game adds a bit more excitement for me, personally, as opposed to it being some kind of friendly, testimonial game.
"Only 200 [people] will be allowed to watch and they will probably be mostly FA patrons and officials, who will receive medals afterwards."
Lancaster, 25, and his team-mates "feel pretty lucky to be involved" in the game. "It's different to a cup final because we obviously haven't won anything to get there.
"My highlight, football-wise, by quite some distance, would still be playing the NZFC [New Zealand Football Championship] final. But this should certainly be something to savour, considering there may never be another game at the palace."
...Polytechnic and Civil Service play in the southern amateur league's top division..."The level of football is decent, without being anything special, [it's] similar to Mainland, I guess," said Lancaster, who played in the Mainland Premier League with Nelson Suburbs and Woolston Technical.
"Although the Cashmere Tech team that just won the Chatham Cup would destroy us."
See this on the original 1864 match and the NZ connection:
CHARLES CRAVEN DACRE: Amazingly a New Zealander actually played in that first-ever game of Association Football in 1864 (probably the only foreign-born player involved)- one Charles Craven Dacre, whose family were amongst the founders of Auckland. He was a colonial lad studying at the Royal College of Agriculture at the time- and one of England's best football players of the day. He helped draw up the rules of Association Football and later became Secretary of the English FA.
So, Kiwis have been involved in Association Football right from the word go.
This makes Dacre of course, our first-ever overseas player- and actually the first-ever overseas player in the world from any country- and you simply can't be more of a "first-ever" player all-around...
It's interesting how violent early Association Football was. Dacre himself was hospitalised and almost died...
But fortunately he survived to bring Association Football home to these shores (especially to North Shore, the eminant club he helped found).
Incredibly, Dacre also played in the first-ever game of provincial rugby between Auckland and Canterbury, on returning home.
Article on Dacre and Origins of Football: (scroll down to relevant passage):
http://users.skynet.be/pluto/Texthistory/evolution1.html
Also in online "Cyclopedia of New Zealand" from 1902:
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc02Cycl-t1-body1-d1-d15-d3.html
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Interesting that the first New Zealander to play in the Football League was born in Christchurch (see post #3):
http://www.yellowfever.co.nz/categories/kiwi-players-overseas/topics/30529
"The first player from New Zealand to appear in the Football League was George "Barney" Moorhead. who played in the 1920s... he had left this country as a two-year-old."
Moorhead was born in 1895 in Christchurch and played in England for Southampton and then Brighton & Hove Albion and for Northern Ireland.
(The Football League had not yet been formed when Charles Dacre played in England.)
A colourful character: see this biographical site:
Big Pete 65, Christchurch
