Steve Bloomer wasn’t content with being arguably the best footballer of his day – he was a star cricketer and baseball player too.

One of the leading goalscorers in UFWC history, he scored 20 goals in 17 title matches.

Having retired from playing, in an unfortunate case of bad timing, Bloomer took up a coaching position in Berlin just three weeks before the outbreak of the First World War. He was subsequently interned for three and a half years at Ruhleben, where he led his barrack to the camp football championship at the sprightly age of 43.

‘Though his activities are now confined to the narrow limits of Ruhleben,’ reported the Ruhleben camp magazine, ‘Mr Bloomer’s skill on the field of play has been a source of inspiration for our younger players and of genuine pleasure to the onlookers.’

Bloomer returned to his hometown of Derby after the war, and died in 1938.

Hall of Fame England

ENGLAND 4-3 AUSTRIA, 7 December 1932
Friendly, Stamford Bridge, London
Scorers: Hampson (2), Crooks, Houghton (England); Zischek (2), Sindelar (Austria)

A century on from the original Battle of Stamford Bridge, the setting saw another legendary scuffle. England were still regarded as the best team in the world, but Dr Hugo Meisl and Jimmy Hogan’s Austrian Wunderteam provided fearsome opposition.

The Austrians had held the UFWC title for 12 consecutive games, impressively beating Germany 6-0 and 5-0, Switzerland 8-1, and Hungary 8-2 along the way. Add to the equation the fact that Austria played Meisl and Hogan’s brand of ‘Scottish football’, and this was a mouthwatering and monumental clash.

The illustrated souvenir programme produced for the match (priced 3d) showed the flags of both countries and photographs of captains Billy Walker and Karl Rainer. 42,000 spectators crammed into the ground, and the game got underway at 2.15 in the afternoon.

Despite Austria’s impressive passing play, England prevailed in the first half, taking 2-0 lead into the interval courtesy of Samuel Crooks of Derby County and Blackpool’s Jimmy Hampson.

But, six minutes after the restart, Karl Zischek pulled a goal back for the Wunderteam. Now the game became a classic footballing contest, with both sides drawing admiration from all in attendance.

In the 77th minute Aston Villa striker William Houghton scored a third goal for England. But Austria were not beaten yet. Three minutes later the brilliant Matthias Sindelar pulled another goal back for the Wunderteam. England replied almost immediately, with Hampson grabbing his second goal of the match to make it 4-2. But still Austria would not lie down.

With three minutes left to play Zischek, who scored twice against Scotland in 1930, claimed another brace to put Austria within touching distance of England at 4-3. But that would be as close as Austria would come.

England held out for a narrow victory but, to use a well-worn cliché, football had been the big winner. The game would go down in history as one of the very finest ever played.

Austrian goalscorers Mathias Sindelar and Karl Zischek went on to become football legends, but England’s two-goal hero Jimmy Hampson never played for his country again and was largely forgotten. In 1938 he was lost at sea while fishing with friends. His yacht, Defender, collided with a trawler. His body was never recovered.

Classic Matches Austria, England

It’s 100 years since Hungary became the first team from outside of the British Isles to compete in the UFWC. Here’s a flashback.

HUNGARY 2-4 ENGLAND, 29 May 1909
Friendly, Millenaris Sporttelep, Budapest
Scorers: Kesmarky, Grosz (Hungary); Woodward (2), Bridgett, Fleming (England)

In the UFWC’s 99th title match Hungary became the very first team from outside of the British home nations to take a bite at the UFWC.

For 37 years the title was passed exclusively between England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. England had already played European opposition outside of the UFWC, beating Hungary – and Austria and Bohemia – in the previous year. Now, having taken the title from Wales in March and successfully defended it against Scotland in April, England took the title into a short post-season continental tour.

Hungary were one of the oldest continental international football teams, having played their first international match against Austria in 1902. They were also one of the earliest members of the recently-formed FIFA. They had won more games than they had lost, but those games had been against fellow fledgling footballing nations, and Hungary were no real match for the experienced English.

Sunderland’s George Bridgett scored the first goal in front of 10,000 spectators after just five minutes. Vivian Woodward of Spurs and Harold Fleming of Swindon Town added to the score to give England a 3-1 half-time lead. Skipper Woodward netted a fourth in the second half to achieve the 4-2 victory.

Two days later the sides met for a rematch – and the landmark 100th UFWC title match. England named the same 11, and raced to a 5-0 half-time lead. The final score was 8-2, with Woodward hitting four, Fleming grabbing two, and George Holley of Sunderland also netting twice. The match marked the final international appearance of Evelyn Lintott, the Bradford City right half, who was killed in heroic circumstances at the Somme in 1916.

The day after beating Hungary 8-2, the same team – minus Lintott – beat Austria 8-1 in Vienna. But England would not play outside of the British Isles again until 1921, and the UFWC title continued to be passed between the British home nations.

Classic Matches England, Hungary

80 years ago this month, international football resumed after the horrors of the Great War. We take a look back through the UFWC archives.

IRELAND 1-1 ENGLAND, 25 October 1919
British Home Championships, Windsor Park, Belfast
Scorers: Ferris (Ireland); Cock (England)

The first proper international match played after the Great War was this game between UFWC champions Ireland and challengers England. The war had put an end to international football fixtures for five and a half years, and stole the lives and careers of many of the era’s best footballers.

Lord Kitchener’s recruitment drive saw more than 500,000 men enlist by the end of September, but initially there were few footballers among them. However, after an appeal led by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and with more volunteers needed to replace the casualties lost in early battles, footballers began to sign up. ‘There was a time for games,’ said Conan Doyle, ‘but there is only time for one thing now, and that thing is war. If a footballer had strength of limb let them serve and march in the field of battle.’

At first, only amateurs were allowed to sign up but, under pressure to allow all footballers to fight for their country, the Football Association eventually called for professionals to be released by their clubs.

England centre-half Frank Buckley, who played in his country’s 1914 UFWC match against Ireland, was one of the first footballers to sign up, and he was charged with leading the 17th Service Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, which became known as the Football Battalion. Almost a quarter of the battalion’s 600 men were footballers. Among them were former England captain and centre forward Vivian Woodward, and right-half Evelyn Lintott, both of whom played in the 1909 UFWC win over Hungary.

Woodward was one of the Football Battalion’s first casualties, being hit by a grenade and suffering a serious leg injury. Lintott was transferred to the West Yorkshire Regiment, and was killed leading his platoon ‘over the top’ at the Somme. Then Frank Buckley was hit in the chest by shrapnel, suffering lung damage. Comrades doubted their critically injured Major would make it to the casualty station, but he recovered, and returned to the front line six months later, only to suffer further lung damage in a poison gas attack. Another England player from the 1914 Ireland match, Edwin Latherton of Blackburn Rovers, was killed while serving with the Royal Field Artillery on the Western Front. Latherton had scored 94 goals in 258 games for Rovers.

Finally, at 11am on 11 November 1918, Armistice was declared. Many footballers had lost their lives or suffered career-ending injuries. Major Buckley estimated that 500 of the original 600 members of the Football Battalion had been killed.

A series of ‘Victory Internationals’ were played after Armistice was declared, but none of them stand in the record books as full internationals. These morale-boosting games offered a chance for football to rebuild itself after the sport had been dismantled by the war.

Ireland had played two Victory Internationals against Scotland, losing the first and drawing the second, but the UFWC title was not at stake. Although most friendly matches can count as a UFWC title matches, games in which National Associations do not field their first national representative team do not count. So the first full international did not take place until October 1919, as part of the first post-war football season.

Both Ireland and England fielded much-changed line-ups for this game, with only two players remaining in each side from their last pre-war UFWC matches. Michael Hamill and Bill Lacey remained for Ireland, and Sam Hardy and Bill Watson for England. While some stars had been killed or injured, others simply had their international careers cut short by the five and a half year war interruption. Ireland forward Frank Thompson and England captain Bob Crompton, who had won 41 caps, were among the pre-war stars who never played for their countries again.

New players had emerged, some having starred in the Victory Internationals, and the mood was one of excitement for a new beginning for international football. 30,000 spectators packed Windsor Park to see the two sides play out a 1-1 draw.

It was a decorated World War hero who opened the scoring – Jack Cock putting England ahead after just 30 seconds. Prolific striker Cock had just signed for Chelsea from Huddersfield Town, going on to score 47 goals in 99 appearances for the Blues.

Jimmy Ferris equalised for Ireland after 70 minutes. Ferris was with Belfast Celtic, but he signed for Chelsea in 1920, and played alongside Cock. His career was cut short by a heart condition, and he died in 1932 aged just 37.

Ireland retained the UFWC title, but soccer was the real winner. After a period of terrible darkness, international football was back.

Classic Matches England, ireland