MIDDLESBROUGH FOOTBALL CLUB
PAGES FROM HISTORY
PRE-
1878-
SOUTH DURHAM AND CLEVELAND MERCURY.
November. 1878
FOOTBALL.
-
(BY AN UNATHLETIC FOGEY.)
(Dedicated to the Football Club of this town.)
How do the footballers rush to the goal?
I’ll endeavour to tell
How they hasten pell-
Notwithstanding
Their “landing,”
Their ills,
And their “spills.”
How limbs they oft break,
How they get all aheap,
And often times weep,
When they find their joints ache.
Behold them on starting,
For victory smarting,
Perspiring in beads,
As the pastime proceeds,
They go in for a “pelter”-
Feeling all of a flurry,
Helter-
Hurry, skurry!
Bystanders remarking,
As shin-
Like lunatics crying,
They send the ball flying,
Till in this rapid race
On which they are sent,
Each nose and each face
Full often get “bent.”
Athletic and strong,
They go kicking along-
Kicking and hacking,
No energy lacking,
While “Go it,” exclaim the throng.
Jumping and leaping,
Shouting and sweeping,
Towelling and thumping,
Jolting and jumping,
Around and around,
All aheap on the ground;
Smiting and fighting,
In bruises delighting;
Confounding,
Abounding,
Shaking and deafening, the place with the sounds.
Receding and speeding,
And mocking and knocking,
And darting and smarting,
And skipping and slipping,
Heads hitting and splitting,
Contusing and bruising,
And dropping and whopping.
Colliding and hiding and sliding,
And bawling and falling and spawling,
And grumbling and mumbling and stumbling,
And scattering and battering and shattering,
And playing, waylaying, hooraying, and braying,
Recoiling and foiling, their smart jerseys spoiling,
And rushing and flushing and brushing and crushing
And thumping and bumping and pumping and jumping,
And dashing and flashing and crashing and smashing-
So, heedless of mocking,
Each other they’re knocking,
In struggles that seem to a sane person shocking!
On the ground they all roll
Till there’s none of them whole.
And that’s how the footballers rush to the goal!
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Middlesbrough News and Cleveland Advertiser. April 1879
MIDDLESBROUGH FOOTBALL CLUB.
The above-
Tyne Association, at Middlesbrough, Tyne 2 goals, Middlesbrough 3 goals.
Loftus, at Middlesbrough, Loftus nil, Middlesbrough 1 goal.
Barnard Castle, at Middlesbrough, Barnard castle nil, Middlesbrough 1 goal.
Redcar at Middlesbrough and Redcar, Redcar nil, Middlesbrough 1 goal and 2 goals.
Southbank at Middlesbrough and Southbank, Southbank nil, Middlesbrough 3 goals and 1 goal.
Drawn matches were played with the Tyne Association at Newcastle, and Loftus at Loftus; both of these matches were very much in the favour of the Middlesbrough club.
Very few Football Clubs can show such a splendid record as the above and we think the Committee of the club have acted wisely in entering a team for next year’s competition for the Sheffield Association Challenge Cup.
The first eleven for the past year was made up as follows:-
On Saturday last a large number of people assembled at the Park Gates to witness the start for the paper chase. The hares, T. S. Gibson, and H. H. Hildreth were despatched at 3:15, and about 12 minutes later the hounds were set off. The hares took a course through Linthorpe, passing Acklam Hall on the right and thence across the fields to Marton. Leaving Tollesby and Gunnergate Halls on the right they made straight across the country, taking hedge and ditch for Tanton. In making his way across this part of the course one of the hares (Gibson) came to grief. Hildreth had cleared a stiffish hedge with a ditch at the far side and was crossing the field beyond when Gibson coming up and wishing to catch up to his companion charged and cleared the fence but fell into the ditch. Consoling himself with the reflection that some of the hounds would most likely have the same luck he made up to Hildreth and the two ran in company to Tanton. About a mile from this place and within half a mile of Stokesley the hares were viewed by two of the “dogs” (Ransforth and Pickstock) about a field ahead. The hares were jogging comfortably along under the impression that the hounds were far behind and were considerably astonished on looking back to find their pursuers so close upon them. They immediately set off again at a good swinging trot and soon left the hounds behind. Greenwood took the lead when the hounds started but lost it after going half a mile. Ransforth and Pickstock then went to the front and gradually drawing away from the hounds kept the lead right up to the finish of the run. C. Booth ran well for about half the distance, but in attempting to crawl through a hedge he stuck fast and could neither get through or back out. Thomas and Greenwood coming up attempted to pull him out by main force but in vain. The more they pulled the louder Booth yelled. At last they managed to push him right through but Booth was so much damaged by the operation that he never figured in the front division again during the remainder of the run. Harking back to the hares Hildreth reached Stokesley first a short distance in front of Gibson who beat Pickstock, the first hound up, by about 150 yards; close behind Pickstock came Ransforth weary and thirsty; J. Harrison next and after a short interval Greenwood appeared, a longer interval and Jackson Ewbank closely followed by Thomas reached the goal. The remaining “bow wows” arrived in very open order. The last three C. Booth, D. Shearer, and Pearson (Redcar) were completely done up three miles from Stokesley, but after a smoke they made a grand effort and managed to reach Stokesley about an hour after the arrival of the hares. The first hare covered the distance, 8½ miles across country, in one hour and eight minutes. The first hound in one hour. The landlord of the Golden Lion Hotel (Mr Law) had a very nice spread ready for both hunters and hunted, to which justice was done.
1878-
Early newspaper advertisement for a Middlesbrough game:-
The Daily Gazette, February 14 1879
FOOTBALL. -