Renton, The Vale and The Scottish Game
Episode 2 - The Passing-Game
(with massive thanks to the incredible London Hearts Supporters Club archive)
The conventional argument, the accepted history of football, has been for as long as seems to be remembered that what had made Scottish Association football different, for that is effectively the only set of round-ball rules to which we have ever played, and for a long period by results demonstrably superior was its "passing-game". And at its core was the assertion that the source had been the Queen's Park club of Glasgow in the 1870s. However, it is seeming increasingly possible, indeed probable, that, as is the case with several elements of what is academically called the game's "historiography", it is not and never has been correct. And the reason is that the view until now has been largely based on the interpretation of events put forward in the "History of Queen's Park Football Club 1867-1917", dated 1920, published in 1921 and produced by Richard Robinson, a jobbing sports-writer, a pen for hire with QP connections, an interpretation that is presently, mainly because of what is now being uncovered through digitisation, under challenge.
Robinson's was a work designed to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the club's foundation but fell, perhaps unknowingly but quite possibly not, at an unfortunate time. In 1900 The Spiders had "agreed" to join the Scottish League a decade after its foundation. But to The Great War they had never finished in the upper part of the table, had actually found themselves bottom in 1906, 1910, 1913, 1914 and only recovering in the War years. But post-War, as the game re-grouped, the club almost immediately struggled once more and when the Second Division was revived would after just a year be relegated to it never to return.
And it is that which begs the question, whether the club was sensing what was already in the air and, with an, until then, position in the Scottish game beyond its performances on the field and with Hampden Park to be paid for, wanted to shore up its position. If so, what better way, if it could not justify by means of its contemporary position, than to inflate its historical one. It is rather like what was happening in the United States as in the 1920s "soccer" began to boom and sixty years after the fact the Oneida club of Boston tried to maintain that its games from the 1860s were the first manifestation. But it was a try-on, gas-lighting, the two major problems in Oneida's case being that, whilst it had certainly played football, the club itself had been founded in 1862 so before the Football Association and the ball they had used had not been round. And it is to a similar degree that the term gas-lighting applies on this side of the water in the case of Queen's Park. Passing existed, organisation too and there is now actually documentary evidence that the Hampden club was originator even in Scotland of neither.
So what is the evidence? It comes from two main sources, both of which predate not the arrival of Association rules but the full Association game North of the Border. The caveat is there because Association Rules were used in Scotland in the 1860s but not 11-a -side. And here there is a choice of when. It is either in the middle of 1871 when Queen's Park agreed by entering the FA Cup fully to accept and play to the rules from London of the Football Association, 11-a side included, or on 5th March 1872, when the club kicked off, as it turned out, for its first, and only, match in that season's competition.
And the first, major evidential source, amongst others, is Sheffield. There archival searching of newspaper reports has more than adequately shown that gradually in the decade from 1861 organisation and passing became part, albeit still a relatively small part, an element, of normal, Sheffield-Rules play. Confirmation can be found, for example, in the bones of the paper:
The Evolution of Football Passing in Nineteenth-Century Britain
And the second of the sources is The Royal Engineers. Founded in 1863, so just a year after the Football Association, the "Sappers" had seen it all with time to think about the game and again gradually apply what else but military logic. In fact the Wikipedia page on the Royal Engineers Association Football Club, to the writer of which go very grateful thanks, produces a potentially succinct analysis, if one clearly with the aim of contradicting specifically Scottish claims, of the basics of the team's approach and thus contribution but badly jumbles points on "passing" with "organisation". However, by remedying that with some re-jigging a much clearer picture with timeline emerges as follows.
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"All of these developments occurred before and independent of the 1872 match between England and Scotland", "the early accounts all confirm that the Engineers were the first club to play a passing game of cooperation and organisation with both their forwards and their defence. Although they could also play rough – as would be expected for an army team – The Engineers are the first side to be considered to play the football "beautifully"" and "unlike the 1872 Glasgow international, the contemporary evidence above shows that the Engineers' team playing style benefited their team play by winning games".
Organisation
1867 - "The club was founded in 1863, under the leadership of Major Francis Marindin; the earliest game recorded for the Engineers against a non-military side is a 3–0 home win over No Names Club in March 1867. 1868 - "by early 1868, a contemporary match report states "For the R.E.s Lieuts Campbell, Johnson and Chambers attracted especial attention by their clever play"" 1869 -"an 1869 report says they "worked well together" and "had learned the secret of football success – backing up"; whereas their defeated opponents had "a painful want of cooperation" 1871 - "in a match of March 1871 against Wanderers their victory was due to "irreproachable organisation" and in particular that both their attacks and their backing up were both "so well organised" Early 1870s -"in the early 1870s Wall (Sir Frederick Wall) states that the "Sappers moved in unison" and showed the "advantages of combination over the old style of individualism" Early 1872 - "that the engineers were the first side to break the trend of dribbling is shown in a contemporary account of their victory against Crystal Palace in early 1872. This said that: "very little dribbling was displayed" February - "there is evidence that opponents sometimes adjusted their playing style to counteract the organisation and passing of the Engineers. For example, in February 1872 against Westminster School, a brief contemporary match report states that: "The school captain took the precaution of strengthening his backs, deputizing HDS Vidal to cooperate with Rawson and Jackson and so well did these three play in concert... they succeeded in defying the... RE forwards" "what is most notable about this (1872 Westminster) report is that it confirms that the Royal Engineers "played beautifully together" November 1872 - "the evidence above contains detailed descriptions of passing that are lacking in reports of the 1872 Glasgow international. For example, in a lengthy account the Scotsman newspaper makes no mention of passing or combination by the Scottish team and specifically describes the Scottish attacks in terms of dribbling: "The Scotch now came away with a great rush, Leckie and others dribbling the ball so smartly that the English lines were closely besieged and the ball was soon behind" and "Weir now had a splendid run for Scotland into the heart of his opponents' territory"" March 1872 - "similarly, the 5 March 1872 match between Wanderers and Queens Park contains no evidence of ball passing, although the Scottish team are acknowledged to have worked better together during the (the 1872) first half, this contemporary account acknowledges that in the second half England played similarly: "During the first half of the game the English team did not work so well together, but in the second half they left nothing to be desired in this respect." The Scotsman concludes that the difference in styles in the first half is the advantage the Queens' Park players had "through knowing each others' play" as all came from the same club" 1873 - "the Royal Engineers were the first football team to go on a tour, to Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield in 1873.[Wall's memoirs state that this tour introduced the combination game to Sheffield and Nottingham.".
Passing
"By 1870, ball passing was a feature of the Engineers style: "Lieut. Creswell, who having brought it up the side then kicked it into the middle to another of his side, who kicked it through the posts the minute before time was called", "In February 1871 against Crystal Palace it is noted that "Lieut. Mitchell made a fine run down the left, passing the ball to Lieut. Rich, who had run up the centre, and who pinched another [goal]" "In November 1871 similar passing tactics are described in a contemporary account of a game against the Wanderers in which two goals were scored through tactical passing: "Betts, however, soon seized his opportunity, and by a brilliant run down the left wing turned the ball judiciously to Currie, who as judiciously sent it flying through the strangers' goal in first rate style". Later in the match it is reported that "Lieut G Barker, turning the ball to Lieut Renny-Tailyour who planted it between the posts", (and) "turning" the ball clearly points to the short pass."
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From the above there are two immediate observations to be drawn. The first is that organisation is mentioned far more frequently than passing, eleven times to three. The second is that the first mention of organisation predates that of passing by three years. Thus in both cases the suggestion is the latter is a consequence of the former and therefore the RE's was not firstly a "passing-game" per se, to which can be added that there is little evidence even that it ever really progressed to one. This is born out by their approach to formation. In the 1872 FA Cup Final in winning The Wanderers lined up as 1-1-8, whereas RE took the field as 2-1-7, a subtle difference perhaps but one that was, if at least considered, hardly radical. Then in 1874 it was 1-2-7, simply matching Oxford University, in 1875 then looks to have been 2-1-7 once more and by the 1878 final the Scottish 2-2-6 had been adopted.
So if it was not Sheffield, albeit that there passing was being employed but again with little evidence of a "passing-game", with no better reason really required beyond that it was not playing Association football at the time and it was not The RE, because their prowess was organisation, there remains a space, one into which Queen's Park could and had been neatly fitted. But here once more there are problems.
The first is that Queen's Park's approach appears also to have been organisational. Robert Gardner as captain was recorded even before 1872 as giving out written instructions prior to matches. But instructions tell where generally to position and perhaps how to move but they cannot do the same for when to hold and when to release the ball. Those judgements can only be made in game. And in any case, whilst Queen's Park began in mid-1872, if not earlier, with mimicking the English 1-2-7 before in November 1872 for the international switching to the completely innovative 2-2-6, they, as contemporary match reports show, then immediately reverted. Indeed it may even have been the root of ructions within the club that caused Gardner and others to leave but revert they certainly did. Moreover, by the time, albeit just months later, they realised the error of their ways matters has already moved on. Vale of Leven, The Vale, continued through the first half of 1872 in it several encounters with Queen's Park to use only 2-2-6. And before the end of the year Renton was off its own bat already playing a development of the same, i.e. 2-2-3-3, which opens up a gamut of alternative possibility.
There is little doubt that Renton was utilising for football a formation it had taken from its other then winter game, shinty, The Vale, its nearest neighbours, having already done much the same thing, although not quite so explicitly. One sport had positionally been grafted onto another. But shinty is not just formational. The Ancient Game is one of movement of players into space and passing between individuals short, knocking-off, or long into that space to be run on to. It is a "passing-game", arguably the original one since its rules were even then two millennia old, and rugby, for example, had not yet been fully codified and seems to have been mostly ruck and scimmage with American football, with its movement after throws or hand-ons being formalised as from one static scimmage to the next, being the most similar, modern iteration. And it stands to reason that if shinty's game-shape were grafted so, as a result, had been the in-game interconnectivity that would replace the lack of it that individualism inevitably produces. It was that way round, "cooperation" displacing "vanity of the self". In other words the specifically Scottish passing-game that was universally noticed and rapidly became widely admired because it worked did not emerge fully-formed but had come as the result, the natural result, of the layering of one, long-practiced sport on top of a still formationally-fluid, new one. And that layering came not from literally bourgeois Queen's Park at all, despite the assertion of wholey Glasgow-centric FSM and similar, but from the old into the new people's, indeed proletarian game of the valley of the Dunbartonshire Leven, from The Vale initially and seemingly more fully still from specifically Renton. Nor would it be the last time - No Leven, No Scots-Game, No Soccer. - IPCW