Corinthian Football Club have achieved many rare feats in their history, some of which are likely never to be repeated. On 12 March 1894, all 11 players starting for England played for one club, Corinthian, although many were dual registered with other amateur clubs, including Casuals.

They would face neighbours Wales at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham. The Welsh team that stepped onto the pitch that day was a mix of amateurs and professionals, but they were no match for the Corinthians who, despite conceding the first goal, won 5-1. J.G. Veitch scored a hat-trick and R.C. Gosling also scored, with the other an own goal. No other club has ever been able to claim a full starting XI for England, but Corinthian did it twice.

James Shaw takes a look back at that historic XI.

L.H. Gay
From Brighton in Sussex, Gay was the goalkeeper. He was also an accomplished cricketer representing England in one first-class test against Australia, as well as Somerset and Hampshire. Gay earned three caps for England in goal and would play 32 times for Corinthians. He also earned blues for Cambridge in cricket and football. Later, he signed up as a reserve for Southampton but never played a first-team match.

L.V. Lodge
Lodge played as a full-back, and represented England five times, having previously played for Cambridge University where he gained three blues against Oxford. He would play 47 times for Corinthians, never scoring, and also signed a contract with Small Heath (later renamed Birmingham City), playing one game while maintaining his amateur status. Tragically, he was found drowned in a pond at the age of 43, believed to have taken his own life amid mental health difficulties.

F.R. Pelly
Pelly was an East London boy who ended up playing for both Corinthians and Casuals, but little else is known of him. However, he did represent England three times on top of his 47 appearances for Corinthian and was a prominent player for the Casuals in the 1890s, captaining them at one point.

A.H. Hossack
Hossack played for Cambridge University earning a blue in 1890 before representing Corinthian 31 times. He scored once for Corinth in a 5-2 win over West Bromwich Albion in 1894. He represented England twice in the 1890s and also played for Casuals while registered with Corinthian in 1891. He was an assistant at Corinthians in 1890/91, helping N.L. Jackson run the club.

C. Wreford-Brown
The most famous Corinthian in the line-up, he played 161 times for the club in two decades. He captained the side and went on tour to South Africa (twice), Hungary, Austria, Czechia, Germany, Sweden and Denmark. He started his amateur career at Oxford University representing them in football and cricket before joining Old Carthusians. Both his brother and his son would play for Corinthian, and he is believed to have coined the word ‘soccer’.

A.G. Topham
Another Oxford University alumnus who earned a blue in football in 1890, Topham and his brother played for both Corinthian and Casuals. This match against Wales was his only appearance in an England shirt, but he made 29 appearances for Corinthian, scoring twice and appeared regularly (minimum 58 times) for Casuals even playing in the FA Amateur Cup final in a 2-1 loss to Old Carthusians in 1894.

R. Topham
A.G.’s elder brother, making the Tophams one of seven pairs of brothers to represent the Three Lions in the same game. Robert is also the only player registered at a professional Football League club during this time. He was on the books at Wolverhampton Wanderers despite maintaining his amateur status, winning the 1893 FA Cup final. He would play 45 times for Corinthian and score 23 goals, whilst also representing Casuals regularly (minimum 46 times). He was part of the Corinthian side that shared the 1898 Sheriff of London Charity Shield with English champions Sheffield United.

R.C. Gosling
One of the wealthier gentlemen on this team and heir to the Goslings Bank, he was an Eton and Cambridge alumnus (although he didn’t earn a blue). He was described by fellow Corinthian G.O. Smith as one of the best forwards of the time and scored 14 times in 49 appearances in Corinthian white alongside his two goals in five appearances for England. He scored in this game against Wales.

G.O. Smith
A legend of his time and considered one of the greatest players of his generation, Smith made 20 international appearances and scored 10 times. He was simply known as G.O. Yet another who won his blues playing for Oxford and represented Old Carthusians. His reputation as one of the best on the pitch was matched by that of his reputation off it as a true gentleman. So prolific was Smith that he scored a whopping 132 times in 137 matches for Corinth.

J.G. Veitch
The hero of the day with a hat-trick against Wales, Veitch only ever made this one appearance for England. Veitch was born in Kingston Hill and would play 69 times for Corinthian, scoring 49 times. He also represented Cambridge in four Varsity matches. Veitch’s first appearance for Corinthian came against the great ‘Invincible’ Preston North End side of 1888/89, in a 1-0 defeat.

R.R. Sandilands
Working as a clerk for the Bank of England, Sandilands is one of the few on this team not to have gone to Cambridge or Oxford University. Another prolific goalscorer, he played 46 times and scored 32 goals for Corinthian and kept it up on international duty, with three goals in six England caps. He played for Casuals in 1892 and also played cricket for Upper Tooting, whose ground is a former home of the Casuals, and hockey for Wimbledon.

"As the season comes to an end, I’d like to send a message to our brilliant supporters. As you know, this club holds a special place in my heart and I’m grateful to be given the opportunity to be the manager.

We are most probably one of the youngest management teams from Step 5 to Step 3 and above, but I feel we have changed a lot of things on and off the pitch, while there is still plenty of work to do.

Starting a team from scratch is never easy but I was always confident in myself and my management team. There have been a lot of ups and downs and that’s the beauty of the game. We have had a tough period over the last few months and so many different factors play a part in that. So I wanted to say a massive thank you to, the amazing Corinthian-Casuals fans, for your continuous support. You turn up in numbers – week in, week out – and have been our 12th man. Without you, this club wouldn’t be what it is.

Our aim was to always get this club out of this league and that remains the same. Once again, I want to say a massive thank you to everyone involved at the club, for sticking by me my players and my management team.

Lastly, thank you to my management team and my players.

I hope everyone has a good summer and we will see you all soon.

Vai Corinthians!"
Mu Maan

The stated aim of Corinthian Football Club’s landmark tour to Germany and Austria in April 1925 was “the reconciliation of nations through sport.”

Just a few years after the conclusion of the First World War, in which millions of soldiers on both sides had lost their lives in bloody conflict with one another, our club spoke of unity and the need to find common ground on which to build a better future.

Corinthians have always been renowned for our belief in the power of sport to unite people and the local press referred admiringly to the club’s “world-wide outlook” hailing the famous English amateurs as “carriers of a mission of peace” as they welcomed them to two nations with which the British had been at war a matter of years before.

“That the Corinthians were privileged to visit Germany and Austria, our late enemies, with the definite intention of cementing the peace, was indeed a great honour,” wrote F.N.S. Creek – one of the travelling squad – in his History of the Corinthian Football Club.

Their first stop on the tour was Cologne, where they visited the Rhine bridges still guarded by the British Army of Occupation during an afternoon’s sightseeing.

Yet there was a second, footballing reason why a visit from the Corinthians was significant in 1925, as the argument over whether professionalism should be adopted by the sport was raging in Germany that year. Some in the local sports press used the tour as part of their culture war, hailing the great amateur side as “the most authentic representatives of English sport.”

The following evening, they defeated Cologne 4-2 in front of a crowd of 10,000 with two goals each for A.H. Chadder and E.R.T. Holmes, the latter of whom would become better known as a Surrey and England cricketer.

After travelling through the Ruhr valley to Hamburg, the next game was played on a stiflingly hot Easter Sunday afternoon, with Creek scoring a hat-trick and Chadder on target again in a 4-1 victory over Hamburger SV, the club at which Kevin Keegan would later win the Ballon d’Or.

Each match on the tour was followed by a lavish banquet and the players were staying at the best hotels in the country, a regular bone of contention with those who bristled at the idea that these Corinthians who proudly spoke of the amateur ideal were treated to luxuries the professionals of the day could only dream of affording with their footballers’ wages. The “beautiful silver cups” presented to each player after the opening game in Cologne were a prime example.

From Hamburg, they took the train to Berlin, where they faced Tennis Borussia and drew 1-1 on “a hard ground, several miles from the hotel.” Creek noted that the Germans “were extremely fast yet very well-built fellows” and seemed satisfied with the draw.

The German press were delighted.

“After two difficult games, the Corinthians were not fully prepared when they met a hard-trained, well-equipped opponent in Berlin, who outdid themselves on the day. With their verve, sharp shots and sprint, Tennis-Borussia played the best game of their lives this time and would have simply strangled any other eleven with their speed.”

On this occasion, the post-match gifts to each player were “gold pencils” and they capped off the night with a bit of dancing.

The final leg of the tour took them, via the Elbe valley, to Austria, where the team were surprised to find a cheering crowd awaiting them at the station, leading to a “triumphal progress from train to hotel.” Such was the strength of the club’s reputation even as late as 1925.

Austrian football was arguably the most advanced in Europe at the time, and the team faced the sternest test of the tour when they took on a Vienna XI in front of 50,000 people on what Creek described as a “hard sandy rectangle entirely devoid of grass.”

The officials for the game didn’t speak English and there was a debate over the size of the ball, which was smaller than those used in Britain. Towering Corinthian centre-half John Morrison decided to end the argument by taking the ball and booting it over the stand, but the locals had the last laugh when it was replaced by an even smaller one.

The referees penalised all forms of charging, leaving the rough English defenders feeling wronged every time they were punished for a heavy challenge with a free kick against. Intriguingly, the Germans had been impressed by that aspect of the Corinthian game, urging their players to learn from it. “It is not a stupid attempt to run over the opponent, but an art,” wrote one German reporter.

Whatever the reason for the difference, the Austrian referee stuck firmly to local interpretations of the laws of the game, just as any English official would have done had the roles been reversed. Creek, nonetheless, seemed unimpressed, concluding: “It can, in fact, be fairly stated that the Corinthians were beaten in Vienna through not knowing the rules of the game as played there.”

Perhaps these were just excuses for the 2-0 defeat Corinthians suffered at the end of an otherwise successful tour, but it also showed the burgeoning power of Austrian football that would become a feature of international football during the interwar period.

That evening and the following day, the Viennese pulled out all the stops to entertain their guests, regardless of any disagreements over the way the game should be played the previous day. There were bronze medals for all involved, then “motor drives” and trips to the theatre, as well as dances and banquets. They really didn’t waste a moment on those tours.

Then, the following day, they set off on the long journey home to London feeling they had, as Creek put it, “really helped to cement the peace.”

The Corinthian squad in Austria and Germany, Easter 1925:
G. Ashton, B. Howard Baker, L.B. Blaxland, A.G. Bower, A.H. Chadder, F.N.S. Creek, A.T. Davies, F.H. Ewer, A.C.J. German, E.R.T. Holmes, C.B.G. Hunter, J.S.F Morrison, G.B. Partridge, J.G. Stevenson, A.E. Taylor

We are planning to develop a 3G 9-a-side football pitch and four padel courts at King George’s Field, and we’d love your input! There will be a public meeting to discuss the project at the clubhouse next Monday. Full details are below:

Date: Monday 7 April
Time: 5pm-7pm
Location: Clubhouse, Corinthian-Casuals Football Club, Queen Mary’s Close, Tolworth

Drawings and plans will be available for viewing, and we welcome your thoughts and feedback. So, please come down and take a look.
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BRIAN ADAMSON
CHAIRMAN