In 1909 Sir Thomas Lipton, he of the tea company, organised a football tournament in Turin in thanks to the Italian Government for an honour he had been awarded. Top teams from Italy, Germany and Switzerland were invited but for some reason the invitation to a British team was given to West Auckland FC, an amateur side struggling in England’s Northern League.

I had heard of this in my youth but had forgotten about it till last June when I passed through West Auckland village in County Durham, where I stopped for a break and found this statue had been erected on the village’s green.

For, amazingly, West Auckland won the tournament, beating Switzerland’s Winterthur FC 2-0 in the final on 12/4/1909. The plaque mispells Winterthur as Winterhour.

Even more amazingly when the next tournament was played in 1911, West Auckland won it again and so got to keep the Trophy. This time they beat Juventus 6-1.

An information board at the bus stop tells the story.

Note: Renton FC have a prior claim to being the First World Football World Champions having beaten West Bromwich Albion 4-1 in 1888. Both were their domestic Cup winners at the time, the relevant national leagues not having been established yet. This was a World Championship by default as there was little football outside the UK then. Similarly, West Auckland can only really claim to have been European Champions.

One of the striking features of Rochdale Town Hall’s interior is the stained glass windows many of which feature portraits of the Kings and Queens of England.

The windows flanking the entrance though have stained glass representations of the coats of arms of European countries, here Greece, France, Belgium, Turkey, Russia and Portugal:-

The other such window betrays the building’s age. Coats of arms for Sweden & Norway, Prussia, Switzerland, Spain, Denmark and Austria. Note Sweden & Norway, as was (they separated in 1905) and Prussia which, subsumed the rest of Germany in 1871.

Grand staircase:-

This is a closer view showing the stained glass window on the half-landing to greater effect.

SPFL Tier 2, Tynecastle Stadium, 14/3/15

Well I didn’t expect much from this game but at half-time we had held out well only really extended when Danny Rogers had to make a magnificent one-handed save, pushing the ball onto the woodwork from where it fell kindly back to him. We had two attempts on goal – both from Chris Duggan, one of which he made entirely for himself.

The atmosphere in the away end was livened up by the presence there of “Swiss Sons” – quite why a group of fans from Switzerland has adopted us is a bit obscure. I liked the scarf on which was written “Float like an elephant, sting like a rock.” Said scarf was brandished from the lower gangway as its bearer led the Sons choir. Great stuff.

Sadly the game went away from us. They scored after a corner but it looked as if Danny Rogers had been impeded. Their second was from another corner, a free header this time. They didn’t score from open play until we started to try to take it to them a bit in the last ten minutes. 4-0 was harsh on us.

Marvellous fun chanting, “Shall we sing a song for you,” at the comatose home support, “There’s only one Ian Murray,” then, “We forgot that you were there” when they finally roused themselves, “What a shitey home support,” after the circa 15,000 crowd was announced, “We can see you sneaking off,” when the early exodus started, as well as the usual “Dumbarton,” clap, clap, clap and “Oh when the Sons, go marching in,” – plus the Swiss inspired, “Dih, dih, dih-dih, Dumbarton.”

Still, in the second half we were restricted to long range shots. Chris Duggan wasn’t in the box enough, having to forage wide to get the ball. We miss a focal point.

Our defensive outlook here is undersatndable given the disparity in resources between the two clubs but too often our passes failed to reach their target. Theirs tended to be more into space for a man to run onto, but their players are quicker all round. We didn’t get time on the ball.

More attacking intent next week please, though.

Green Point Stadium, Cape Town, 29/6/10.

This could have been a good game but Portugal were content to let Spain keep the ball and pass it in front of them, restricting the Spanish to long range shots for the most part and as a consequence it failed to be a spectacle.

For all their vaunted passing (up blind alleys most of the time it has to be said) it was funny how Spain only began really to get at Portugal after they replaced Torres with Llorente and started humping it up to the big man.

The commentator (Guy Mowbray?) opined that Piqué was maybe a weak link for Spain. Personally I think given what I saw of his performance in the Switzerland game (and all of the Honduras one) Carles Puyol may have passed his peak.

Like most goalkeepers at this World Cup, apart from Julio Cesar, and Eduardo in this one, Casillas looked iffy too.

Two day break, now. I’ll be getting withdrawal symptoms.

Edited to add: even in real time I thought David Villa was offside at the back heel to him before the goal. We didn’t get the relevant stop-motion replay till after the game, though. Funny that, isn’t it?

Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg, 21/6/10

Well, Spain got their win. Honduras were almost non-existent in an attacking sense and were there to be taken as North Korea had been by Portugal earlier.

While undeniably delightful on the eye, Spain played dreadfully tippy-tappy, nonsense football at times, Xavi a particular culprit. Give it a welly now and again!

David Villa looked sharp, but then missed a penalty. Torres was out of sorts. Perhaps when his touch returns Spain might have more of a cutting edege.

On this evidence, Spain won’t win this World Cup. They might not even reach round two, as Chile need a point from them to be sure of their own progress. That result would condemn Spain to elimination as Switzerland will surely beat Honduras. Even a one goal win would do the Swiss if Spain manage to defeat Chile by two or more.