Cambridge University A.F.C.

Cambridge University A.F.C.

Full name	Cambridge University Association Football Club
Founded	1866
Ground	Grange Road Stadium/Fenners Pitches, Cambridge, UK
Capacity	1000
Head Coach	Alex Coleman
League	BUSA Midlands Division 2A/2B (TBC)
2005-06	BUSA Midlands Division 1A, 1st
Home colours

Cambridge University Association Football Club is an English football club representing the University of Cambridge.

The game of football has its origins many centuries in the past but until the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century it was barely recognisable, little more than a street brawl. At this point, Eton, Harrow and Winchester all codified a set of different conventions and consequently a more organised game began to emerge. Naturally, children who had learnt this new game at school now sought to play it at university, however, they encountered something of a problem; they all played to different conventions.

So, it was on a cold, damp morning in 1846 that HC Malden of Trinity set down the first ever rules of football, posting them on the trees around our very own Parker's Piece; few realise that this humble patch of turf is almost certainly the birthplace of the most popular game on the planet. Debate on the intricacies of the rules rumbled on and so in 1863 a revised set of Cambridge Rules were created. In October of that year twelve teams from London got together at the Freemasons' Tavern on Great Queen Street in Holborn, under the auspices of the fantastically named Ebenezer Cobb Morley, to found the Football Association (FA). It was to these revised Cambridge Rules that they turned. From these inauspicious beginnings the game was to grow rapidly, and again it was the action of Cambridge men that fuelled this blaze of popularity, setting up new clubs such as Hallam FC in the north and The Forest Club down in Essex. Thus, Colin Weir’s assertion in his history of CUAFC that, ‘it would be hard to exaggerate the influence that the University footballers of Cambridge have had on the game in England and subsequently all over the world' is perhaps not as implausible as it at first might sound.

Meanwhile, within the University the 1860's witnessed the foundation of a formalised Cambridge University Association Football Club (CUAFC); the university club had previously been a somewhat ad hoc mix of students from Trinity and Jesus. Once Oxford had followed suit, there was immediate talk of a Varsity match, and on March 30, 1874 the two Universities first met. Although the Light Blues succumbed 1-0, they were to dominate their Oxford counterparts until the end of the century.

Come 1882, and CUAFC were still playing on Parker's Piece. A meeting of the Club concluded that it would be advisable to buy a ground, for Parker's Piece was not appropriate "owing to the fact that anyone can walk across and about the ground during the game". But it was not until 1895, however, that they were able to acquire Grange Road, in tandem with the Rugby Club, for £4,300. They were still paying it off until just before the First World War. Grange Road remains the university ground, although it was joined by Fenners in 1975.

Nationally, with the new social legislation of the early 20th century that distributed more money to the working classes and increased leisure time (particularly on Saturday afternoons) and with new technological advances, such as the expanse of railways, which facilitated the nationalisation of leagues, the game of football was truly blooming. All the great clubs of today were formed at this time. The munitions workers at Woolwich Arsenal put down their tools and started picking up their boots in 1886. Members of the cricket club at Everton widened their sporting interests in 1878. However, a disgruntled manager would later decide to form a rival club that played in red. With the support of the Three Crowns, Newton Heath was founded in 1878, soon joining with another side to become Manchester United, while Aston Villa grew out of the Bible Class at a Wesleyan Chapel in 1874. Fair to say that CUAFC’s creation had truly captured the imagination of people from all walks of life.

Unsurprisingly, Cambridge University having lit the touch-paper, embraced this football explosion. It provided almost fifty England internationals in the early years. It was given a seat on the FA Council, which it maintains to this day. It has played against a plethora of league sides from within Britain and abroad; the first overseas tour took place in Hungary in 1902. Varsity matches were contested at Wembley until 1989.

The pride in this history and tradition within the club is epitomised by the celebrations of its 150th anniversary: there will be a lunch at the new Wembley Stadium, attended by officials of the FA, Uefa and Fifa, there was a match against an FA XI on May 1 2006, and a German TV documentary in which current players helped re-created that first game on Parker’s Piece a 150 years ago.

Whilst the club is immensely proud of its great tradition, equally, Cambridge University football continues to go from strength to strength in the modern day as it finds its feet in the new millennium. A fresh and innovative website has been launched in 2004 (www.cuafc.org). A consistent and professional coaching set-up is being maintained from year to year. Both the Blues and Falcons are now competing in National BUSA leagues, and both won their most recent Varsity matches, 1-0 and 2-0 respectively. The blues’ game was hosted by Fulham F.C. at Craven Cottage. An end of season (2005/2006) tour to the US was successfully undertaken, where the Blues competed with several of America’s Ivy League Universities, and another tour to a training camp in La Manga is planned for the coming season.

External links

• Cambridge University Association Football Club official site