Tuesday 17th December 2024 ko 19:30

Argonaut Trophy

SOUTHERN AMATEUR LEAGUE 1 (Kelly 90+1)

AMATEUR FOOTBALL COMBINATION 2 (Sherriff-Jolly 33 50)

Att c20 at Quintin Hogg Memorial Sports Ground, Chiswick

Free Entry (although parking is chargeable, via an App)

In rugby the schism of 1895 is still obvious. Back then the Northern Rugby Union broke away from the established Rugby Football Union (RFU) to allow for professionalism. In Association football the schism happened in 1907 , albeit in reverse. The clubs wanting amateurism formed the Amateur Football Association and left the Football Association rather than the other way round. I’ll never forget that wonderful quote dating from the time describing professionalism as the, “Fungus growth which had become attached to the machinery of football management!” 

The schism was nowhere near as deep in football as it was for rugby, with the AFA today being treated as a county by the FA albeit one with no geographical borders. Its heartland remains in London and the South-East due to the majority of the clubs in AFA membership tending to have either a military or public school background. And before you ask, yes Eton School do have a team, Old Etonians in the Arthurian League, and yes, I do fancy seeing a game there! Equally, a bucket list ground for me is the Armoury House ground home of the Honourable Artillery Company. It is the only ground in the City of London and the club plays in the Amateur Football Combination; they had players in this game.

You may recall me seeing a game in the Argonaut Trophy a couple of years ago in Acton. Sadly the Hertfordshire League have stopped entering, a shame as the non AFA league did give the competition some added flavour! So this year the competition is being competed for the Arthurian, Southern Amateur and the Amateur Combination Leagues on a mini-league basis.

But as interesting as all that is, what really attracted me to to the game was the ground. The Quintin Hogg Memorial Sports Ground is named after the 19th century English philanthropist, social reformer, and founder of the Polytechnic in Regent Street, a forerunner in education for the poor. The Polytechic Sports Ground is the other side of Hartington Road, and its iconic stand is visible from the QH Sports Ground, I’ve included it in one of the pictures. In more recent years his great-grandson Douglas Hogg served as MP for Grantham and later Sleaford and North Hykeham.

You’ll also see the bus climbing up Chiswick Bridge, that’s the bridge that the University Boat Race boats coast under at the race’s end, before the winning cox gets ceremonially dunked!

It was Robyn and I’s distinct pleasure to watch the game with AFA Referee and Welfare Officer Mark Freedman and thanks to him for adding me to the mailing list and providing both a warm welcome, and much of the information here. He introduced us to the father and sons refereeing team of Andy, Harry, and Zak Dimitriades, and they had a good collective game too!

Not they had too much to referee, this was a good-natured game despite the two sides being remarkably well matched. The Combination won, mainly due to Josh Sherriff-Jolly’s predatory instincts, but it was also good to see the SAL score too, their performance deserved that.