The 1876–77

Birmingham Senior Cup The Birmingham Senior Cup is a regional Association football, football competition for Birmingham County FA club teams, organised by the Birmingham County Football Association. It began in 1876 and is the oldest County Football Association, count ...

was the first edition of the first football tournament played to

Football Association A football association, also known as a football federation, soccer federation, or soccer association, is a governing body for association football. Many of them are members of the sport's regional bodies such as UEFA and CONMEBOL and the world gov ...

laws, other than the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

, and therefore the first local senior tournament.

Background

The

Birmingham Football Association Birmingham County Football Association, also simply known as Birmingham County FA or BCFA, is an association football governing body covering the historic county of Warwickshire (including Birmingham) and the Black Country region, England. The c ...

was founded in 1875 and took a subscription of £3 from its member clubs in order to commission a trophy for a member tournament, the trophy costing £50 and made by Mr R Williams of Wednesbury. Not all of the clubs could afford the £3 subscription - the Harold club for instance only contributing 15s and Wednesbury Old Park 10s 6d. The bulk of the shortfall was met by the wealthy Calthorpe club, which contributed £7 7s, and Wednesbury Town and West Bromwich contributed £5 5s each. By 1876, the association had 16 members, with 500-600 members all told, and all clubs entered the competition. Until 1877, the Association laws did not specify the number of players per side, and it was agreed that the matches would be with 12 players per side. There was also some local leeway with regard to the laws of the game; in particular, the Birmingham local rules stipulated that "corner" kicks should be taken 20 yards from the goalposts, rather than the corner flag.

Participating teams

Details taken from the

Football Annual __NOTOC__ The ''Football Annual'' was a reference work published annually from 1868 to 1908. It reported on the various codes of football played in England, and also provided some coverage of the other home nations, supplemented on occasion by re ...

s for 1876 (secretary names) and 1877 unless stated.

Format

The competition was organized as a straight knockout tournament, with replays to a conclusion.

Results

All results as given in History of the Birmingham Senior Cup by Steve Carr unless otherwise stated.

First round

Replays

Second round

Semi-finals

Final

The final was played at Calthorpe's ground on the Bristol Road. A special train left

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

at 2.05pm, calling at

Wednesbury Wednesbury ( ) is a market town in the Sandwell district, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England; it was historically in Staffordshire. It is located near the source of the River Tame, West Midlands, River Tame and ...

West Bromwich West Bromwich ( ), commonly known as West Brom, is a market town in the borough of Sandwell, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is northwes ...

, and

Hockley Hockley is a large village and civil parish in Essex in the East of England located between Chelmsford and Southend-on-Sea, or, more specifically, between Rayleigh and Rochford. It came to prominence during the coming of the railway in the 189 ...

, to allow the team members and their friends to travel to the final. The Roadsters took a two-goal lead in the first half-an-hour of the match, both scored by Crump, but Page shot just under the bar for a goal back shortly before half-time. Holmes scored two quick goals in the second half, which were enough to secure the trophy for the Old Uns.

Aftermath

Following the formal trophy presentation that evening, the local FA resolved to abolish the "hazardous custom" of charging in local matches, on the basis that it was too dangerous.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1876-77 Birmingham Senior Cup Sports competitions in Birmingham, West Midlands 1876–77 in English football County Cup competitions