No. 125
The Trusty Servant
150 years of XVs
To Celebrate, a few notes on Win Co Fo
There are references from the 16 th and 17 th centuries to playing football on Hills, where it appears to have continued until as late as 1860, although from 1800 onwards, to an ever increasing degree, Meads was used by College, and Commoner Field by the rest of the school: the latter was on the site of what became the GWR Bar End Goods Yard, but was superseded in 1870 when Dr Ridding purchased Lavender Meads; Dogger’ s Close was subsequently acquired and then Palmer Field in the 1920s.
By 1820, a 22-a-side game was the norm, with rules substantially the same as the present code, as well as a six-a-side game, which was generally deemed to be inferior. As Commoner numbers dwindled during the early-tomid 19 th century, so College victories became more frequent, partly helped by their absolute right to practise on Meads rather than on a field half a mile distant.
Play took place between two lines of juniors who were prevented from surging onto the ground by a rope threaded through posts: even so, this human barrier could play a vital part in the match by steering a vital flyer towards a friend or diverting it from a foe! Juniors were then for a while substituted by canvas hung on an iron framework which tended to be uprooted by the wind, an arrangement which was anyway unpopular as the spectators’ view was now severely restricted. In 1866, netting was used for the first time and the rope and posts placed on the inside of the canvas to protect players from the framework. A slack rope and a four-foot gap between the rope and canvas led to interminable collapsing hots down ropes with very low scores resulting and it was some years before a combination of mechanical tightening and a reduction to a three-foot gap produced the arrangement we would recognise today.
By 1866, three Old Tutors’ Houses had been founded; in 1867, the formal separation of Commoners and OTH teams was made; and from 1868 XVs and VIs have been played between the two in an unbroken series. VIs has retained the same formation, while some changes were made in the 1920s to XVs when it was discovered that the Rugby Union scrum could be adapted to our game.
With regard to colours and kit, College and Commoners have never really deviated from blue and red, while, in the early years, OTH wore green and white; red and blue from 1870-74; and, finally, brown and white in 1875. White serge trousers or a knickerbocker hanging well below the knee were replaced by white shorts in the 1890s. For reasons of economy, they gave way to blue shorts in the 1930s – maybe these didn’ t need to be washed so often!
Extracted from a 1946 article in The Wykehamist by‘ The Jacker’, HA Jackson( Co Ro, 21-45).
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