Football during the war

[knittinganddeath]

I just read an article in a Norwegian newspaper that suggested that football (soccer for North Americans) became somewhat difficult to play because of the rubber shortage during the war -- it was hard to get new balls. Is this a known phenomenon in other countries?

[FROGSMILE]

2 hours ago, knittinganddeath said:

I just read an article in a Norwegian newspaper that suggested that football (soccer for North Americans) became somewhat difficult to play because of the rubber shortage during the war -- it was hard to get new balls. Is this a known phenomenon in other countries?

You raise an interesting point.  The outer part of the ball was made from leather patches, each of a special, interlinking shape that were then stitched together.  On the inside was the rubber ‘bladder’ (as it was termed), which was inflated via a protruding tube attached to a valve set into the leather outer surface.  A pump such as that used for bicycle wheels was then attached and operated to inflate the bladder until it was tight to the leather inside.  Balls were changed at half time when I was a boy, as they often became waterlogged in British climates and much heavier than intended.  It wasn’t unusual to be completely stunned if you headed a mid-air ball in that soaking wet state.  I cannot imagine that there was an alternative material to the rubber.

Edited 23 January , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[knittinganddeath]

2 hours ago, FROGSMILE said:

an alternative material to the rubber.

Rugby balls were originally made with pig bladders, but I think several decades before the war they were standardised with rubber bladders much like the football one you describe. Cricket balls use a cork core. Maybe that could have been an alternative. Thinking about it, so many sports would have been affected by the rubber shortage: golf, tennis, ice hockey, car racing...

Also, I had no idea that footballs got waterlogged. It would be terrible to be a keeper at the end of the halves, never mind extra time!

[FROGSMILE]

28 minutes ago, knittinganddeath said:

Rugby balls were originally made with pig bladders, but I think several decades before the war they were standardised with rubber bladders much like the football one you describe. Cricket balls use a cork core. Maybe that could have been an alternative. Thinking about it, so many sports would have been affected by the rubber shortage: golf, tennis, ice hockey, car racing...

Also, I had no idea that footballs got waterlogged. It would be terrible to be a keeper at the end of the halves, never mind extra time!

Yes I do recall reading about the pig bladders.

The leather footballs were supposed to be routinely cleaned of mud and then “treated” (coated) with “dubbin” (a relatively sticky waterproofing grease), as indeed were soldiers’ boots when in the field.

Edited 23 January , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[GROBBY]

Sergeant Frank Edward  I think of the Irish Rifles kicked a football across no mans land  to the german trenches at the battle of Loos  in 1915.The football is still kept by the regiment on display

[FROGSMILE]

On 23/01/2023 at 17:07, GROBBY said:

Sergeant Frank Edward  I think of the Irish Rifles kicked a football across no mans land  to the german trenches at the battle of Loos  in 1915.The football is still kept by the regiment on display

Yes and an East Surrey’s battalion had a famous initiative with a football used at the opening (over the top) assault at the Somme 1st July 1916.  I think it was intended originally to emphasise the confidence that the German line would be broken by the week long preparatory barrage, but of course it was nothing of the sort.  

The 8th (Service) Battalion East Surrey Regiment dribbled four footballs, the gift of their captain, Billie Nevill, who fell in the fight, 
for a mile and a quarter into the enemy trenches during the attack.  There were two surviving footballs from the event but one was destroyed by a fire at the regimental museum (an utterly disastrous destruction of many other artefacts too) and the sole survivor is now in the National Football (Soccer) Museum and photographed in colour below.

“On through the hail of slaughter,
Where gallant comrades fall,
Where blood is poured like water,
They drive the trickling ball.
The fear of death before them,
Is but an empty name;

True to the land that bore them,
The Surrey’s play the game.On without check or falter,
They press towards the goal;

Who falls on Freedom’s altar,
The Lord shall rest his soul.
But still they charge the living
Into that hell of flame;

Ungrudging in their giving,
Our soldiers play the game.
And now at last is ended
The task so well begun;

Though savagely defended,
The lines of death are won.
In this, their hour of glory,
A deathless place they claim,
In England’s splendid story,
The men who played the game.”

Touchstone

NB.  Selfless bravery?  Absolutely no doubt!  But with the benefit of hindsight, I cannot help but think of this as a typically British plan along the lines of those subsequently lampooned by Private Baldrick in the TV comedy, Blackadder Goes Forth.

 

Edited 13 February , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[ilkley remembers]

Any shortage of rubber doesn’t seem to have affected womens football which blossomed during the war. Often known as munitionettes because they were based in munition factories matches were played in front of as many as 50000 people so it is said

[FROGSMILE]

10 minutes ago, ilkley remembers said:

Any shortage of rubber doesn’t seem to have affected womens football which blossomed during the war. Often known as munitionettes because they were based in munition factories matches were played in front of as many as 50000 people so it is said

Yes, this is an extract from a history of women’s football by Dr Jean Williams:

“Some women’s teams had military links. The Lancashire United Transport Company based in Atherton had a team as early as 1915 and the women of the Preston Army Pay Corps had already played at Deepdale, the home of Preston North End Football Club in 1916. 

The most famous team, Dick, Kerr Ladies of Preston had began to play seriously in October 1917 based at the Strand Road tram building and light railway works, originally founded by W. B. Dick and John Kerr of Kilmarnock. The team would play more in peacetime than during hostilities, therefore.”

 

Edited 23 January , 2023 by FROGSMILE