On this day, the 26th October, in 1955, two simultaneous floodlit firsts took place, the first time in British football history that two such games had been played on the same day. So perhaps it’s fitting given my fascination with floodlit football that we recap a few floodlit firsts of British football.
Back in the fifties many Brazilian sides toured Europe and one club who hoped to cash in on the success of the 1958 World Cup winning Brazilian national team was Bela Vista Futebol Clube de Sete Lagoas. They weren’t a big club by any stretch of the imagination though a resourceful Brazilian businessman with an eye for an opportunity organised a tour of Europe by the club in the hope of making some money.
1950’s advert for Bovril.
Over fifty years later still a staple of the English matchday experience.
London v Frankfurt 1955. First floodlit match at Wembley. The London XI, who on this ocassion were made up of players from Spurs, Chelsea, Millwall, Charlton, Fulham and Orient, had been the first British club side to appear in European club competition when they’d played a game against a Basle XI in Switzerland in June 1955.
They were not however the first British club side to play at home in Europe. That honour goes to Hibernian who a couple of weeks earlier on October 12th 1955 had played host to Germany’s Rot-Weis Essen in the second leg of their first round European Cup tie.
London won this game against Frankfurt 3-2 after being 2-0 down at half-time. They reached the final of this the first Inter-Cities Fairs Cup tournament but lost 8-2 on aggregate to Barcelona after drawing the first leg 2-2 at Stamford Bridge.
First Floodlit Football League Fixture in England
In 1955 Sunderland made a proposal that led to the formal introduction of floodlit fixtures to the league calendar. They suggested that if the two clubs agreed then postponed fixtures could be played under floodlights.
It was their North East rivals Newcastle who made history along with Portsmouth when the two met at Fratton Park for the first League game under floodlights. Newcastle won 2-0 though the game nearly didn’t go ahead. A power failure had electricians working frantically to get the lights on in time for the 7pm kick off.
Read more | Dark Night Under Lights | tag: floodlights on footysphere
In 1954 Wolverhampton Wanderers were proclaimed in the English press as ‘Champions of the World’ following a thrilling 3-2 floodlit friendly win over Honved of Hungary. Honved boasted many of the ‘Magical Magyars’ that had humilated England 6-3 at Wembley and then 7-1 in Hungary. In front of 55000 people and the cameras of the BBC, English pride was restored.
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Tottenham Hotspur v Racing Club de Paris 29/09/53
This is a beauty. Match to mark the inauguration of the floodlights at the Park Avenue stadium in Bradford. Nearly seventeen and a half thousand were present to see the vistors win 3-2. Sadly less than 13 years later BPA went into liquidation and left the league. Park Avenue itself is still a sports ground but the stands have long been demolished.
Leyton Orient v Hapoel Petah Tikva Sept 1960
This was Orient’s first home friendly under floodlights against an overseas club. Hapoel Petah Tikva were the reigning Israeli Champions, winning their national title in 58/59, 59/60 and retaining it 60/61. They went on to win the title in both the 61/62 and 62/63 seasons to set a new Israeli record of five consecutive titles which stands to this day. Though they haven’t won it since.
Leyton Orient were a second division club at the time and at the end of the 60/61 season finished in 19th avoiding relegation by just one point. They improved considerably for the 61/62 season finishing as runners-up to Liverpool and gaining promotion into the English top flight. They lasted one season finishing bottom by ten points and haven’t been back since.
Herbert Chapman, Arsenal manager & visionary, 1933
The Southern Professional Floodlit Cup is a defunct English football competition played for in the late fifties from 55/56 to 59/60 and was a knock-out trophy that served as a pre-cursor to the Football League Cup. It was mainly played for by clubs from London and the South. The most northerly club to enter the competition was Leicester City in the 59/60 season whilst their near neighbours Coventry City had been the first Midlands club to take part the season before.
In the five seasons it ran a total of nineteen clubs featured: Aldershot, Arsenal, Brentford, Charlton Athletic, Chelsea, Coventry City, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Leicester City, Luton Town, Millwall, Orient, Portsmouth, QPR, Reading, Southampton, Southend Utd, Watford, West Ham Utd.
Six of these clubs, Palace, Millwall, Orient, QPR, Watford & West Ham took part every season. Each season saw a different winner with the inaugural winners being West Ham followed by Luton, Portsmouth, Arsenal, with Coventry winning the last tournament in 59/60.
West Ham & Reading are the only clubs to appear in two finals with West Ham winning one & losing one. Reading were runners-up both times they were in the final. Previous winners Luton & Arsenal also have two losing semi-final appearances each and along with the Hammers & Reading share most semi-final appearances with three each. Brentford played in the semis twice and both times failed to reach the final.
This is a programme cover from a 57/58 1st round game between Brentford & Arsenal which the home side won 4-1.
Permanent floodlights were installed at Bramall Lane in 1954 & during the fifties the Blades, in common with other clubs, played a series of floodlit friendlies to popularise the game under lights.
Over seventy-five years earlier in 1878 Bramall Lane had been the venue for the World’s first floodlit football match.
This is a photo of a commemorative coin I own that is part of a series that was produced to commemorate the Euro 96 Championships held in England. It depicts the first ever floodlit football match in the World held at Bramall Lane, Sheffield on 14th October 1878.
The Sheffeld Telegraph reporting the event wrote, “There was an overwhelming interest in the experiment, and excursionists arrived in large numbers from distant grounds. Between six and seven o’clock, it seemed as if all Sheffield was heading for Bramall Lane. The streets were thronged from all directions. At the game curiosity conquered customary courtesy, and the few who were really interested in the play were obliged to give way to the many who had eyes only for the new lights. Many of the ladies, once within the rays, shot up umbrellas as they would parasols to shield them from the sun at mid-day!”
(Sheffield Football: A History, Volume 1)
The official crowd of 12000 paid receipts totalling £300 which at the time was a large amount of money which delighted the committee who operated the Bramall Lane ground. However many spectators got in for free by climbing over the perimeter walls & some estimates have the attendance as high as 20000. This was for the times a huge crowd for a football match. In comparision the Scotland v England fixture held in March of 1878 at Hampden had an attendance of 10000 whilst England didn’t muster a crowd of 12000 plus for a home international match until 1887.
The purpose of the game was to showcase a new form of electric lighting in the hope that industrialists would use it to illuminate railway yards & other large works sites.
As for the match itself it was contested by The Reds & The Blues, each team being made up of representatives from local Sheffield football clubs. The Blues ran out 2-0 winners.
Programme from Cardiff City v Grasshoppers Zurich friendly game played on the 5th October 1960 to mark the official opening of the floodlights at Ninian Park. The lights had been used for the first time in the Bluebird’s opening league game of their 60/61 first division campaign against Sheffield Wednesday. A match the visitors won 1-0 on their way to the league runners-up spot behind double winners Tottenham Hotspur.
Links: Ninian Park | Grasshoppers Zurich | English 60/61 season
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