West Auckland FC - An extraordinary football story

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This blog is about football, but it's such an extraordinary story that everybody should read it.

Who won the first World Cup? Most people will answer Uruguay but they are wrong! The answer is actually West Auckland Football Club from County Durham, England. How do I know this? Well, when I was young I saw a film on TV called "A Captain's Tale" starring Dennis Waterman. I remember it clearly and ever since then it has stuck in the back of my mind, so we took a detour on our way to Glasgow to see what the place was like. I wasn't disappointed!

Back in 1909, Sir Thomas Lipton (purveyor of fine tea!) thought it would be a jolly good idea to stage an international football competition in Turin. A local team was put together, and teams from Germany and Switzerland also competed. The English FA in their wisdom decided not to send anyone. Sir Thomas was not to be thwarted though, and somehow West Auckland FC were invited to join in the fun. There are some theories that the invitation was actually for Woolwich Arsenal (also WAFC, so perhaps there is some truth in this) but it somehow made its way to Durham. They broke the bank to send their team to Italy and against all the odds they won the trophy. Even more incredible is that two years later they successfully defended the trophy beating the mighty Juventus 6-1 in the final. Having won the trophy twice they were allowed to keep it and the competition was never played again. That was the end of the first World Cup, to be replaced many years later by the Jules Rimet Trophy. It was also pretty much the end of West Auckland's success, but they have been to Wembley twice, finishing runners-up in the FA Vase in both 2012 and 2014.

Today when you visit the village of West Auckland you can laze in the sunshine on the huge green like we did. At one end is a cenotaph, and at the other is a statue with two miners playing football. Nearby is a boarded up old pub with lots of information boards outside retelling the story with some great pictures. If only we had been able to visit the football ground where you may be able to talk your way in to see the trophy on display!

The BBC produced a great little piece about this story which you can still watch at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27242287.

Finally, you can watch the entire film on Youtube using the link below. The quality isn't brilliant but it's well worth spending an hour and twenty minutes to learn more about this extraordinary part of sporting history.

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