Hot off the printing presses, The Coping Stone: the First English Soccer Tour of Australia 1925 tells the little-known but fascinating story of how the world game fought for survival – and acceptance – in early 20th-century Australia. In an exclusive courtesy of Fair Play Publishing, WA Over Yonder presents the England Football Association’s arrival and their historic first appearance on Australian shores.
Tuesday 5 May, 1925, Fremantle, Western Australia
Syd Storey stands on Fremantle Wharf peering westwards into the pre-dawn darkness. The now 29-year old football administrator from Sydney, dressed in a suit and sporting his trademark bow tie, is not alone. Around him, a crowd of Perth’s football players and supporters are also eagerly scanning the grey horizon for any sign of the P&O liner Orsova.
Despite the inclement weather and early hour, the crowd are here as witness to history. Their hope is that football’s many ills in Australia can be put right by this tour. Once Australians see football as it should be played, there will be no stopping the growth of the game, In their minds, these English players that have journeyed over 20,000 kilometres promise to be the sport’s deliverance.
Then someone shouts from the wharf “There she is!” A ripple of excitement goes through the gathering. The golden glow of the Orsova’s cabin lights can be seen through the grey doom. The rain begins to fall in buckets. Nobody gives a damn.
Storey had done a considerable amount of travelling himself. He’d left Sydney by train on 26 April, and after meeting with South Australian football officials in Adelaide, checked in to the King Edward Hostel in Perth on 1 May. It was an interesting time to be a traveller in Western Australia as unions representing hotel workers and bar staff had been taking industrial action. The hotels were kept running by family members or proprietors and sometimes by the guests themselves.
Almost as soon as England manager John Lewis set afoot on Australian soil, Storey was in his ear about a pressing issue. It concerned the very first of the official ‘Laws of the Game’, in particular, the use of substitutes in non-competitive matches. The part of Law One in question was” “By arrangement made before the commencement of a match (but not in a match played under the Rules of a Competition) substitutes may be allowed un place of injured players.”
In Australia for the past few years, arrangements had been made with touring teams to allow for the substitution of injured players. The practice had become so commonplace that substitutes were even permitted in competitive matches in New South Wales. Referees haphazardly enforced the rules. In some instances referees had allowed players to be replaced and let them back on the field again after receiving treatment.
For Storey, the use of substitutes was crucial to the success of the tour. He argued that professionally trained English players would be better able to absorb knocks and it would be the amateur Australians who were more likely to get injured. Without substitutes, Australian teams playing a man down would have no chance to compete against their more experienced opponents. Too many mismatched games would adversely affect gate takings.
Lewis, weary after the long voyage, was taken aback by Storey’s abrupt request. The two had a sharp discussion. Their exchange went something like this:
Lewis: Why didn’t Australia cable the FA before the team sailed?
Storey: We didn’t expect the FA would agree.
Lewis: And you thought I would agree to it against the FA’s wishes?
Storey: But you have to understand local conditions. Football is a minor sport here. If the public thinks England are getting an unfair advantage by playing against depleted Australian teams, they will call it bad sportsmanship and stop patronising the games.
Lewis: No. Law One only applies to charity matches and the like. These games are not mere exhibitions. I will absolute not allow substitutes in any of the matches!
Law One required the agreement of both teams, there was little Storey could do about it. It was a long tour and there was still time to impress upon Lewis the importance of allowing substitutes. But as Australia would find out, Lewis was not a man to change his mind once it was made up.
The English team were ferried down the Swan River on board the launch Dauntless. The easterly wind blew the clouds away and the water shimmered diamond-like in the sunlight. The players were enchanted by the beauty of the river and the city of Perth.
After disembarking they were parade before the press. In their dress suits and overcoats, they made a fine impression. All the players were in good shape except Jimmy Walsh, who had a miserable voyage. The players were described as ‘nuggety’, ‘fit’, ‘intelligent’, and, ‘a hefty bunch of fellows’. One by one they were weighed like prized cattle. Billy Caesar, the only amateur in the squad, tipped the scales at 90 kilograms. What the press couldn’t do was get the players to talk.
One of the Englishmen took out a penny from his pocket. He dropped it, caught it with his foot and flicked it to a teammate who in turn kicked it to a colleague. Soon the players were nonchalantly tapping the coin to each other while keeping it off the ground. It was a neat trick. It caught the pressman’s attention. The players were evidently going to let their feet do the talking.
The tourists headed to Claremont after lunch for practice. They turned out in full kit for the hour-long session. The kit, which they would wear in every game, was a white shirt featuring a badge on the left breast with three lions surmounted by a crown, and navy shorts. Each player’s club colours were sewn into the tops of their navy socks.
Newspapers from the eastern states had begged for photographs and the local press were busy getting them done. One of the photos, reproduced in papers around the country and showing all members of the touring party in their playing kit, was from this training session.
On the dry surface at Claremont, the Englishmen struggled to control the light ball yet their skill was undeniable. Stan Seymour, the Newcastle United outside left, pumped cross after cross from the sidelines into the goalmouth with mechanical precision. Storey could hardly keep the grin off his face. “They’re good alright,” he said.
The Perth Literary Institute was bursting at the seams for the first official reception of the tour. Western Australia’s acting Premier, William Angwin, welcomed the Englishmen to the city and told them not to be offended if they were called “Pommies… it is a harmless and friendly term. Mr Lewis will find that Australians are even more British than the people in Britain and that the team will get a real welcome everywhere.”
Billy Orr, the secretary of the local Australian Rules body, the Western Australian Football League (WAFL), was invited to speak. Being the chief architect of the opposition to football being played on Perth’s premier venue, Subiaco Oval, there was an awkward moment as he mounted the podium. His speech was conciliatory, welcoming the team as worthy representatives of English sport. He urged all Australians to make them feel welcome.
When Lewis got up to speak, he had to wait while the crowd performed a rendition of ‘For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow’ followed by three boisterous cheers. Lewis seemed genuinely surprised by the enthusiasm of his hosts.
Not a born orator, Lewis rattled off details about the strength of football in England. There were 750,000 registered players; 88 professional clubs in three divisions and 22,000 clubs overall; 7,000 full-time professional players earned up to £8 per week. The FA brought in so much revenue that it paid one million pounds per year in entertainment tax. The subtle message was, that if you were serious about your football, the soccer should be your code of choice.
Lewis then presented specially made badges to Angwin, Storey and some of the Western Australian football officials. The badges, made of enamel and predominantly blue in colour, featured the crest of the Football Association with a crown on top. The little blue enamel badges would become treasured keepsakes in Australia.
The hotel workers’ strike was still in swing when England prepared to leave the King Edward Hostel for the opening match of the tour. The strikers, led by formidable trade unionist Cecelia Shelley, had blacklisted venues employing non-union labour by pasting sheets of the walls and doors of offending establishments. In one case a proprietor opened the door of her hotel only to have a sheet pasted across the front of her dress.
Outside the King Edward Hostel, incidentally a venue not blacklisted, an intimidating all-male mob tried to force their way in. The English players waited in the foyer, unable to leave. Mr Bannon, the proprietor, decided to take matters into his own hands. Retrieving a pistol from his office, he strode out the front door and levelled the weapon at the crowd, crying out, “Don’t come any further!”
The strikers wisely backed off. Bannon later told the press that the English footballers “were quite prepared to act if the necessity arose”. Whether Lewis and (co-manager) Mark Frowde would have allowed their players to get involved in any public fracas was highly doubtful.
Thursday 7 May, 1925, Match 1: England vs Perth Metropolitan XI, Subiaco Oval
England and Perth run out onto the muddy field to warm applause. A hasty compromise with the WAFL has allowed this midweek fixture to be played at Subiaco Oval. England are in white, while Perth play in maroon.
Ernie Simms, the Stockport County centre-forward, is given the honour of captaining England for the first ever game of the tour. He wins the toss, choosing to run towards the Subiaco end. Constant rain has made the pitch greasy. The conditions are more suited to England and go some way to offset their lack of match practice.
As the teams line up, spectators remark on the hefty appearance of the English players. One spectator says: “Australians are not used to seeing the real Englishmen out here. But these men, how they satisfy the eye.” England start cautiously, trying to find their feet after such a long time at sea. After just two minutes, Bert Batten, the Plymouth Argyle forward, slams a shot against the crossbar that rattles the whole frame of the goal. This is what the crowd has come to see.
Charlie Hannaford, the Clapton Orient left-half, sends in a neat cross and Simms heads in England’s opening goal of the tour. It has taken the tourists all of five minutes to draw first blood. Hannaford again centres into the box and the chunky Caesar heads in England’s second. The fans are getting a master class in the technique of heading the ball.
The crowd takes a liking to Jack Elkes of Tottenham Hotspur. At over 183cm tall and weighing around 90kg, he has an awkward running style, appearing almost clumsy, but he beats men with ease using a kit ball full of swerves and feints. One spectator says Elkes “has such rhythm and swing of the body, that he would make a wonderful player under Australian Rules.”
As another heavy shower begins, Elkes takes possession and dances through a clutch of defenders. He executes a one-two with Batten before back-heeling to Simms who steers home England’s third goal. The crowd applauds when Elkes himself scores England’s fourth with a booming left foot drive. As the teams leave the field at half-time with England 4-0 up, the crowd can hardly complain of a lack of entertainment.
England’s passing game gets better after the interval. Ten minutes into the second half, Simms completes his hat trick by heading in another arrow-like cross from Hannaford. Shortly after, Simms collides with Perth goalkeeper Alex ‘Sandy’ Marr. On the touchline, Storey leaps to his feet, his mind going over Law One. Slowly, Marr gets to his feet and the game continues.
Jimmy Hamilton, the Crystal Palace centre-half, puts in a neat run and passes to Elkes, who with another smart piece of footwork sets up Simms for his fourth goal and England’s sixth. Towards the end of the game, an incident occurs which would again try relations between the two football codes when players from the Subiaco (Australian Rules) Football Club begin their training routine in the area between the sideline and the boundary fence.
With the Australian Rules players hand passing and kicking to each other on the sidelines, Elkes sets out on another bamboozling run and plays the ball into a dangerous position. Fine interplay between the forwards sees Tottenham’s Bill Sage slam home a perfectly crafted team goal. Finally, an England breakaway ends with the ball at Simms’ feet. He slots it past Marr to make it 8-0 for England and take his personal tally that day to five goals.
It was a fine opening to the tour by England. Their superb ball control, short passing game and brilliant exhibition of heading enraptured the crowd. Many people new to the sport were surprised the British version of football could be so entertaining. As one spectator commented after the game: “I say without hesitation, that soccer is a finer game of football, than is even our own national game.”
Exhibition Match
Metropolitan XI 0
England FA 8 (Ernie Simms 5, Jack Elkes, Billy Caesar, Bill Sage)
Metropolitan XI: Alec Marr, Noel Poile, Syd Hinton, C.Gentry, Jock Warden, William Davis, Eric Wilderspin, Joe Illingsworth, Charlie Cruickshank, A.Newall, E.Badham
England FA: John Davidson, Stan Charlton, Tom Whittaker, Joe Hannah, Jimmy Hamilton, Billy Caesar, Charlie Hannaford, Bill Sage, Ernie Simms (c), Jack Elkes, Bert Batten
Referee: R.S.Pepworth
Venue: Subiaco Oval, Subiaco
The Coping Stone: the First English Soccer Tour of Australia 1925 by Paul Nicholls is available from Fair Play Publishing, a publishing house that specialises in books about Australian football history and culture. It is available in both softcover ($34.99) and ebook ($18.99).
