Cricket and Football Field was first published as The Football Field and Sports Telegram in 1884. The publication was devoted to cricket, football, and athletics, and other sports. The rapid growth in the popularity of football in the 1880s meant that more coverage of football events was demanded. Local papers began to run special sports editions. Cricket and Football Field was released every Saturday evening with exceptional coverage of full reports of national and local sports. It was the first ‘all sports’ publication.
Within the paper, you can find the commentary on matches, inquiries into rules and regulations, and fixtures of amateur and professional leagues. The ‘Nuggets’ feature provides one line observations about players or teams. For example, on 7 March 1908 it printed the following comments, ‘Lancashire for the Cup and League! Is it a sure thing?’, ‘Leicester Forces were in great form against West Bromwich’, and ‘D Barlow has proved a very good full back for Little Lever Wesleyans’. On 15 October 1887, you can find a match review from Preston North End v Hyde. Preston North End won by a record breaking margin of 26-0. The team became known as ‘the invincibles’. Another record set by the team that year was most goals by a player in a single FA Cup season, which was Jimmy Ross with 19 goals.
For this newspaper, we have the following titles in, or planned for, our digital archive:
- 1884–87 Football Field and Sports Telegram.
- 1887–1915 The Cricket and Football Field.
