When the Miners Took on the Majors

A heroes' journey was set in motion in 1904, when the millionaire grocery store baron Sir Thomas Lipton was awarded a high honour, Knight of the Grand Order, by the government of Italy, a country where he had business interests. When Sir Thomas offered to reciprocate for this great honour, the Italian ambassador asked him to organise a major international sporting event in Italy; so he decided to stage a football tournament in Turin between teams from Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Great Britain. Torino XI (Italy), Stuttgarter Sportfreunde (Germany), FC Winterthur (Switzerland) all turned up to play in the competition but the English Football Association declined to nominate a team so Sir Thomas offered the team from the small colliery village of West Auckland the chance to be the English representatives, even though they were struggling at the bottom of their own Northern Amateur league. The team consisted mainly of coal miners who had little more experience of the outside world than the occasional away game and scarcely any money to fund their ambitions. But they begged and borrowed to raise the fare to Turin. The city was the centre of the Italian cinema industry and there the tournament would be recorded for posterity. During their time away the team had no income from their jobs in the pits. But great sacrifices were made with personal belongings sold and family hardship endured by those left behind. After an arduous channel crossing and lengthy rail journey, the team was warmly greeted on its arrival in Turin by a committee and a brass band. A large crowd that included civic dignitaries greeted the team with a banner proclaiming 'Welcome Woolwich Arsenal'. They had mistakenly assumed that the WAFC was Woolwich Arsenal Football Club. Nobody had heard of the little known West Auckland amateur team, even in its own country, let alone in Italy. At the two-day event ‘West’ beat Stuttgarter Sportfreunde 2-0 in the first game, and then beat FC Winterthur by the same scoreline to win the trophy. In 1911 they were invited back to defend their title which they did in style. In their first game they beat FC Zurich 2-0 before thrashing the mighty Juventus 6-1 in the final. Having won it twice the team were allowed to keep the trophy for good, and the competition was never staged again. West Auckland had etched its name in the annals of soccer history as the winners of the first World Cup as surely as their name was etched on the cup. But celebrations were soured by the team's debts, which forced them to pawn the trophy to the landlady of the local hotel, the club headquarters, on their return. It remained with her family until in 1960 a village appeal raised the funds to redeem the pledge and the cup was returned to its rightful owners. The cup was subsequently stolen in 1994 and theories about the thief abound. Despite the efforts of the police and a £2,000 reward it was never found. But an exact replica now stands proudly in a more secure cabinet in the West Auckland Working Men's Club. Just a year after their famous victory debts caused the club to fold and withdraw from the Northern League but were reformed in 1914 under the name West Auckland Town FC in 1914 although they have never hit the heights that they did during the early twentieth century. In 1982 the story of the gang of miners and labourers from the north east who took on the might of Juventus and won was imortalised in a film called A Captain’s Tale starring Minder’s Dennis Waterman as club captain Bob Jones. Packed with anecdotes and incident this is a David and Goliath story about the ambition of a group of men who had the imagination and determination to escape their grim reality.