Ipswich Soccer in 1890

Key Events:

April 24: The Queensland British Football Association is formed. A number of delegates from Ipswich attend the formation meeting. The association appears to have formalised a looser organisation of the clubs. 

May: Journalist Tom 'Old Sport' Barker returns to Ipswich to take up a post at the Queensland Times. He had been working at newspapers in northern Queensland for much of the decade. 

May 20: A soccer match is played at the annual picnic of the employees of Lewis Thomas' mines (in the Blackstone area). The game was played at the Queensland Aquarium at Hemmant.

July 5: Blackstone Rovers 2 - 1 St Andrews

August 5: Blackstone Rovers' Tom 'Old Horse' Barker is selected for the first Queensland rep team , which would tour New South Wales. Sam Shelley, who lived in and previously played in Ipswich, was also chosen.

Known Unknowns: 

None.

Uncertains: 

Whether any other games happened at all.

The year 1890 is the most commonly nominated in Trove articles as when Bush Rats formed. Ted O'Loughlin in his Soccer Mad database suggests an article from 1890 states the Bush Rats were formed and would enter competition the next year. Sadly the article he refers to seems not to be on Trove.

There is evidence from William Routledge that Dinmore Soccer Club was in existence in 1890. Like a lot of these remembrances, the timing is may be off. Dinmore was definitely in existence in 1891.

Key Clubs: 

Blackstone Rovers: Goals: W. Lindsay; Backs: James Lindsay, Taylor; Half-backs: Kyneston, P. Williams, R. Evans


Notable People: 

Tom 'Old Sport' Barker
Tom 'Old Horse' Barker

Historical Notes: 

Tumbleweeds. Two games, one of them at a picnic. Yet despite an apparent paucity of football, a Queensland Representative team to travel to NSW could be selected. Blackstone Rovers, who apparently played only one game in 1890, saw  Tom Barker, aka T. Barker, aka 'Old Horse' selected for the tour.

The two games of football involving Ipswich teams both involved Blackstone. Blackstone Rovers suffered a narrow loss to St Andrews, while Lewis Thomas, who owned the Aberdare mine and was responsible for the influx of Welsh miners to area, took his employees on a picnic where soccer was played.

Things did not seem much better in Brisbane, where there were only a small number of games played involving St Andrews, Normans and Thistles. St Andrews, in their first meeting of the year, intimated the need for exhibitions games throughout the city to grow the game.

Barker's Queensland selection came after a Probables versus Improbables game, but despite only SE Queensland teams from which to choose players, the new association was sure they would be able to select a strong team.

Their confidence was well-placed with Queensland running out winners.

How could a Queensland soccer team, a state with seemingly little football, beat NSW, a state with a consistent competition for a decade? 

In 1899, there was a feeling all football codes in SE Queensland were struggling to field players. It is conceivable the lack of newspaper reporting afforded to soccer was simply due to a lack of matches. 

In 1890, soccer also received a lack of coverage, but the existence of the representative team, and the ad hoc nature in which Brisbane team soccer games were reported suggests the issue may have been to do with clubs not sending details into the newspapers. 

I held off writing the 1890 post. I wanted to look at the Evening Observer in the State Library, the only major newspaper of the era from the Ipswich and Brisbane region not digitised on Trove.

I knew the 1900-1910 version, the Saturday Observer, gave great coverage to soccer, with a dedicated column and new information. (And if the FFA Heritage Committee sponsored the digitisation of newspapers, maybe in conjunction with other sports, the Observer of that decade should be near the top of the list.) 

Could the 1890 version of the newspaper also contain missing match reports of games which were hinted at?

Unfortunately not. The match reports in the Evening Observer as I could find were the exact same ones which appeared in the other Brisbane newspapers, probably sent in by the clubs to all takers. 

Maybe these reports were not consistently sent after every match? Maybe Blackstone Rovers never recorded their matches? Surely more soccer was played this year? Or did Rovers only play once?

But change in sports reporting was coming. I covered Ned Smul and the other Queensland Times football writers in the post for 1899, and the disjointed way all codes were reported.  

The most significant development in Ipswich soccer in 1890 came in the form of the other Tom Barker, aka T.J. Barker, aka 'Old Sport'. 

The journalist returned to Ipswich and within a year had taken over the cricket and football coverage in the Queensland Times. Despite being heavily involved in cricket, 'Old Sport' would devote many column inches to soccer, and would be on the board of the short lived Ipswich FC.

His sporting output, at least with his name on it, would slowly unfold over 1891 and 1892. But once he got going, he would provide the most significant reportage on Ipswich soccer over the next 35 years.

That was still to come, but it is also worthy to note his gradual increase in soccer reportage came at a time when the game in Ipswich suddenly exploded to life.

The year 1890 may have been quiet, but in 1891 soccer would stakes its place in Ipswich.