[2] He briefly worked as a referee in the first edition of the Copa Macaya, overseeing the first competitive match in the history of football in Catalonia.
[2] In 1898, the Ball family moved to Barcelona, and his father began appearing in the press on several occasions: from bicycle mechanic to inventor and quincallería [es] builder.
[2] Not much is known about Ball's football career in England, but he did play two matches as a goalkeeper for Birmingham-based Aston Villa in the second round of the 1879–80 FA Cup, where after a 1–1 draw with Stafford Road on 13 December 1879, he helped his side to a 3–1 win on the replay on 24 January 1880.
They soon befriended other English families that played football in the city, such as the Morris (Jaime, Samuel, Enrique (Henry), and Miguel), the Parsons (John and William), the Witties (Arthur and Ernest), and the Shields (John and Thomas), most of whom belonged to a team known as Team Anglès, which consisted of members of the British colony living in Barcelona.
Ball was registered with FC Barcelona to participate in the first edition of the Copa Macaya, which was the first football competition played on the Iberian Peninsula.
[3] In the following year, on 6 January 1902, Ball refereed another match between Hispania AC and FC Barcelona, again the Copa Macaya, but this time at the Camp del Carrer Muntaner, which ended in a 4–2 victory for the visiting side thanks to goals from Alfonso Albéniz, Gamper, and John Parsons.
[7][8] His son Frank went on to join FC Internacional, which was founded in 1901, for whom he played in three lesser tournaments organized by the Spanish Gymnastics Federation, the 1902 Medalla del Ayuntamiento between February and June 1902, in which he played all 12 games of the competition in the defensive position; the 1902 Copa Pergamino between September and November 1902 (during the festivities of La Mercè), which had been created for the clubs founded in the 1901–02 season, with Frank now as the captain of the team.
[2] In 1905, his son Walter Lawrence, then 12 years old, had found a metal object on the mountain of Montjuïc, and when he was handling it in Carrer de la Mercè, it exploded and he partially lost three fingers of the left hand.