Cambridge rules

George Elwes Corrie, Master of Jesus College, observed in 1838, "In walking with Willis we passed by Parker's Piece and there saw some forty Gownsmen playing at football.

[11] On the basis of these letters, Curry and Dunning suggest that "the first Cambridge University Football Rules should, at present, be dated tentatively as having been constructed in 1838".

[11] According to N. L. Jackson, in 1846 "two old Shrewsbury boys, Messrs. H. de Winton[13] and J. C. Thring,[14] persuaded some Old Etonians to join them and formed a club.

[17] Green describes this development as "the first positive step to create an identity of views and a common code of laws [of football] acceptable to as many as possible", and laments the absence of a plaque "to commemorate this historic moment".

"Fifty years ago to-day," writes Mr Malden, under date of October 8, 1897, "I went up to Trinity College, Cambridge.

We met in my rooms after Hall, which in those days was at 4 p.m.; anticipating a long meeting I cleared the tables and provided pens, ink, and paper.

Alcock commented that "Mr. Malden's account of the original movement in favour of a uniform code of football is of the greatest interest, from the fact that none has previously seen the light.

[20] N. L. Jackson, writing in 1899, stated the rules described in Malden's letter "establish[ed] that the Association Game owes its origin to Cambridge University".

[15] It has even been suggested that the meeting that produced the 1848 rules "deserves to be remembered as much as [the revolutionary events of the same year in] Frankfurt, Paris, and Kennington Common".

[28] Peter Searby also suggests that while "[p]erhaps these [1848] rules were adopted for some games ... the variety of practice that Malden described in fact continued for some time".

[29] Searby cites the recollections of T. G. Bonney, who attended St. John's College from 1852 to 1856, that he "often ... played football on Parker's Piece, without uniform or regular organization".

But Rugby and Harrow players would sometimes begin running with the ball in hand or claiming free kicks, which led to some protest and confusion.

A Trinity man, Beamont[34] (a Fellow of his College soon after), was a regular attendant, and the rules were revised by him and one or two others, with some concessions to non-Etonians.

[36] The rules bear the signatures of ten footballers: two each from Eton, Rugby, Harrow, Shrewsbury, and the University of Cambridge.

[40][41] A notice, issued by the same club in September 1862, sought opponents for the upcoming season who would play "on the rules of the University of Cambridge".

In October 1863, a new set of rules was drawn up by a committee of nine players representing Shrewsbury, Eton, Rugby, Marlborough, Harrow, and Westminster schools.

[46] The following month, it was published in the newspapers, with an introduction stating:[47] It having been thought desirable to establish a general game for the University of Cambridge, the accompanying rules have been drawn up for that purpose.

All members of the University who take an interest in the game, and are desirous of attending, can do so on payment of a subscription of one shilling per term.Like the earlier 1856 laws, the 1863 rules disallowed rugby-style running with the ball and hacking.

[49] The publication of the 1863 Cambridge rules happened to coincide with the debates within the newly formed Football Association (FA) over its own first set of laws.

secretary, said that he had endeavoured as faithfully as he could to draw up the laws according to the suggestions made, but he wished to call the attention of the meeting to other matters that had taken place.

Those rules, so approved, were entitled to the greatest consideration and respect at the hands of the association, and they ought not to pass them over without giving them all the weight that the feeling of six of the public schools entitled them to.Discussion of the Cambridge rules, and suggestions for possible communication with Cambridge on the subject, served to delay the final "settlement" of the laws to a further meeting, on 1 December.

[52][53] A number of representatives who supported rugby-style football did not attend this additional meeting,[54] resulting in hacking and carrying being banned.

[53] As the newspaper report of a later meeting put it, 'the appearance of some rules recently adopted at Cambridge seemed to give tacit support to the advocates of "non-hacking".

'[55] The FA adopted the Cambridge offside law almost verbatim, replacing the quite different wording in the earlier draft.

[57] As a result, the FA's final published laws of 1863 retained many of the differences from the Cambridge rules that had been present in the earlier draft, including the following:[58][48]

It bears the following inscription:[68] Here on Parker's Piece, in the 1800s, students established a common set of simple football rules emphasising skill above force, which forbade catching the ball and 'hacking'.