1 Just ten weeks after Wolseley’s settlement had ended the Zulu War, a team of Zulu warriors arrived at Sheffield’s Bramall Lane by hansom cab. They bore names like Cetewayo, the great king himself, Sirayo, a famous chieftain, and Dabulamanzi, Cetewayo’s brother. They left their assegais and shields on the touchline, took on the best players in Sheffield, which THE ZULU WARRIORS was then the centre of world soccer, and beat them 5–4. Cetewayo, now in his 50s, did very well against SHEFFIELD, NOVEMBER 1879 Mosforth, the England international winger. Perhaps I should point out that the Zulus were only Zulu in name. They were not black men but white soccer players, faces and hands corked, bodies covered with black jerseys and stockings, feathers round their heads and white beads around their necks. The Sheffield players complained that some of the burnt 2 cork rubbed off during the jostling in the match; they 3 In January 1879 Cetewayo, the Zulu king, marshalled needed a better bath than normal. some 50,000 warriors to repel the British army’s The players were announced with Zulu names, but invasion of Zululand. The Zulu warriors fought Dabulamanzi, for instance, was really Jack Hunter, with assegais, spears and ox-hide shields, and wore one of the best Scottish players of the generation. uniforms that were no more than a tuft of hair acting as The game was played to raise money for the widows a loin-cloth, but were well-organized and disciplined. and orphans of soldiers killed in the Zulu War, and a The British completely underestimated them. After crowd of around 2,000 contributed to the cause. The bloody battles at Isandhlwana and Rorke’s Drift it Zulu warrior team, formed by Mr Brewer of Fargate, wasn’t until August that the Zulu force was overcome. had already played one game, in Scarborough. Now, The British army lost over 1,300 men, about 1,000 encouraged by the success in Sheffield, they began natives and the French Prince Imperial, who was in to tour the region, visiting places such as Barnsley their charge. Zulu loss of life was even greater. The and Chesterfield. It became an exhibition team, Zulu War also heralded the breakdown of the Zulu masquerading, experimenting more and more with kingdom. Cetewayo was captured, British Zululand warpaint, frolicking and clowning. They never lost a was eventually handed over to the colony of Natal and game. it became part of the Republic of South Africa. After a few months the Sheffield FA began to disapprove. A storm broke when Jack Hunter was dropped from a North– South representative game because he had played in a Zulu game in Scotland. W. Pierce Dix of the Sheffield FA wrote to the local newspaper in January 1881 to explain the action: ‘The Zulus were going about the country playing matches in a manner which in the opinion of the committee was calculated to degrade THE CROSSBAR PROTEST the game and bri ng discredit upon those connected with it; and further, that these players were receiving LONDON, DECEMBER 1888 payment for playing.’ Zulu players were warned that they would be barred from representative games and FA Cup ties. The team disbanded. They hung up their assegais and shields for ever. The next year, Cetewayo visited London as part of his temporary exile. Dressed in European 4 clothes, he was a popular figure with great authority, 4 5 dignity and adaptability. In another life he might have This was the year Crewe Alexandra reached an FA made a football manager. Cup semi-final. Along the way they played a strange match with the Swifts in Kensington. Crewe progressed to the fourth round (the last 23) by beating Druids and Northwich Victoria. They had a bye in the third round, as would nine clubs in the fourth. Crewe and the Swifts drew their fourth-round tie 2–2 at Crewe. They replayed on the new Queen’s Ground in West Kensington. The Swifts won 3–2, but Crewe protested that the crossbars were at different heights. ‘The height of the goal-posts formed the basis of an appeal against the result,’ wrote the Crewe and Nantwich Chronicle. ‘A measurement revealed that they were within a few inches of the specified height.’ The appeal was upheld. The teams had to replay again on a neutral ground, and Crewe beat the Swifts 2–1 at Derby. After this controversy, the Football Association passed a rule that protests about the ground, markings and goals must be made before the kick-off, not at the end of the game. Crewe went on to beat Derby County in the fifth round and Middlesbrough in the sixth. Their semi- final opponents were Preston North End, then invincible. The game was played in Liverpool with a lake on the ground. It was really a game of water-polo. Crewe lost 4–0. 6.