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Football, 1946

The Times of India, Aug 17 2015

Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, Aug 17 2015

Gaurav Talwar

Unearthed 1946 ticket shows English football stars played on Doon soil

The chance discovery of a ticket to a football match, buried at the bottom of a trunk for over six decades, has unveiled a glorious piece of Dehradun's history . Not many football enthusiasts were aware that in 1946, an all-star cast of footballers -including Ted Ditchburn, who represented the England football team, along with Robert Jack Robinson and Johnny Morris (who also played for Manchester United) -challenged the Dehradun Area team at the city's famous Pavilion Ground.

The English team was called Tommy Walker's XI, and also included footballers who represented other famous clubs like Spurs, Glasgow Rangers, Leith Athletics, Nottingham Forest, and Rutherglen Glencairn among others, as well England and Scotland in international championships.

Stars such as Cyril Trigg, the highest goal scorer for Birmingham City in the 1946 and 1947 seasons, and Eddie Rutherford, who would eventually play in the Scottish national team, were among its members.

The ticket was discovered by UK resident Mick Clarke, whose father Victor served with the Royal Mechanical Engineers in British India.According to Mick, after serving in Burma during the Second World War, his father was possibly at Deolali in today's Madhya Pradesh, waiting to return to England, when the match took place on February 22. He either came all the way from Deolali or was near Dehradun around the day and dropped in to catch the match.

In an email reply to a football enthusiast in Dehradun, Mick said, “I had no idea about anything to do with the match until I found the programme in an old box that my father had kept from his time in Burma and India. He did say about the holding camp and how there was nothing to do while they waited for repatriation. I have no doubt that the match took place as surviving relatives of the players have confirmed knowledge of it.“ His father, he said, played football at a local level but was a very keen supporter of Luton Town and Arsenal.

Significantly , the match was played between teams from the army , and such matches were organized to lift the morale of soldiers as there were limited entertainment activities for armymen at the time. The Dehradun XI comprised players from different army units including the Indian Military Academy .