Articles tagged ‘Football Alliance’

Amateur Dramatics: the high ideals of Wycombe’s Wanderers who refused to go pro

In 1877, reigning FA Cup champions Wanderers FC – midway through a three-year winning streak that took their total number of Cup titles to five – came to the Buckinghamshire town of High Wycombe for an exhibition match. Their visit must have left quite an impression. Seven years later, when a group of young men from the town formed their own football club, they adopted the name ‘Wanderers’ in honour of these prestigious guests.

The founders of North Town Wanderers (as they were called until 1887) worked in the High Wycombe’s famous furniture trade. These men must have enjoyed 1877 a great deal because in addition to Wanderers FC, the town was also visited by none other than Queen Victoria, making a rare public appearance in her widowhood to honour the birthplace of the ‘Windsor’ chair. This industry would provide the club’s ‘Chairboys’ nickname [...]
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What’s in a Name: the sentimental story of Accrington’s two Stanleys

‘Accrington Stanley… who are they?’

It’s a good a question, even when not delivered in a strained impersonation of a Scouse youth. The League Two team now known as Accrington Stanley are technically not the same club as Accrington FC, one of the founding members of the Football League, nor are they Stanley Villa, from whom their distinctively English name comes from. Only technically, though [...]
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