Charles Alcock

Statistically, Charles Alcock's contribution to the game is minimal. As a fast bowler and specialist long stop, at Harrow he failed to make it into the XI, and while he played club cricket for Gentlemen of Essex, the Butterflies, Harrow Wanderers and Incogniti, his one first-class outing, for MCC in 1862, produced a duck in his only innings. He did, bizarrely, once captain France against Germany. However, as an administrator, Alcock was a key figure in the expansion of both cricket and football. As a tireless secretary of Surrey from 1872 until his death in 1907, he took the club to new heights. As a writer, he founded Cricket magazine which thrived from its launch in 1882 through the game's Golden Age until 1914. He edited James Lillywhite"s Cricketers' Annual, in it's time as prestigious as Wisden, from 1872 until 1900, and was the chief contributor to Surrey Cricket: Its History and Associations, published in 1902. He arranged fixture lists for teams visiting England, and it was largely through his efforts that the first Test in 1880 came about. In football his influence was, if anything, greater. As a player he captained England, and in 1872 he led the Wanderers (too all intents a Harrow old boys side) to victory in the first FA Cup final, fittingly at The Oval. He had come up with the idea of a challenge cup competition, and the structure was based on his experiences of house competitions at Harrow. He umpired the first international match, between England and Scotland, in 1872 after being ruled out of playing through injury. He also refereed the 1875 and 1879 FA Cup finals. He was Hon Secretary of the Football Association from 1867 to 1890, a period when the game really took off, and then secretary from 1891 to 1896, and a vice president from 1896 until his death.
Martin Williamson