The Original World Cup

On one of those homeward-bound trips when you think the day is done, we took a turn into West Auckland; a village whose 18th and 19th-century houses stand proudly hugging the green, one of the largest continuous village greens in the UK.

The statue is commemorative of a significant win for the men of West Auckland back in 1909...The First World Cup!

London-based artist Nigel Boonham designed the eponymously named statue. Known as one of Britain's finest portrait and figurative sculptors, Boonham has portrayed all the biggies from John Donne to Princess Diana, The Queen and even Dr Martin Luther King in the grounds of Newcastle University.

It was chosen by local residents and school children as the winning design back in the early 2010s and unveiled in 2013.

It's a little incongruous on first inspection. A man lies on his side, in hobnailed boots and shorts, wielding a pickaxe. He's young, maybe early twenties and wears his cap back to front.

Look at the folds of his T-shirt and the joints of his knuckles, all cast in bronze. Astonishing detail.

He almost looks like a goalie, stretched out, ready to deflect the punch of the leather ball, hard against his weathered skin. These hands are the hands of a worker.

Towering above him, another young man, captured in the pose of many young lads his age, toeing a football and dressed in the familiar strip of an early 1900s footballer, long sleeves and shorts with leather boots, he's the pride of his village.

But look again, and this clever sculpture shows the transition of working men to sporting men and winners in their own right.

The men of West Auckland would have worked down the pit to make up their pay packet but were in the unusual position of also playing football for the nation.

This sculpture depicts the journey from day to play; strong lads, making a living through toil and grit then emerging into the light of the football pitch at West Auckland.

The ambiguity however is intentional and makes you see the role of the men through different angles. It's clever and well thought out.

Sculptor Nigel Boonham admitted that neither mining nor football was his forte prior to this piece. “I wanted the statue to be a bit ambiguous, meaning different things as you looked at it from different places.”

Both figures, one standing, his leg raised to boot the ball, the other lying prone at his feet, share the same face, modelled on the man in the front of the 1909 West Auckland team photo.”

Image is courtesy of The Mitchell Library Archive.

The height of the standing character's foot is the same height as the roof of the West Auckland Colliery pit seam. Imagine those as working conditions in comparison to today's health and safety standards. I had to have a desk assessment for a new office chair last week!

But there's a special and more poignant plot to this piece than meets the eye!

This is where tea meets footie!

Go and stick the kettle on and I'll tell you the rest!

As a child, I remember my mam talking about the good old days of shopping at Lipton's before I was born. Thomas Lipton was a self-made man, having left school at the age of ten and travelling to the USA to work on tobacco and rice plantations.

Returning to Glasgow in 1869 he opened his first grocery store and was renowned for gimmicky stunts like importing two huge cheeses from America which were said to be filled with gold sovereigns! People lined the streets to see the cheeses arrive and catch a glimpse of this Willy Wonker style entrepreneur.

He pioneered brand awareness and advertising stunts...Think Carabao Cup!

Image courtesy of The Shields Gazette

In 1889 he bought tea plantations in Ceylon and introduced tea drinking to America. We recognise the brand name Lipton's Tea.

By 1900, it was estimated that Thomas Lipton controlled about 10% of the world's tea trade as shown in this vintage print from Lipton's Teas

Lipton was also an avid sportsman, his philosophy on life was 'win with pleasure and lose with a smile' which is perhaps why in 1909 he inaugurated a European Football tournament for teams from Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Great Britain.

As part of his brand awareness and marketing he donated the winner's trophy known as The Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy or The First World Cup!

However, The English FA declined to nominate a team of professional footballers. Lipton was enraged and insisted that Britain should be represented in the tournament.

The renowned team, Woolwich Arsenal were invited to play but declined.

Lipton's links to the North East led him to approach the amateur team at West Auckland, made up from local coal miners.

Despite the potential loss of wages, the challenges of a gang of lads from Durham getting to Italy, and the lack of funding for kit and travel, they fundraised within the community, sucked up the challenge and set off for Turin.

Image courtesy of the BBC Archive

They only went and won the cup!

The underdogs raised the trophy!

The only amateur side, they went home with the winnings to West Auckland!

With wins in 1909 and again in 1911 these local lads were hailed as heroes! Such a great tale of sport and spur, so significant for the people of this small mining village in Durham.

To commemorate one hundred years of the win, the sculpture was commissioned, just after the anniversary in 2013 at a cost of £167,374, funded by public subscription, and is a monumental way to remember such brave and bold young'uns from Durham.

So proud are the local community to this day that it's even emblazoned on the road signs.