Aroundtown Magazine March/April 2022 edition

SPORT
Remembering
125 YEARS
of the Montagu Cup
This spring marks the 125th anniversary of
the Montagu Cup final, a competition which
is imprinted into the social and sporting
fabric of South Yorkshire.
Albert Burrows
1945 final
Broomhill v Denaby Rovers
What started as a philanthropic
endeavour to raise funds for
Mexborough Montagu Hospital
remains the highlight of the
footballing calendar, with teams
from across the Don and Dearne
battling it out to have their names
engraved on South Yorkshire’s
‘Little FA Cup’.
The first final was held on
Easter Monday 1897 at Hampden
Broomhill boys 1945
Road, Mexborough and it is
thought to be the oldest football
competition to still play the final on
its original venue.
Ahead of this year’s final of
Scawthorpe Athletic v Dog Daisy
on Monday 18th April, we spoke
to some of the past finalists
to find out more about what it
meant to reach the final of the
Montagu Cup.
Albert is reported to be the oldest
surviving finalist and will turn 94
the day before this year’s final. He
played for Broomhill Boys in one of
the most controversial finals in the
Montagu Cup’s 125-year history
where the winner was decided by a
bizarre ‘next corner wins’ rule.
“The powers that be said the
game needed to be finished that
day. We were drawing at full time,
then extra time. Then the referee
said the first team to get a corner
would win. We lost and I was very
disappointed, but that was the way
it went.”
‘‘The Broomhill
team had to scrape
together clothing
coupons for their
shirts’’
That final was of course played
six months before the end of the
Second World War when the country
was still living in the shadows
of rationing and make-do-andmending.
The Broomhill team had to
scrape together clothing coupons for
their shirts, but they only had enough
for ten, so one player was left out.
The tops
were plain navy which meant the
referee blended in, so a local woman
stitched white Vs onto each player’s
top.
“We didn’t get trophies after the
final, but the winning team got ten
shillings each and we all got seven
and six. It was a different world back
then, never about money. Football
was just a cheap and easy pastime.
If I ever played in the Montagu Cup
again I never got further than the
second or third round but it was
always an honour to play in it.”
Albert became a referee after he
stopped playing football and was
often voted referee of the year before
he retired aged 53. He’s hoping
to be at the 125th final if his health
allows.
34 aroundtownmagazine.co.uk