Links With The Past: Leicester Fosse Official Football Guide

Despite its modest size, price and appearance, this 64-page booklet, ‘The Leicester Fosse Official Football Guide, 1913/14’ is a veritable treasure trove of information. It provides information, statistics and articles relating to national and local issues.

The national section pays tribute to Sunderland, who were the current league champions for the fifth time, and to the runners-up Aston Villa, who defeated the Black Cats in the 1913 FA Cup Final in front of a crowd of 120,000. Other articles deal with players being prohibited from betting on matches, and about issues relating to players’ contracts.

Turning to Leicester Fosse, there is a picture of the Secretary-Manager Jack Bartlett and pen pictures of the Leicester Fosse players for the upcoming 1913/14 season. One of these is particularly poignant. The Fosse had just signed 24-year-old goalkeeper Ron Brebner who had won a gold medal in 1912 as part of the winning UK Olympic football team.

Described as ‘a well-developed athlete in the prime of his football life’, Brebner was injured at Lincoln City in his first season and later died as a result of his injury.

The booklet then provides Fosse’s 1913/14 fixture list, the upcoming season’s FA Cup which had a record entry of 477 clubs, a list of FA Cup Finalists since 1871, a complete list of Leicester Fosse’s League record since 1891, a paragraph about Fosse’s recent tour to Sweden which made a £48 profit, and three pages on Fosse reserves’ fixtures in the Central Alliance and (for the first time) in the South East League, which was a Thursday afternoon competition involving, among others, some Southern League reserve teams like Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and West Ham United.

The booklet also contains many full-page advertisements giving an insight into several business in Leicester, including a laundry guaranteeing ‘a clean collar for the football match’ and a menswear shop selling suits for 30 shillings (£1.50).