THE year was 1879 and football remained in its infancy across Britain.
However by the end of the year every football fan across the country would have heard of the humble Oswestry Town Football Club which provided nine players for the Welsh national team’s match against England.
It is fair to say the match was controversial. The fledgling Football Association of Wales had been at war in 1879.
North Wales coast clubs had formed their own rival football association, the North Wales Football Association, while the demise of Druids Football Club had left their players to find new clubs.
Among them was Llewellyn Kenrick who rejected the overtures of Wrexham to join Oswestry Town.
There had been the ill-feeling caused by Kenrick’s decision to join Oswestry and using his influence on the Football Association of Wales to ensure his new team-mates were eligible to represent the club in the Welsh Cup.
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Wrexham Football Club declared none of their players would accept a call up to represent Wales in the forthcoming international and had likely expected the match to be cancelled.
Instead Kenrick and Oswestry Town Football Club chairman George Bailey hosted the international team selection committee in the town and selected nine players from the club.
Six of the players were English-born and led to outcries in the North Wales press.
The match, played on January 18th at London’s Kennington Oval, is also historic as the first time the two countries with the English previously only playing fixtures against Scotland.
However after a run of defeats against the Scots, the English FA had agreed to host the Welsh.
The match was played in atrocious conditions with both captains agreeing to 30 minute halves and as such was witnessed by just 100 spectators who had braved the wintery elements.
The Welsh lined up in white jerseys, dark blue knickerbockers and red stockings.
Among the nine Oswestry players to take to the field was captain Llewellyn Kenrick, then aged 31 and having played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Football Association of Wales three years earlier.
He had joined Oswestry Town Football Club along with several team-mates following the folding of the Ruabon based Druids Football Club after losing the use of Plasmadoc Park.
Among them was half-back William Williams or Little Billy as he was also known.
He also earned the nickname Bill Williams Scot for he had seemed to consistently play well against Scotland.
The chimney sweep would return to Druids and was still playing for Bootle as late as 1890.
However the rest of the Oswestry Nine are rather more forgotten from history - including William Davies who was aged 24 and a forward for the border club when he became the first international scorer for Wales.
He would also be denied by the post as Wales ended up losing 2-1. Davies was a pioneer of football in the town and a founding member of the club formed by cricket club members in September 1875 having previously captained the town’s first club, St Oswalds.
He would later play in the Oswestry Town team which reached the Welsh Cup final in 1884.
Off the pitch he worked as an accountant in the town and active in the temperance movement until his death in 1916.
23-year-old defender George Higham would also earn his second and final Welsh cap against England. Higham had also been at the historical meeting to establish Oswestry Town Football Club in 1875 and would later captain the club and go on to serve on the committee for 40 years.
The gunsmith met a tragic end when he and his wife were killed in a car accident in Drwysynant on October 20th, 1925.
Clubmates William Shone and Digby Owen would earn their only international caps.
Outside right Shone was 20 years old and went on to enjoy a playing career with Stafford Road Football Club in the Midlands and played against Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Digby Owen was aged 21 when he earned his only cap.
He is recorded as a noted exponent of the dribbling game but his academic studies at Oxford restricted his football career and he retired the following year and became a mainstay of the town and county cricket club until his death of pneumonia in 1901.
William Heywood was 24 years old when he earned his only Welsh cap.
The Trevor-based teacher spent a season at Oswestry after graduating from Chester College and later won three Welsh Cups with the re-formed Druids Football Club before returning to his native Lancashire.
23-year-old goalkeeper William Glascodine was also a teacher and graduate of Chester College whose family had settled in Llanyblodwel having moved from the Isle of Wight and turned out for St Oswalds and Oswestry Town when he earned his one and only cap.
Interestingly the Oswestry contingent was completed by half-back Thomas Owen who at 16 years old and 223 days could hold the record as Wales’ youngest debutant until being surpassed by Harry Wilson in October 2013.
Owen moved to Shrewsbury the following year and became a tax official while also representing Shrewsbury Castle Blues to the Shropshire Cup in 1932.
He died in 1932, aged 82.
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