Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

49 home ground between this inaugural match and 1881 was, in fact, Alexandra Meadows. At the time Blackburn was a hotbed of football with Rovers’ local rivals including Blackburn Olympic, winners of the FA Cup at Kennington Oval in 1883 in front of an estimated 8,000 spectators. Blackburn Olympic played a significant role in the social development of the game. When they secured that FA Cup triumph they were the first team from a working-class background to do so. Previously the cup had been dominated by wealthy amateurs and Olympic’s victory against Old Etonians persuaded the game’s rulers, the Football Association, to allow professionalism two years later. Ironically, this decision signalled the death knell for Olympic who were unable to compete with Married to Sport An all-round sportsman made an appropriate cover image for an all-round sports magazine.