The talking is almost over for the devotees of the 1872 Cup and its attendant rivalries which will start playing out again on Danes Drive this Friday evening

Tonights BBC 2 Scotland programme "A Rugby Rivalry" attempts to summarise the long history in short compass.
Journalism styles change but some of the lines from Victorian scribes were memorable describing Edinburgh as having fielded several "aliens" in the 1880s and Glasgow giving out a "heavy thonging" in 1891.

The journey has not been without its tragedies as W.D. Brown Glasgow Accies who played in both the first international ,the 1872 match and had the honour of being the first Glasgow player to captain Scotland sadly committed suicide in 1876 by jumping in front of train outside Blantyre He is buried at Glasgow Cathedral This tragedy led to the cancellation of the major club match of that season Edinburgh v Glasgow Academicals

Throughout the amateur era 1872-early 1990s there does not appear to have been any trophy presented and limited research suggests that it was when professionalism loomed in the early 1990s that the 1872 Cup appeared for the first time
Motivated by the likes of Ken Crichton and Andy Little both leading figures in the Glasgow District Union at that period who saw the need to bring focus back to the oldest Inter District match in the world of rugby football helping to manage its transition into the new professional era

Another chapter in a long story is about to be written

This article was posted on 19-Dec-2012, 07:29 by Hugh Barrow.