Ready for the fray

I’ve long been fond of the rare postcard seen here, showing the Sandon and New Denver football (soccer) teams lined up on Bellevue Street in New Denver between T.B. Hoben’s general store and the still-standing Bosun Hall, along with a bunch of kids and other locals (all men, it appears) who fill out the frame.

But when was it taken? And what was the outcome of the match? I had no inkling until a copy of this card came up for sale on eBay in June 2021. On the back was written “May 24, 1906.”

Yet details still proved elusive. The Nelson Daily News didn’t mention anything about the game. Sandon had a newspaper at the time, the Sandon Mining Standard, but the only surviving copies are in the Legislative Library in Victoria. I finally had a chance to look it up this year.

An ad appeared in the May 12 edition that laid out the holiday weekend programme, which also included launch, canoe, and double scull races, plus children’s wheelbarrow races and tug-of-war. The football match, though, was clearly intended as the highlight of the day.

Elsewhere the paper identified the Sandon players by surname only: Towgood, Forest, Barrows, Sanderson, Lawson, Cunning, Isenor, Plant, Kelsall, Nicholls, Clark, Sandilands, and Patterson. There was also a request that if anyone else wanted to play, they should contact S.J. Towgood of the Sandon brewery.

The Mining Standard of May 26 provided an account of the game.

“Candidly, we did not think our boys had a ghost of a show,” the paper wrote. “The team was hurriedly got together, with no practice whatever, and the old players had not seen a football since last July.”

The outstanding players for Sandon were said to be Sanderson, Towgood, and Scott (who was not previously identified on the roster).

“The game was a stubborn one, and Sandon’s goal was often in danger, but Scott rarely missed a powerful kick or failed to send the ball halfway down the field,” the paper added.

Sanderson was seen limping but his performance was still impressive. Plant opened the scoring for Sandon in the first half, “amid great cheering.” In the second half, New Denver had many chances but couldn’t capitalize. Sandon made it 2-0 on a header by Towgood, and that was the final score.

“The game was a good one, and free from roughness,” the Mining Standard said. “There were a few acrobatic stunts performed, but it wouldn’t have been football without them.”

Only three players on New Denver’s roster were identified: Rev. Brown, who was said to be limping, “but game to the end, and the way he afterwards managed the children’s sports was as good as a sermon”; Cornwall, who was presumably J.E. Cornwall, the Bank of Montreal manager who a few years later donated a trophy for the men’s senior hockey championship of the Slocan; and Bloomfield.

The Mining Standard thought the whole event was memorable: “New Denver can reckon May 24, 1906 as one of the gala days in its existence.”

Alas, there was no mention in the paper about the teams posing for a photo. We don’t know who took it. The postcard’s reverse doesn’t list a photographer or publisher, just a catalogue number, “A 704/79.”

——————

For more on Sandon, check out my new book at kingofsandon.com.