This one was a gem. Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy .The story of the trophy is an interesting piece of football history. It is with great pride that the people of County Durham recall that it was a West Auckland Football Club who represented Great Britain in the inaugural "WORLD CUP" competition during Easter of 1909, and they won it.
The original invitation was offered to the English Football Association, who were asked to nominate a team, but they declined. Sir Thomas insisted that Great Britain was represented. As to how West Auckland, an amateur colliery team from County Durham were chosen is open to speculation but the following is probably most credible.
An employee of Sir Thomas happened to have been a referee in the Northern League and it is therefore thought likely that he was instrumental in finding a substitute team from that league i.e. West Auckland Town.
The team which was predominantly made up of coal miners, struggled to raise the money necessary to make the trip to Italy, and some even pawned their possessions in order to do so. Their determination paid off and displaying typical northern grit they beat Stuttgart of Germany 2-0 on the way to beating F.C. Winterhour, of Switzerland 2-0 in the final at the Turin stadium on April 12 1909. So the first World Cup had been won by a team of relatively unknown amateurs, who had to finance the excursion themselves, without conceding a goal.
