View source for Cambridge rules

{{Short description|Early codifications of rules of football}}
{{use British English|date=May 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}}
[[File:Cambridge rules 1856.png|thumb|The "Laws of the University Foot Ball Club" (1856)]]

The '''Cambridge Rules''' were several formulations of the rules of <!-- NOT "association football"; that didn't exist until 1863 -->[[football]] made at the [[University of Cambridge]] during the nineteenth century.

Cambridge Rules are believed to have had a significant influence on the modern football codes. The 1856 Cambridge Rules are claimed by some to have had an influence in the [[Origins of Australian rules football|origins]] of [[Australian rules football]].<ref name="Hibbins 1989 pp. 172–192">{{cite journal | last=Hibbins | first=G.M. | title=The Cambridge connection: the origin of Australian rules football | journal=The International Journal of the History of Sport | publisher=Informa UK Limited | volume=6 | issue=2 | year=1989 | issn=0952-3367 | doi=10.1080/09523368908713687 | pages=172–192}}</ref> The 1863 Cambridge Rules is said to have had a significant influence on the creation of the original [[Laws of the Game (association football)|Laws of the Game]] of the [[Football Association]].

==Context==

[[File:Parkers Piece 1907.png|thumb|Parker's Piece (1907)]]

The playing of football has a long history at [[Cambridge]]. In 1579, one match played at [[Chesterton, Cambridge|Chesterton]] between townspeople and University students ended in a violent brawl that led the Vice-Chancellor to issue a decree forbidding them to play "footeball" outside of college grounds.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110708112713/http://www.cambridgeshirefa.com/AboutUs/History/ History] on Cambridgeshirefa.com (Archive, 8 July 2011)</ref> In 1631 John Barwick, a student at St John's College, broke the collar-bone of a fellow-student while "playing at Football".<ref>{{cite book |pages=9–10 |title=The Life of the Reverend Dr. John Barwick |first=Peter |last=Barwick |translator=(("The editor of the Latin Life")) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yE5_n6uAiY4C&pg=PA9 |location=London |publisher=Bettenham |year=1724}}</ref>  
According to historian Christopher Wordsworth, football "was not, I think, played much in the [eighteenth] century" at the university.<ref>{{cite book |page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924100477466/page/n218 179] |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924100477466 |first=Christopher |last=Wordsworth |title=Social life at the English Universities in the Eighteenth Century |location=Cambridge |year=1874 |publisher=Deighton, Bell and Co.}}</ref> There is more evidence of the game in the early part of the nineteenth century.  [[George Elwes Corrie]], Master of [[Jesus College, Cambridge|Jesus College]], observed in 1838, "In walking with Willis we passed by [[Parker's Piece]] and there saw some forty Gownsmen playing at football. The novelty and liveliness of the scene were amusing!"<ref name=cuafc>{{cite web |url=http://www.cuafc.org/history.php |title=History of Football in Cambridge |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061027053608/http://www.cuafc.org/history.php |archive-date=27 October 2006 |website=Cambridge University Association Football Club}}</ref> On the other hand, a former [[Rugby School]] pupil, Albert Pell, who attended Trinity College from 1839 to 1841, claimed that "football was unknown" when he arrived at Cambridge, but that he and his companions "established football at Cambridge", using the Rugby rules.<ref>{{cite book |pages=[https://archive.org/details/reminiscencesal00mackgoog/page/n143 70]-71 |url=https://archive.org/details/reminiscencesal00mackgoog |title=The Reminiscences of Albert Pell |editor-first=Thomas |editor-last=Mackay |publisher=John Murray |location=London |year=1908}}</ref>

During the early nineteenth century, each school tended to use its own rules of football.<ref>Searby (1997), [https://archive.org/details/historyofunivers0003unse_f5w9/page/668/mode/2up p. 668]</ref> These school codes began to be written down in the 1840s, beginning with [[Rugby School]] in 1845.<ref>{{cite wikisource |title=Laws of Football as played at Rugby School (1845)}}</ref> When Cambridge students who had attended different schools wished to play each other at football, it was necessary to draw up a compromise set of rules drawing features from the various codes.<ref>Curry and Dunning (2015), pp. 63-64</ref>

==1838&ndash;1842==
Edgar Montagu, an old-boy of [[Shrewsbury School]] who attended Cambridge from 1838 to 1842,<ref>{{acad |id=MNTG837EW |name=Montagu, Edgar William}}</ref> recalled in an 1897 letter: "I and six other representatives of the School made a Club, and drew up rules that should equalise the different game. [...] It was then we had two matches on Parker’s Piece".<ref name="cd_64">Curry and Dunning (2015), p. 64</ref> In a later letter dating from 1899, he wrote: "I was one of seven who drew up the rules for football, when we made the first football club, to be fair to all the schools."<ref>{{cite book |last=Oldham |first=J. Basil |year=1952 |title=A History of Shrewsbury School 1552-1952 |location=Oxford |publisher=Basil Blackwell |page=232}}</ref> The rules have not survived.<ref name="cd_64"/> On the basis of these letters, Curry and Dunning suggest that "the first Cambridge University Football Rules should, at present, be dated tentatively as having been constructed in 1838".<ref name="cd_64"/>

==1846==
[[File:J. C. Thring.jpg|thumb|J. C. Thring]]
According to [[Nicholas Lane Jackson|N. L. Jackson]], in 1846 "two old Shrewsbury boys, Messrs. [[Henry de Winton|H. de Winton]]<ref>de Winton attended Trinity College between 1842 and 1846: {{acad|id=D842H |name=Winton, Henry de}} A</ref> and [[John Charles Thring|J. C. Thring]],<ref>Thring attended St John's College between 1843 and 1848: {{acad|id=THRN843JC |name=Thring, John Charles}}</ref> persuaded some Old Etonians to join them and formed a club.  Matches were few and far between, but some were played on [[Parker's Piece]]. Unfortunately, the game was not popular at the 'Varsity then, and the club did not last long".<ref name="jackson_26">{{cite book |title=Association Football |page=26 |year=1900 |orig-year=1899 |location=London |publisher=Newnes |first=N. L. |last=Jackson}}.</ref>

Thring himself wrote in 1861:<ref name="universal">{{cite journal |journal=The Field |date=1861-12-28 |page=578 |title=Football, Simple and Universal |author=J.C.T. |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Football,_Simple_and_Universal_(The_Field)_1861-12-28.png}}</ref> "in 1846, when an attempt was made to introduce a common game, and form a really respectable club, at Cambridge, the Rugby game was found to be the great obstacle to the combination of Eton, Winchester, and Shrewsbury men in forming a football club".  No rules from this attempt at codification have survived.<ref>Curry and Dunning, p. 66</ref>

Green describes this development as "the first positive step to create an identity of views and a common code of laws [of football] acceptable to as many as possible", and laments the absence of a plaque "to commemorate this historic moment".<ref>Green (1953), p. 15</ref>

==1848==
[[File:Henry Charles Malden.jpg|thumb|Henry Charles Malden]]
[[Henry Charles Malden]] attended [[Trinity College, Cambridge|Trinity College]] between 1847 and 1851.<ref>{{acad|id=MLDN847HC|name=Malden, Henry Charles}}. Son of [[Charles Robert Malden]].</ref> In 1897, he wrote a letter in which he described his memories of creating a set of football rules at Cambridge in 1848.  The letter was subsequently published by [[C. W. Alcock]] in an 1898 newspaper article:<ref name="alcock_1898">{{cite journal |journal=The Sportsman |date=1898-01-08 |page=3 |issue=8851 |location=London |title=Association Football: No. 1 -- Its Origin |first = C. W. |last=Alcock |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Association_Football_Its_Origin_(Sportsman)_1898-01-08.png}}</ref>

{{quote|Before me, as I write, is a letter from Mr Henry C. Malden, of Copse Edge, [[Godalming]], which gives an interesting account of the early efforts to acclimatise football at one of the universities. "Fifty years ago to-day," writes Mr Malden, under date of October 8, 1897, "I went up to Trinity College, Cambridge. In the following year an attempt was made to get up some football, in preference to the hockey then in vogue. But the result was dire confusion, as every man played the rules he had been accustomed to at his public school. I remember how the [[Eton College|Eton]] men howled at the [[Rugby school|Rugby]] for handling the ball. So it was agreed that two men should be chosen to represent each of the public schools, and two, who were not public school men, for the 'Varsity. G. Salt<ref>George Salt (d. 1882); attended Trinity College between 1846 and 1850</ref> and myself were chosen for the 'Varsity. I wish I could remember the others. Burn,<ref>George Burn (d. 1880); attended Trinity College between 1847 and 1851</ref> of Rugby, was one; [[Frederick Whymper (cricketer)|Whymper]],<ref>Frederick Hayes Whymper (d. 1893); attended Trinity College between 1847 and 1851</ref> of Eton, I think, also. We were fourteen in all, I believe. [[Harrow School|Harrow]],  Eton, Rugby, [[Winchester]], and [[Shrewsbury]] were represented. We met in my rooms after Hall, which in those days was at 4 p.m.; anticipating a long meeting I cleared the tables and provided pens, ink, and paper. Several asked me on coming in whether an exam. was on! Every man brought a copy of his school rules, or knew them by heart, and our progress in framing new rules was slow. On several occasions Salt and I, being unprejudiced, carried or struck out a rule when the voting was equal. We broke up five minutes before midnight. The new rules were printed as the 'Cambridge Rules,' copies were distributed and pasted up on Parker's Piece, and very satisfactorily they worked, for it is right to add that they were loyally kept, and I never heard of any public school man who gave up playing from not liking the rules. Well, sir, years afterwards some one took those rules, still in force at Cambridge, and with very few alterations they became the Association Rules.  A fair catch, free kick (as still played at Harrow) was struck out.  The off-side rule was made less stringent.  'Hands' was made more so; this has just been wisely altered."}}

Though the 1848 rules described in Malden's letter have not survived,<ref>Curry and Dunning (2015), p. 69: "The 1848 regulations, though we cannot be sure as no copy survives, may have been generally satisfactory for the players who reflected the balance of power among Cambridge undergraduates at that time"</ref><ref>Green (1953) p. 16: "The tragedy, from the point of view of research, is that no copies exist of either the 1846 or 1848 rules, but from the following copy of the University Rules of ''circ'' 1856 a comparison can be made" [followed by a list of the 1856 rules]</ref><ref>Even though no copy of the 1848 rules has survived, some sources describe the 1856 laws (see below) as the "Cambridge Rules of 1848".   These include

* The website for the Parker's Piece Public Art Commission ({{cite web |url=https://www.cambridgerules1848.com/about/ |title=Cambridge Rules 1848: About Cambridge Rules |access-date=2019-04-01}})
*  The monument installed on Parker's Piece in 2018 (see "Monument" section below)
* {{cite book |page=22 |title=Football/Soccer: History and Tactics |first=Jaime |last=Orejan |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, NC |year=2011}}

Some other sources, such as Witty (1960), p. 143, assume that the 1848 rules must have been similar or identical to the 1856 rules, though the basis for this belief is unclear.
</ref> they have attracted significant interest from historians of the game.  Alcock commented that "Mr. Malden's account of the original movement in favour of a uniform code of football is of the greatest interest, from the fact that none has previously seen the light. [...] In any case, it certainly establishes the existence of a unified code fifty years ago".<ref name="alcock_1898"/> N. L. Jackson, writing in 1899, stated the rules described in Malden's letter "establish[ed] that the Association Game owes its origin to Cambridge University".<ref name="jackson_26"/> It has even been suggested that the meeting that produced the 1848 rules "deserves to be remembered as much as [the revolutionary events of the same year in] [[Frankfurt Parliament|Frankfurt]], [[French Revolution of 1848|Paris]], and [[Chartism#1848 petition|Kennington Common]]".<ref>{{cite journal |title=Trinity and the Beautiful Game |first=Richard |last=Speight |page=6 |journal=Fountain |year=2008 |issue=7 |url=https://issuu.com/trinityalumni/docs/the_fountain_issue_07/6 |location=Cambridge}}</ref>

Malden's claim that the 1848 rules worked "very satisfactorily" is doubted by Dunning and Sheard, on the grounds that a new set of rules had to be created in 1856 (see below).<ref>{{cite book |first1=Eric |last1=Dunning |first2=Kenneth |last2=Sheard |title=Barbarians, Gentlemen and Players: A Sociological Study of the Development of Rugby Football |year=2005 |orig-year=1979 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon |isbn=0-203-49171-8 |pages=104}}</ref> Peter Searby also suggests that while "[p]erhaps these [1848] rules were adopted for some games ... the variety of practice that Malden described in fact continued for some time".<ref>Searby (1997), [https://archive.org/details/historyofunivers0003unse_f5w9/page/668/mode/2up p. 669]</ref> Searby cites the recollections of T. G. Bonney, who attended St. John's College from 1852 to 1856, that he "often ... played football on Parker's Piece, without uniform or regular organization<!--original spelling -->".<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Eagle |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015065975032?urlappend=%3Bseq=796 |title=A Septuagenarian's Recollections of St John's |pages=304–305 |volume=xxx |issue=cxlix |first=T. G. |last=B[onney] |publisher=E. Johnson |location=Cambridge |date=June 1909| hdl=2027/mdp.39015065975032?urlappend=%3Bseq=796 }}, also cited at Searby (1997), [https://archive.org/details/historyofunivers0003unse_f5w9/page/670/mode/2up p. 670].</ref>

==1851–54==
Another reference to compromise rules appears in the published memoirs of W. C. Green, who attended King's College Cambridge between 1851 and 1854:<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/memoriesetonand00greegoog |pages=[https://archive.org/details/memoriesetonand00greegoog/page/n85 77]-78 |title=Memories of Eton and King's |first=W. C. |last=Green |year=1905 |location=Eton |publisher=Spottiswode}}</ref><ref>Curry and Dunning (2015), pp. 67-68</ref><ref>{{acad |id=GRN851WC |name=Green, William Charles}}</ref> {{blockquote|There was a Football Club, whose games were played on the Piece, according to rules more like the [[Eton field game|Eton Field rules]] than any other. But Rugby and Harrow players would sometimes begin running with the ball in hand or claiming free kicks, which led to some protest and confusion. A Trinity man, [[William John Beamont|Beamont]]<ref>William John Beamont (d. 1868); attended Eton, then Trinity College between 1846 and 1850.  Subsequently served as a fellow of Trinity from 1852 until his death.</ref> (a Fellow of his College soon after), was a regular attendant, and the rules were revised by him and one or two others, with some concessions to non-Etonians. Few from King's College ever played at this University game: about the end of my time there began to be other special Rugby games on another ground.}}

==1856==
[[File:Cambridge rules members.jpg|thumb|This 1854 portrait includes [[Herbert Mortimer Luckock|H. M. Luckock]] (top left) and E. L. Horne (top right), two of the creators of the 1856 Cambridge Rules]]
{{wikisource |Cambridge Rules (1856)}}

In 1856, there was another attempt to draw up common rules.  Frederic G. Sykes, who attended St John's College between 1853 and 1857,<ref>{{acad |id=SKS853FG |name=Sykes, Frederic Galland}}</ref> described their creation in an 1897 letter published in a magazine for St John's College alumni:<ref name="eagle">{{cite journal |title=[Correspondence] |journal=The Eagle: A Magazine Supported by Members of St. John's College |volume=xix |issue=cxiii |location=Cambridge |publisher=E Johnson |date=June 1897 |pages=586–588 |hdl=2027/mdp.39015065971502?urlappend=%3Bseq=646 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015065971502?urlappend=%3Bseq=646}}</ref>

{{blockquote|The Laws were drawn up in the Michaelmas Term of 1856, I believe. The meeting took place in W. H. Stone's rooms in Trinity College. Up to that time University Football consisted in a sort of general melée on Parker's Piece, from 1.30 to 3.30 p.m. [...] There were no rules. [...] When we met in sufficient numbers we chose two sides, and stragglers adopted the weaker side, or did as requested. The hand was freely used, everyone adopting his own view, until a crisis was reached in 1856, resulting in the drawing up of these rules. I never heard of an accident, and though the game was played vigorously, there was no violence, the ball being the objective, not the persons of the players. [...] Do you think, (as I do) that the enclosed Laws may be regarded as the nucleus of the Association game?  At that time football was played only in Schools and at the Universities, so that it did not then generally exist.  There were no laws at Cambridge, whatever Oxford had.  Different schools had their own rules, which had never been subjected to amalgamation.  Each had its own.  The enclosed rules seem to be the first attempt at combination, and from this point of view perhaps they led up to the Association rules.}}

Sykes was unaware of any compromise rules earlier than his own 1856 code (which he suggests might be "the first attempt at combination") and stated that before their enactment "University Football" had "no rules".  Curry and Dunning suggest that "[t]he regularity with which new rules were issued at [Cambridge] indicates a probable lack of effectiveness in the 'laws'".<ref>Curry and Dunning (2015), p. 26</ref>

A copy of the 1856 Cambridge Rules survives at [[Shrewsbury School]]:<ref>Curry and Dunning (2015), p. 73</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.shrewsbury.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/files/Sport/FootballRules.pdf |title=Laws of the University Foot Ball Club |access-date=2019-04-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190415181221/https://www.shrewsbury.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/files/Sport/FootballRules.pdf |archive-date=2019-04-15 |url-status=dead }}</ref> another copy, dated from 1857, was included by Sykes with his letter.<ref name="eagle"/> The rules bear the signatures of ten footballers: two each from Eton, Rugby, Harrow, Shrewsbury, and the University of Cambridge.  The rules allow a free kick from a fair catch; otherwise the ball may be handled only to stop it.  Holding, pushing, and tripping are all forbidden.  The offside rule requires four opponents to be between a player and the opponents' goal.  A goal is scored by kicking the ball "through the flag posts and under the string".<ref name="eagle"/>

===Use outside Cambridge===
In 1861, [[Wanderers F.C.|Forest Football Club]] (which would later become Wanderers F.C.), issued a set of printed laws based on the Cambridge rules of 1856 with a small number of additions.<ref>Witty (1960), p. 144</ref><ref>{{cite wikisource |title=Rules of Forest Football Club (1861)}}</ref> A notice, issued by the same club in September 1862, sought opponents for the upcoming season who would play "on the rules of the University of Cambridge".<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Bell's Life in London |date=1862-09-07 |page=2 |title=Football }}</ref><ref>Harvey (2005), p. 73</ref>

==1862==
{{wikisource|Rules of football for the Eton-Harrow Match (1862)}}
In November 1862, a football match took place at Cambridge between a team of Old Etonians and a team of Old Harrovians.<ref name="jac">{{cite journal |author="J.A.C." [James Alexander Cruikshank]  |title=[Correspondence] |journal=The Tyro |location=Harrow |pages=52–3 |date=1863-10-01 |issue=1}}, as found at {{cite book |title=A History of British Football |first=Percy M. |last=Young |year=1968 |publisher=Arrow Books |isbn=0-09-907490-7 |location=London |pages=124–126}}</ref> A set of rules, drawn up specifically for this match by a committee, mixed features of the Eton and Harrow rules, while being shorter and simpler than either:<ref>See {{cite wikisource |Laws of the Eton Field Game (1857)}} and {{cite wikisource|Rules of Harrow Football (1858)}}</ref>

* all handling (other than "stopping" the ball) was forbidden, as in the Eton Field Game
* the dimensions of the ground, the width of the goals, and the terminology "bases" for goals, followed Harrow rules
* a player was offside unless four opponents were between him and the opponents' goal, as at Eton
* when the ball went out of play, the game was restarted with a kick-in, as at Harrow

The complexities of Eton's "rouge" tie-breaker and Harrow's free-kick for a fair catch were both excluded from the rules for this game, which ended in a draw.<ref name="jac"/>

==1863== 
[[File:Robert Burn.png|thumb|[[Robert Burn (classicist)|Robert Burn]], chair of the committee that wrote the 1863 rules]]
{{wikisource |Cambridge Rules (1863)}}
In October 1863, a new set of rules was drawn up by a committee of nine players representing Shrewsbury, Eton, Rugby, Marlborough, Harrow, and Westminster schools.<ref>The date of October 1863 comes from the introduction to the later 1867 Cambridge rules: see {{cite wikisource |Cambridge Rules (1867)}}</ref> The following month, it was published in the newspapers, with an introduction stating:<ref name="Bells p.9"/> {{blockquote|It having been thought desirable to establish a general game for the University of Cambridge, the accompanying rules have been drawn up for that purpose.  The first game will be played on Friday, 20 Nov, at 2:15 p.m. on Parker's Piece. All members of the University who take an interest in the game, and are desirous of attending, can do so on payment of a subscription of one shilling per term.}}

Like the earlier 1856 laws, the 1863 rules disallowed rugby-style running with the ball and hacking.  Nevertheless, there were several differences between the two codes:<ref name="auto1">{{cite wikisource |title=Cambridge Rules (1863)}}</ref>

* The 1856 laws had a "string" below which the ball had to go to score a goal, while the 1863 laws permitted a goal to be scored at any height.
* The 1856 laws permitted players to catch the ball, with a free kick awarded for a fair catch, while the 1863 laws forbade this (both codes allowed the ball to be handled to "stop" it).
* The 1856 laws permitted a player to be onside when there were four opponents between him and the opponents' goal-line, while the 1863 laws had a strict offside law whereby any player ahead of the ball was out of play.
* The 1856 laws awarded a throw-in when the ball went out of play over the side lines, while the 1863 laws used a kick-in.  
* The 1863 laws awarded a free kick from 25 yards after a touch-down behind the opponent's' goal-line (somewhat similar to a conversion in present-day rugby), while the 1856 laws did not.

There is little textual similarity between the two sets of laws: in general the 1863 laws are longer and more detailed, but the 1856 rule that "[e]very match shall be decided by a majority of goals" has no equivalent in the later code.

''The Field'' published a detailed report of a game played under these rules on Tuesday 1 December 1863. The author concluded that while "[w]e do not consider [the Cambridge rules] the best game that might be had, [...] it is a good one", and suggested that it could be adopted by some of the schools.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Cartwright |first=John D. |journal=Field |date=1863-12-05 |page=547 |title=The Game Played by the New University Rules, and What the Schools would Lose and Gain by Adopting Them}}</ref>

===Influence on the Football Association laws===
[[File:Ebenezer Morley 1913.png|thumb|upright=0.75|Ebenezer Morley brought the 1863 Cambridge rules to the attention of the Football Association]]
{{wikisource |Laws of the Game (1863) (draft)}}
{{wikisource |Laws of the Game (1863) (as submitted for adoption)}}

The publication of the 1863 Cambridge rules happened to coincide with the debates within the newly formed [[Football Association]] (FA) over its own first set of laws.  At this time, some football clubs followed the example of [[Rugby School]] by allowing the ball to be carried in the hands, with players allowed to "hack" (kick in the shins) opponents who were carrying the ball. Other clubs forbade both practices.  During the meetings to draw up the FA laws, there was an acrimonious division between the "hacking" and "non-hacking" clubs.

An FA meeting of 17 November 1863 discussed this question, with the "hacking" clubs predominating.<ref name="harvey">Harvey (2005), pp. 135–139</ref> A further meeting was scheduled one week later in order to finalize ("settle") the laws.<ref name="nov_24">{{cite news |title=The Football Association |work=Bell's Life in London |date=1863-11-28 |page=6 |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Football_Association_(Bells_Life_in_London)_1863-11-28.png}}</ref> The Cambridge Rules appeared in the sporting newspapers on 21 November, three days before the FA meeting.<ref name="Bells p.9">{{cite news |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cambridge_University_(Bell's_Life_in_London)_1863-11-21.png |title=Cambridge University  |work=Bell's Life in London |date=1863-11-21 |page=9}}</ref>
   
At this crucial 24 November meeting, the "hackers" were again in a narrow majority.  During the meeting, however, FA secretary [[Ebenezer Morley]] brought the delegates' attention to the Cambridge Rules (which banned carrying and hacking):<ref name="nov_24"/> {{blockquote|Mr {{sc|Morley}}, hon. secretary, said that he had endeavoured as faithfully as he could to draw up the laws according to the suggestions made, but he wished to call the attention of the meeting to other matters that had taken place.  The Cambridge University Football Club, probably stimulated by the Football Association, had formed some laws in which gentlemen of note from six of the public schools had taken part.  Those rules, so approved, were entitled to the greatest consideration and respect at the hands of the association, and they ought not to pass them over without giving them all the weight that the feeling of six of the public schools entitled them to.}}

Discussion of the Cambridge rules, and suggestions for possible communication with Cambridge on the subject, served to delay the final "settlement" of the laws to a further meeting, on 1 December.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Football Association |work=Bell's Life in London |date=1863-11-28 |page=6 |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Football_Association_(Bells_Life_in_London)_1863-11-28.png |quote=The {{sc|President}} pointed out that the vote just passed to all intents and purposes annulled the business of the evening, whereupon Mr. {{sc|Alcock}} said it was too late to proceed further, and moved that the meeting do adjourn till Tuesday next, 1 Dec., and it was so resolved.}}</ref><ref name="dec_1"/> A number of representatives who supported rugby-style football did not attend this additional meeting,<ref>Harvey (2005), pp. 144-145</ref> resulting in hacking and carrying being banned.<ref name="dec_1">{{cite news |title=The Football Association |work=Supplement to Bell's Life in London |date=1863-12-05 |page=1 |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Football_Association_(Bell%27s_Life_in_London),_1863-12-05.png}}</ref> As the newspaper report of a later meeting put it, 'the appearance of some rules recently adopted at Cambridge seemed to give tacit support to the advocates of "non-hacking".'<ref>{{cite news |title=The Football Association |work=Bell's Life in London |date=1863-12-12 |page=3 |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Football_Association_(Bell%27s_Life_in_London)_1863_12_12.png}}</ref>

The FA adopted the Cambridge offside law almost ''verbatim'', replacing the quite different wording in the earlier draft.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Football Association |work=Supplement to Bell's Life in London |date=1863-12-05 |page=1 |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Football_Association_(Bell%27s_Life_in_London),_1863-12-05.png |quote=The {{sc|President}} called Mr Campbell's attention to the fact that, so far from ignoring the Cambridge rules, they had adopted their No. 6}}</ref> Morley even proposed making the FA's laws "nearly identical with the Cambridge rules", but this suggestion was rebuffed by FA president [[Arthur Pember]].<ref name="dec_1_quote">{{cite news |title=The Football Association |work=Supplement to Bell's Life in London |date=1863-12-05 |page=1 |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Football_Association_(Bell%27s_Life_in_London),_1863-12-05.png |quote=[H]e (Mr Morley) thought that their hands would be strengthened if the laws of the association were made nearly identical with the Cambridge rules.[...] The {{sc|President}} thought it would be better to go on with their own rules}}</ref> As a result, the FA's final published laws of 1863 retained many of the differences from the Cambridge rules that had been present in the earlier draft, including the following:<ref>{{cite wikisource |title=Laws of the Game (1863)}}</ref><ref name="auto1"/>

* The FA laws allowed the ball to be caught, and awarded a free-kick for a [[fair catch]]; the Cambridge rules banned all handling except to stop the ball.
* The FA laws awarded a throw-in when the ball went into touch, while the Cambridge rules awarded a kick-in.<ref>Morley's first draft had allowed the option of a throw-in or a kick-in.</ref>
* The FA laws provided for a change of ends every time a goal was scored, while the Cambridge rules stipulated that ends should only be changed at half-time.

The historical significance of these distinctions was, however, minor in comparison to the decision to reject hacking and carrying the ball. [[Jonathan Wilson (writer)|Jonathan Wilson]] has summarized it thus: {{blockquote|[C]arrying the ball was outlawed, and [association] football and rugby went their separate ways.<ref>{{cite book |first=Jonathan |last=Wilson |title=Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics|pages=11–12  |year=2009 |orig-year=2008 |edition=paperback |publisher=Orion |location=London |isbn=978-1-4091-0204-5}}</ref>}}

==1867==
{{wikisource |Cambridge Rules (1867)}}
Cambridge University Football Club continued to play according to its own rules.  In March 1867, it summoned a meeting of "representatives of public schools and college football clubs" at which it was hoped that "Oxford would agree with Cambridge in adopting a common set of rules", with the intention that these rules "would in time become widely adopted throughout the country".<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Cambridge Chronicle and University Journal |issue=5442 |date=1867-03-23 |page=5 |title=Cambridge University Football Club}}</ref> Curry and Dunning suggest that Cambridge's decision to revise its own set of rules, rather than using those of the FA, reflects "the relative weakness of the FA at that time".<ref name="auto">Curry and Dunning (2015), p. 76</ref> The resulting set of rules, explicitly presented as a revision of the 1863 rules, included a "touch down", somewhat similar to today's "try" in rugby: a team who touched the ball down behind the opponent's goal-line were entitled to take a free kick at goal, with the number of unconverted "touches down" being used as a tie-breaker if both teams scored the same number of goals.<ref name="auto"/><ref>{{cite wikisource |title=Cambridge Rules (1867)}}</ref>

==Subsequent developments==
In 1869, the Cambridge club wrote to the FA to propose a match between the two bodies. It insisted on playing its own rules, a condition to which the FA would not agree.<ref>FA minute book for 12 January 1869, reported in {{cite book |first=Tony |last=Brown |title=The Football Association 1863-1883: A Source Book |location=Nottingham |publisher=Soccerdata |isbn=9781905891528 |year=2011 |page=45}}</ref>

In 1871, the break between the two main codes of football was crystallized with the formation of the [[Rugby Football Union]] (RFU).  This was followed in 1872 by the founding of the [[Cambridge University R.U.F.C.|Cambridge Rugby Union Club]], following RFU rules.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_y-VAAAAAIAAJ |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_y-VAAAAAIAAJ/page/n317 301] |year=1892 |title=Football: The Rugby Union Game |editor-first=F. |editor-last=Marshall |publisher=Cassell |location=London}}</ref> Shorn of adherents of the "carrying game", the Cambridge University Football Club joined the FA in 1873.<ref>Allcock's ''Football Annual'', 1873, reported in {{cite book |first=Tony |last=Brown |title=The Football Association 1863-1883: A Source Book |location=Nottingham |publisher=Soccerdata |isbn=9781905891528 |year=2011 |page=69}}</ref> It played under FA rules when it took part in the third edition of the [[FA Cup]], in the [[1873–74 FA Cup|1873-4 season]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Cambridge University v. South Norwood |page=3 |work=Morning Post |date=1873-10-27 |issue=31614}}</ref>

==Recognition==
[[File:Cambridge Rules 1848 monument 1.jpg|thumb|The "Cambridge Rules 1848" monument on Parker's Piece]]
In 2000, a plaque was erected in Parker's Piece by a football team consisting of homeless people.  It bears the following inscription:<ref>{{cite web |title=Cambridge bids for FA football rules recognition |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-21042458 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=2019-04-04 |date=2013-01-16}}</ref>

<blockquote>
Here on Parker's Piece, in the 1800s, students established a common set of simple football rules emphasising skill above force, which forbade catching the ball and 'hacking'. These 'Cambridge Rules' became the defining influence on the 1863 Football Association rules.
</blockquote>

In May 2018, a monument titled "Cambridge Rules 1848" was installed on Parker's Piece.  The monument consists of four stone pillars, engraved with the 1856 Cambridge Rules translated into several languages.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/parkers-piece-cambridge-rules-1848-14649641 |title=The Parker's Piece football monument has been unveiled – and people aren't happy |date=2018-05-12 |journal=Cambridge News |first=Tara |last=Cox}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |journal=The Mirror |title=Monument celebrating 170 years of football blasted by critics who say 'it's f****** hideous' |first=Yasmin |last=Harisha |date=2018-05-14 |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/monument-celebrating-170-years-football-12534065}}</ref>

==Summary==

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: center; font-size: 85%; width: auto; table-layout: fixed;"
|+ '''Laws of football reportedly created at Cambridge up to 1867'''<ref>See Curry and Dunning (2015), p. 78</ref>
|- style="vertical-align: bottom;"
! Date
! Survives<br>today?
!  Public school(s)<br>involved
! Cambridge college(s)<br>involved
! Source(s)
! Notes

|-
| '''c. 1838–1842'''
| {{No}}
| style="text-align: left;" |Shrewsbury
| style="text-align: left;" |Gonville&nbsp;and&nbsp;Caius
| style="text-align: left;" |Edgar Montagu (letters of 1897 and 1899)
| style="text-align: left;" | Although drawn up solely by Shrewsbury alumni, the rules were intended to be "fair to all the schools".
|-
| '''1846'''
| {{No}}
| style="text-align: left;" | Eton<br>Shrewsbury<br>Rugby<br>Winchester
| style="text-align: left;" | St John's<br>Trinity
| style="text-align: left;" | J. C. Thring (article of 1861)<br>N. L. Jackson (1899)
| style="text-align: left;" |The sources do not make it clear whether this attempt to create a code of rules was successful: "the Rugby game was found to be the great obstacle to the combination of Eton, Winchester, and Shrewsbury men in forming a football club".
|-
| '''1848'''
| {{No}}
| style="text-align: left;" | Eton<br>Harrow<br>Rugby<br>Shrewsbury<br>Winchester
| style="text-align: left;" | Trinity<br>[others unknown]<ref>Malden stated that fourteen persons had created the rules, but he was able to recall only four (including himself), all of whom had attended Trinity College</ref>
| style="text-align: left;" | H. C. Malden (letter of 1897)
| style="text-align: left;" | Malden claims that these rules were "still in force at Cambridge" when the FA's rules were created in 1863.
|-
| '''c. 1851–1854'''
| {{No}}
| style="text-align: left;" | Eton<br>"Non-Etonians"
| style="text-align: left;" | Trinity<br>[others unknown]
| style="text-align: left;" | W. C. Green (published memoir of 1905)
| style="text-align: left;" | Rules were "more like the Eton Field rules than any other"
|-
| '''1856'''
| {{Yes}}
| style="text-align: left;" | Eton<br>Harrow<br>Rugby<br>Shrewsbury
| style="text-align: left;" | Clare<br>Jesus<br>Peterhouse<br>St John's<br>Trinity
| style="text-align: left;" | Copy preserved in Shrewsbury library (c. 1856)<br>F. G. Sykes (published letter of 1897)
| style="text-align: left;" | Sykes states that before this code was created, university football was a "general melée" with "no rules".  He suggests that these rules might be "the first attempt at combination".
|-
| '''1862'''
| {{Yes}}
| style="text-align: left;" | Eton<br>Harrow
| style="text-align: left;" | Trinity<br>[others unknown]
| style="text-align: left;" | Letter of J. A. Cruikshank to the Old Harrovian magazine ''The Tyro'' (October 1863)
| style="text-align: left;" | Rules were specially created for a match between old Etonians and old Harrovians at Cambridge in November 1862
|-
| '''1863'''
| {{Yes}}
| style="text-align: left;" |  Eton<br>Harrow<br>Marlborough<br>Rugby<br>Shrewsbury<br>Westminster
| style="text-align: left;" | Gonville&nbsp;and&nbsp;Caius<br>Trinity
| style="text-align: left;" | Published contemporaneously in newspapers (1863)
| style="text-align: left;" | Influenced the first FA rules 
|-
| '''1867'''
| {{Yes}}
| style="text-align: left;" |   Charterhouse<br>Cheltenham<br>Eton<br>Harrow<br>Marlborough<br>Rugby<br>Shrewsbury<br>Uppingham<br>Westminster<br>Winchester
| style="text-align: left;" |  Christ's<br>Emmanuel<br>Gonville&nbsp;and&nbsp;Caius<br>Jesus<br>St. John's<br>Trinity<br>
| style="text-align: left;" | Published contemporaneously in newspapers (1867)
| style="text-align: left;" | Explicitly presented as a revision of the 1863 laws
|-
|}

==See also==
* [[English public school football games]]
* [[Laws of the Game (association football)]]
* [[Sheffield Rules]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite book |first1=Graham |last1=Curry |first2=Eric |last2=Dunning |title=Association Football: A Study in Figurational Sociology |publisher=Routledge |location=London |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-138-82851-3}}
* {{cite book |title=History of the Football Association |publisher=Naldrett Press |year=1953 |location=London |author=n.a. [Geoffrey Green]}}
* {{cite book|first=Adrian|last=Harvey|title=Football: the First Hundred Years|year=2005|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=0-415-35019-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TxoZ0S-GC7MC}}
* {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofunivers0003unse_f5w9/page/n7/mode/2up |title=A History of the University of Cambridge, volume iii |first=Peter |last=Searby |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |year=1997 |isbn=0-521-35060-3}}
* Witty, J.R., "Early Codes", in {{cite book |pages=133–146 |title=Association Football |editor1-first=A. H. |editor1-last=Fabian |editor2-first=Geoffrey |editor2-last=Green |volume=1 |publisher=Caxton Publishing Company |location=London |year=1960 }}

{{University of Cambridge}}
{{Association football laws}}
{{Association football}}
{{Football codes}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cambridge Rules}}
[[Category:1848 introductions]]
[[Category:1848 in England]]
[[Category:1856 introductions]]
[[Category:1856 in England]]
[[Category:1863 introductions]]
[[Category:1863 in England]]
[[Category:Laws of association football]]
[[Category:History of association football]]
[[Category:History of the University of Cambridge]]
[[Category:Sport at the University of Cambridge]]