Film crew to explore town’s World Cup tale

7:47am Friday 29th August 2008

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TELEVISION crews will visit a town tomorrow to film a programme that explores an extraordinary sporting history.

In 1909, West Auckland Town FC was the first club to take home the World Cup, then known as the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, a feat the side repeated in 1911.

Planned celebrations for next year’s centenary of the first victory have sparked the interest of researchers from The One Show, on BBC1.

Presenter Carol Thatcher will join a camera crew from 9.30am as they talk to members, players and villagers for the feature, due to air in November or February.

The BBC crew will also film as the town’s team takes on Durham City in an FA Cup tie at 3pm at the Darlington Road ground, in West Auckland.

Club secretary David Bayles said: “We are all looking forward to tomorrow and we are right behind anyone who wants to celebrate the club.”

It is not the first time the story has hit the small screen.

The tale featured in an Eighties drama starring Dennis Waterman and Tim Healy called A Captain’s Tale.

Legend has it that an administration blunder led to the team’s selection for the first World Cup, with the WA initials being mistaken for Woolwich Arsenal.

Because the club was facing financial difficulties in 1909, it was forced to pawn the first cup it won in Turin, Italy, to pay debts.

The 1911 cup was kept in a display cabinet in West Auckland Workingmen’s Club until an unknown thief made off with it in 1994.

Hazel Charlton, the chairwoman of West Auckland Parish Council, said the former mining community would relish being the centre of attention again.

She said: “To think that we were the first to win the World Cup is amazing.

“We are all very proud that the first World Cup came to West Auckland, and the prestige that that brings with it.”