The British Home Championship ran for 100 years with titanic collisions and a galaxy of stars. Its abolition still rankles… as England and Scotland prepare to lock horns once more at Hampden Park

The desperate, sliding challenge from world champions captain Bobby Moore in the 87th minute is still there in the mind of Jim McCalliog as he remembers taking aim and scoring one of Scotland’s most memorable winners in England home championship.

“You never really saw Bobby Moore slide, but you had to when Bobby Lennox played me,” McCalliog says of the Wembley match watched by 99,000 people in April 1967. “I destroyed it before he could block it.”

But it wasn’t merely a matter of sending a message to those “who so easily wrote us off,” as McCalliog puts it. The match, which Scotland won 3-2, was the 20-year-old midfielder’s international debut and was something of a test, he says, “that allowed my club and country to see if I could actually handle it.”

The home championship, which would be played for another seventeen years, was a testing ground for many players. Ian Rush was on the Wales bench for the first time when England were put to the sword 4-1 in Wrexham in 1980. He still has the match programme, with a piece about himself ‘looking every inch the international player, in a dark world’. , long collar shirt and V-neck sweater from Burton’s’.

Mickey Thomas’s first international goal came in the same match. “To beat the English at any time was what we wanted and what the fans wanted,” says Thomas. “There was nothing like those games and it’s a tragedy that they’re gone.” Pat Jennings and George Best made their Northern Ireland debuts against Wales in April 1964, which they won 3-2.

The British Home Championship consisted of a galaxy of stars including Banks (right) and George Best (left)

Comparing some of these titanic clashes with England’s insipid 1-1 draw with Ukraine in Wroclaw on Saturday was a reminder of what was lost when the tournament collapsed, 100 years after it was first held.

England also had some stories to tell. Emlyn Hughes saved his England career with a strong performance in the 0-0 draw against Wales at Wembley in 1979. Peter Shilton was a national hero after two big saves saved a 1-1 draw against Scotland in 1984.

No less fascinating is what the home championship told us from the 1970s onwards about the changing sense of national identity on these islands. Early in the decade, Wales asked the FA to play the Welsh national anthem at Wembley before their match against England.

The request was granted for some time. But after the Welsh FA decided that only their national anthem, and not the British one, would be played before a World Cup qualifier against Czechoslovakia at Wrexham in 1977, the English FA refused to play it when the teams met at Wembley a few months later.

This prompted Mike Smith’s players, led by captain Terry Yorath, to remain steadfast and still achieve victory, as England retreated to their starting positions. Wales were inspired to win 1-0 through a penalty from Leighton James. It remains their only win at Wembley.

Four days later, Scottish fans destroyed a Wembley crossbar after their 2–1 win at the same stadium. There was also good spirits that day, but manager Jock Stein was alarmed by the level of violence his countrymen brought to Wembley in 1979 when Kevin Keegan was spat at.

Those scenes, taken with low attendances at many of the matches and a desire to play in more glamorous friendlies, led England to announce in August 1983 that they would be leaving the tournament. Scotland also jumped ship, but there was sadness, concern and anger in Wales and Northern Ireland, the countries left behind.

Amid concerns over their loss of income – estimated at £100,000 per season – the two countries appealed to England to reconsider their situation. But the 1983/84 championship was the last and the FA secretary, Ted Croker, issued a brutal assessment.

“The reality is that we simply don’t have enough holes in the fixture list to play the best teams in the world, such as West Germany, Russia, Italy or the South Americans, and continue the home internationals,” he said.

‘The matches against Northern Ireland and Wales are no longer the big draws they once were.’ This seemed to confirm what the smaller countries had always thought about England. Leighton James accused them of ‘arrogance’ and left the tournament to ‘get more money from playing pointless friendlies’.

The tournament was shortly followed by the Rous Cup, contested by England and Scotland, where in May 1989 24-year-old Steve Bull, who had just completed a season with Wolves in the old Third Division, replaced an injured John Fashanu and scored. England’s second goal in a 2–0 win. But the tournament, named after English administrator Stanley Rous, was abolished after four years.

The British Home Championship, which featured Graeme Souness (bottom centre) and John Toshack (top centre), was abolished in 1984

They produced far more exciting games than England’s forgettable 1-1 draw with Ukraine on Saturday

The home championship’s ability to inspire was there right to the end. Northern Ireland, under Billy Bingham, went into their final match against England in 1984 with injury concerns, as goalkeeper Jennings had broken his nose in a club match and Ballymena player-manager Jim Platt had played against Bobby’s side at Wembley Robson had to step up. .

“I’m eager to win but I’ll be quite happy with the draw and a close defeat wouldn’t upset me,” Bingham said. It would be the last, Tony Woodcock would seal the victory.

But England failed to beat the Scots, meaning Bingham’s side still lifted the final trophy for the third time. When Gerry Armstrong auctioned his Home Championship medal a few years ago, the reserve price of £10,000 matched a very important piece of Northern Irish football history.

“The color and splendor of those occasions were unforgettable,” McCalliog reflects. ‘The matches were important because of the level. You knew you were playing at a very high level. They revealed something about the player you were. That’s why they were so important.’