Events in
Local
History
The
'White
Horse' Final
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1923 The F.A. Cup. West Ham United had won their way through to the Cup Final of 1923 to meet Bolton Wanderers. It was to be the very first cup final ever to grace the new Empire Stadium at Wembley, still unfinished and built to hold 120,000 people, but the organisation was not what it is today, the amount of interest in a game being played in the new suburban venue was unknown and it was felt that such a large capacity would never be filled, so in the days preceeding the event a large amount of advertising stated there would 'be plenty of space with excellent views', tickets were not reserved, at the uncompleted stadium entrances were not secure and things got a little out of hand when over 200,000 fans arrived eager to see the match. Because of the 'good humour' of the huge crowd and the fact that the King was to be present no-one dared to call off the precedings as the stadium gradually filled with more and more people, the crowd was pushed further forward and spilled to overflowing onto the pitch, and some people were injured, eventually a few mounted policeman led by an 'inspector on a white horse' pushed their way to the centre and helped other policemen to force the crowd back to the touchlines - hence the title The 'White Horse' Final was coined - though not fully clearing the pitch, and although the rules stated that the pitch should be clear, the match was allowed to start. The 'inspector' was in fact a constable - PC. G. A. Storey riding his horse 'Billie' - and they became a legend of the Cup Final's history. Throughout the match the enormous crowd were literally on top of the action, and no-one knows what the final crowd figure was, but all estimates exceed a record 200,000. The official receipts were that 90,520 people paid through the turnstiles plus 32,527 ticket holders were admitted, a total of 126,047 that were there officially. These paid a total of £27,776 of which £4,206 was tax, the stadium got £4,714, and the FA and both teams received £6,365 1s 8d each. The FA refunded £2,797 to people unable to get to their seats. The teams kicked off 44 minutes late and the game was played with 'human' touchlines with the crowd comparitively under control and in 'good spirit'. West Ham were beaten 2 - 0 in Wembley's first F.A.Cup final which was also their debut at the occasion but still went down in history by just being there, but the Hammers would return several times in later years, winning the trophy in style in 1963, 1975 and 1980. But never again would Wembley see such a vast crowd.
© Lal Cook. |
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