Cambridge rules

The Cambridge Rules were a code of rules for football first drawn up at Cambridge University, England, in 1848, by a committee that included H. de Winton and J. C. Thring. They are also notable for allowing goal kicks, throw-ins, and forward passes and for preventing running whilst holding the ball. In 1863, a revision of the rules played a significant part in developing the rules that became Association football.

The playing of football had always been popular in Cambridge and in 1579 one match played at Chesterton between townspeople and Cambridge 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. Despite this and other decrees, football continued to be popular in Cambridge, as George Elwes Corrie, Master of 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!" A former Rugby School pupil, Albert Pell, was organising football matches at the university in 1839 but, because of the different school variations, a compromise set of rules had to be found and these are held to have been the origin of the Cambridge Rules. As a result of its role in the formation of the first football rules, Parker's Piece, Cambridge, remains hallowed turf for football fans and historians.

In 1846, H. de Winton and J.C. Thring, who had both attended Shrewsbury School, succeeded in making some old Etonians join them to form a football club at Cambridge University. Only a few matches were ever played, but in 1848 interest in the sport was renewed. The story of how the 1848 rules were formulated was related by Mr H.C. Malden in a letter dated 8 October 1897.

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