Throughout this site you will find recurring themes, one of them being that a lot of football clubs emerged from cricket clubs. This was due to the fact that with nothing better to do during the long cold dark winter months, they started kicking a football about in a manner that soon became known as Association Football. Many of these cricket clubs have of course since gone but the football clubs they spawned have flourished, proving once and for all that football is better than cricket. I have yet to find during my investigations a football club that turned to cricket to keep busy during the summer and are now unheard of, but the cricket club has gone on to build 43,000-capacity stadiums which they fill every other week. It is a silly game, a boring game and if it wasn’t for the likes of Ian Botham and Freddie Flintoff nobody would be really bothered about the game and anyway, Ian played football for Scunthorpe United and Freddie models a catalogue for northern football fans. I rest my case. So all we need to thank cricket for is giving us dozens of football clubs. One such club is Aston Villa.
It was during the winter of 1873 that Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel Cricket Club, based in Aston, Birmingham, turned to football to both keep fit and find a bit of recreation. They played their first game against Aston Brook St Mary’s Rugby Club and they played one half of rugby and the other football. Then thankfully for Villa fans, they played both halves football and that’s not the only place where you will find football out-does rugby as well as cricket. Aston comes from the Anglo-Saxon, and meant back then East Town, a Villa is a house with a farm and is Roman in origin. Villa’s badge is of a simple design compared to some and it looks like how a badge should look. (PIC 1) The badge shaped as a shield is in the club colours of claret and blue. A heraldic lion is rampant in the centre, a symbol of bravery and strength. The club’s initials span the top of the badge and the star is a boast of Villa’s 1982 European Cup win. Apparently, you don’t need permission to do this, but we usually only see stars on international shirts signifying World Cup wins. This badge was chosen to represent Villa in the 2016/17 season and was chosen after consulting fans. The fans did not choose to alter the badge drastically and just settled for sharper claws. I don’t know which fans they did petition but I don’t think many or any of the fans in the stadium would have suggested a pussy pedicure! The club’s motto “Prepared” has been removed to give more room for larger initials. This left both the badge and the team unprepared as they started that season in the Championship after finishing bottom of the Premiership. The previous badge as you will see shows how shabby a lion looks without a pedicure. (PIC 2)
The Villa badge most fans would be used to is this one. (PIC 3) It too has had many variations. The club’s colours are striped in the shield and in the top or chief area is the club’s name. A variation of this has the motto beneath the shield in a scroll. (PIC 4) An older badge still has the club’s name in the roundel with the lion at its centre on a blue circle. (PIC 5) Villa was one of only a few club’s who couldn’t be bothered to answer my letter, perhaps I should have told them how much sending 100 letters cost and that I’m a diabetic, one-legged amputee, with COPD and asthma, on Universal Credit. That would have got their sympathy, as being on Universal Credit is a nightmare. Anyway, without the club’s help, I have no official dates when these badges were worn, except I can confidently say that the present badge is worn presently.
Some badges do not have a lot lying behind them and are therefore not that interesting to write or read about. This is one such badge but do read on as some of them have been a joy to investigate and have thrown up some fascinating facts. Aston Villa have the nickname “The Villains”, a play on the word Villa rather than their style of football. Aston Villa play at the 42,785 capacity Villa Park. Aston is a borough of Birmingham, even so, you are berated for coming from Birmingham on a Saturday as they are Villa’s main rivals, the others are West Brom and Wolves. If you want to find out more about “The Villains” then be prepared to get sent down to www.avfc.co.uk
