Crystal Palace’s football heritage can be traced back 164 years to a match played in Leytonstone on Saturday, 15 March 1862. At 2.30pm that afternoon, the Crystal Palace Club faced The Forest Club in what is the earliest reported football fixture involving Palace.
The match took place away from the club’s home in Sydenham because the Crystal Palace Club had originally been established as a sporting organisation centred on cricket. After the Palace reopened in Sydenham in 1854, a cricket ground was created in the surrounding park, and the club’s first recorded cricket match followed in 1857. During the winter of 1861, its cricketers formed a football side to maintain their fitness.
The connection with The Forest Club appears to have come through the Cutbill family. The five brothers had previously lived in Essex, with some attending Forest School, and several later played for both clubs. Arthur Cutbill featured for Forest in the earliest known photograph of an Association Football team, while three of his brothers also represented Crystal Palace.
Football had yet to adopt a universal rulebook when the teams met. The game combined elements of what are now recognised as soccer and rugby, and included practices such as hacking. Fifteen players lined up for each side, with the contest lasting two and a half hours before Forest secured a one-goal victory.
The fixture also brought together several important figures in the sport. Palace’s team included brothers John and Charles Alcock, as well as James Turner, all of whom are recognised by the Football Association among football’s eight founding fathers. Crystal Palace and Forest later became founder members of the Football Association in 1863, alongside the N.N. Club of Kilburn and Barnes Football Club, helping establish the rules of Association Football.
The amateur Crystal Palace Club continued combining cricket and football for decades. By the end of the 19th century, the cricket section had separated into W.G. Grace’s London County Club, while the football side was reorganised, turned professional and developed into the club followed today. That first match in Leytonstone therefore stands as the starting point of Palace’s unique football story.
