Untimely obits

With a clamour of various cup finals due to close out the winter’s activities — and with anniversaryitis so fashionable — I am surprised to have read nothing on the infamous Khaki Cup final of 1915, especially as it was the first notable match played, in only their tenth year of existence, by the team of 2005: League champions and centenarians Chelsea. The springtime before Liverpool (the Champions League finalists) had also made their first appearance in the Cup final, losing 1-0 to Burnley at Crystal Palace. Within three months, on 4 August 1914, war was declared and a hullabaloo grew through the autumn as a new season of professional football not only began but continued through the winter, Saturday after Saturday, even as the Flanders mud became churned with blood. The establishment condemnation reached its peak when, ‘grotesquely’ it was said, 49,557 — many just home from the front, bandaged or hobbling — watched Sheffield United beat Chelsea 3–0 at Old Trafford.