From the Archives: Hot Rolls

The earliest Winchester Football team records that we hold in our archive are a few notebooks, known as Commoner Annals, dating from the 19th century. Of these, the oldest are dated 1830 and show Commoner 'Six and Six', in which the Prefects played 'the Inferiors'.

Commoner against College Six and Six are recorded for the first time in 1834 and our first recorded score in those encounters is from 1851, when Commoners won.

The other main form of the game, played until 1866, was 22-a-side and an early record of the roll for the 'College Twenty-two', by then elegantly written out, dates from 1859.  An image is below. OTH first came on the scene in 1867 from which year Fifteens became the major contest between College, Commoners and OTH.

It is easy to follow the progression from notebook, via elegant handwritten roll, to the elaborate and imaginative Hot Rolls that were produced annually by all three divisions of the school.  We are very lucky that many Hot Rolls have survived and are preserved in the College Archives.  In the accompanying film, College Archivist Suzanne Foster discusses some of her Hot Roll collection with Dr Mark Romans, Don in charge of Winchester Football, as well as Commoner coach.