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1912/13 Reports

Match facts:

Reading goals: Joe Bailey, Ted Hanney
Opposition goals: None
Half-time: Italy 0 Reading 2
Attendance: 15,000
Weather:
Referee: Friedrich Bollinger (Switzerland)

Reading line-up: Jack Smith (captain), Dr J H Burnham (goalkeeper), Joe Bailey, Ted Hanney, plus seven out of Alan Foster, A Burton, Jimmy Lofthouse, Dave Willis, Charlie Stevens, Ivor Brown, J Morris, Jock Comrie, Fred Bartholomew and Joe Dickenson
Reading subs: The three players from the above list that did not start, but probably none used
Italy line-up: Giovanni Innocenti (Pro Vercelli); Attilio Trerè (Milan), Renzo De Vecchi (Genoa); Guido Ara (Pro Vercelli), Giuseppe Milano (Pro Vercelli) (captain), Pietro Leone (Pro Vercelli); Felice Milano (Pro Vercelli), Felice Berardo (Pro Vercelli), Attilio Fresia (Genoa), Carlo Rampini (Pro Vercelli), Carlo Corna (Pro Vercelli)
Italy sub: Emilio Aristodemo Santamaria (Andrea Doria) for Felice Milano

Match report:

Reports from the three local Reading papers will appear here eventually, plus any others I can find.

Match notes:

This was the final match of a five-game Italian tour.

The game was played in Turin. Because there was a crowd of 15,000 and also because newspaper reports described the match as taking place at "The Stadium", then I assume the game was played at the Stadio Piazza d'Armi. Juventus had used this as their ground in two separate spells in the past, but at this stage I think it was only used for big games, including Italy's last international match.

Before the game, the Italian captain Giuseppe Milano presented his Reading counterpart Jack Smith with the Italian colours. In return Smith gave him a Union Jack and the Reading Borough arms.

The referee Friedrich Bollinger was a Torino player in 1913. He was born in Basle and gained one international cap for Switzerland.

Italy used a substitute in this game. Although it was not normal to have substitutes in football at this time, substitutes were allowed in Olympic football.

Giuseppe Milano and Felice Milano were brothers, the first brothers to play for Italy.

At this time, Italy had played 13 international matches, including three during the 1912 Olympic games. To demonstrate that they were taking the Reading game seriously, here is a table showing the number of caps each player had before the Reading game (obviously the game against Reading does not count as an international appearance):

(*) - the line-up I have for the Italy team shows Felice Berardo as a Torinese player. I assume that this is a mistake because a Pro Vercelli player of that name played in that position in both Italy's preceding and following games, which were respectively two weeks earlier and one month later.

Italy had made only one change from their previous international, a 1-0 win over Belgium on 1/5/1913, with Attilio Trerè replacing Modesto Valle of Pro Vercelli. For their next international, a 2-0 defeat away to Austria, they made four changes to the side that lost to Reading. From the Reading point of view, the most significant was that our future player Attilio Fresia was one of the four left out of the side to face Austria, and he in fact never played for Italy again.

Reading's Ted Hanney played for Great Britain at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, whilst Renzo De Vecchi, Pietro Leone, Giuseppe Milano and Felice Berardo all played for Italy in the same tournament. However, the two countries did not meet. Great Britain won the gold medal whilst Italy were knocked out in the first round. They played games in a consolation tournament and were ranked eighth of the 11 teams.

After this match, Reading received an invitation to play a match against Germany, but had to refuse as the party was due to leave for home the following day.

The president of the Italian Football Federation, Vittorio Rignon, invited the Reading party to a banquet that evening, which took place at the restaurant at Turin railway station.

Match preview:

Previews from the three local Reading papers will appear here eventually.

Ticket information:

Prices for the five games on the tour were generally from from the equivalent of 1s/8d to 4s. The minimum price at most games was 2 francs (1s/8d) - however, one or two were lower.

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