A GAME of Harrow football – a historical version of the sport played exclusively at the all-boys public school in London – is to be played by Harrow School students and old boys in Jersey for the very first time.

Inter-house matches remain very keenly fought at the school, although it is rare that the game, which strongly influenced the formation of the Football Association in 1863, is played away from Harrow Hill.

Tomorrow, however, an 11-a-side match at Grainville will precede an Old Harrovian dinner in Victoria College’s Great Hall, where the footballers and other former students will sing famous Harrow songs.

Organiser John Lawton said: ‘This year we are celebrating the Harrow Association’s centenary, which is the old boys association, and we have very good links with Harrow School. There are dinners like this being held all around the world, although this is the only one at which there will be a football match.

• Picture: The Harrow football team of 1868