Robert Vidal
| College | Christ Church |
|---|---|
| Varsity matches | 1873/741874/75 |
| Varsity match record | P 2 W 1 D 0 L 1 F 1 A 2 GD -1 |
| Goals | 1 |
Biography
Robert Walpole S Vidal, known as the "king of dribblers", scored the first ever Varsity match goal. One of the eight forwards in a 1-1-8 formation, he dribbled the length of the pitch before shooting into the top corner with the entire Cambridge team on his heels: "I can see today the corner I elected to shoot at and even now I feel a shiver of apprehension as I see the ball going much higher than I meant and only passing under the tape by about three inches".
Vidal played in the first three FA Cup finals: the first a victory for the Wanderers, the second for OUAFC against the Wanderers, and the third OUAFC's victory against the Royal Engineers.
Vidal is the only player ever to score a hat-trick without anybody else touching the ball. Under the rules of the day, the team who had scored restarted the match. Vidal scored his first, picked the ball out of the net, put it down on the centre spot, ran the length of the field and scored his second; and repeated this for his third. The rules were changed in 1877 to prevent this from happening again.