The Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy was a football  competition that took place in Turin in 1909 and 1911. It is sometimes referred to as The First World Cup. However it is predated by the Torneo Internazionale Stampa Sportiva, which was hosted in 1908 also in Turin, as the first international competition. and football tournaments at the Olympic Games, since 1900 (officially).Millionaire businessman and sporting enthusiast Sir Thomas Lipton organised the event as a favour to Italian King Victor Emmanuel III who suggested he could host the tournament as he would like to see the leading football clubs in Europe  compete in a single tournament. The English football association as well as counterparts in Germany, Switzerland and Italy were asked to enter a single club to take part.  Italy, Germany and Switzerland sent their most prestigious professional club sides to the competition, but The Football Association refused to be associated with it and declined to send a team. Not wishing to have Britain unrepresented in the competition, Lipton invited West Auckland FC, an amateur side from County Durham and mostly made up of coal miners, to take part. Many of the players paid out of their own pockets to make the trip to Italy. They beat Sportfreunde Stuttgart in the semi-finals 2–0; in the final, on 12 April 1909, West Auckland faced Swiss side FC Winterthur and beat them 2–0 to take the trophy, a 3ft silver plated cup mounted by the figure of a player taking a throw-in.West Auckland returned to Italy in 1911 to defend their title.  This time they defeated Turin 3-2 in the semi-final on Easter Sunday 1911, then beat Juventus 6-1 in the final, and were awarded the trophy outright. Upon their return home, the club was forced to pawn the trophy to the landlady of the local hotel because of financial problems. It remained with her family until 1960 when a village appeal raised money to return the cup to the West Auckland Working Men’s Club. The cup was  stolen in January 1994 and despite the best efforts of local police and a £2,000 reward it was never found. An exact replica of the original trophy is now held by West Auckland FC.Tyne Tees Television produced a TV dramatisation of the West Auckland triumph  in 1982, The World Cup: A Captain's Tale. A bronze statue showing a footballer  kicking a ball while a coal miner lies on his side wielding a pick is located at the West Auckland village green.