During the late 1860s and early 1870s the club practised regularly and experimented with playing styles. According to Richard Robinson, who wrote the club's official 50th anniversary history,"Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays were fixed upon as the nights for play...Whoever selected the teams on practising nights had the power to place their men on the field, or appoint substitutes, and the players shall be bound to adhere to their instructions."Robinson also explains the means by which the passing game was developed,"The club... never neglected practice, and this practice was indulged in systematically. Sides were arranged— North v. South of Eglinton Toll, Reds v. Blues, Light v. Heavy Weights, President's Team v. J. Smith's Team (a series of six games), and Clerks v. The Field, etc. In these games the dribbling and passing, which raised the Scottish game to the level of a fine art, were developed. Dribbling was a characteristic of English play, and it was not until very much later that the Southerners came to see that the principles laid down in the Queen's Park method of transference of the ball, accompanied by strong backing up, were those which got the most out of a team. Combination was the chief characteristic of the Queen's Park play."Queen's were certainly playing a passing game by the time of their FA Cup tie (March 1872) with Wanderers, the most successful English side of the 1870s. Of the Queen's Park team, "The Field" magazine notes that, "They dribble little and usually convey the ball by a series of long kicks, combined with a judicious plan of passing on." It is the first official international match, played on 30 November 1872, where the first reference is given to their style as a culture of passing. "The Graphic", a London-based weekly illustrated newspaper, provides the following insight into the game,"