Inside the London workshop that made Hundred, FA Cup and World Cup trophies
Ahead of the Hundred final Matt Hardy spoke to the makers of the trophy, Thomas Lyte, who now hold a royal warrant
Sports may vary in rules, squad sizes, scoring systems and the rest of it but something remains a constant across each and every discipline thousands of us pay our hard-earned cash to watch: the dream of a trophy.
Whether it is the FA Cup hoisted at Wembley Stadium, The Hundred trophy handed out on Sunday at Lord’s, the brand new men’s Six Nations trophy constructed after a fire destroyed the previous one, or the bauble celebrated by the British and Irish Lions when they won down in Australia last year, every team and their fanbase have eyes on silverware.
And the vast majority of it, unbeknownst to millions, is crafted in a little-known workshop in Hainault, home of royal warrant holders Thomas Lyte.
“We compete very much on quality and we’re blessed by the governing bodies and organisations that we work with,” Thomas Lyte’s chief operating officer David Brewer tells Morning Wire.
“Sport is a growing market and in the last couple of years, areas such as women’s sport and esports are really fascinating sub-markets.
“When we launched the business in 2007 we decided we were going to keep it as an owner-managed business, so whilst we’ve had approaches we really believe in that philosophy.”
Trophy’s an endangered skill
Brewer says they’re most famous for their remake of the 2014 FA Cup, which he says needs to be recreated every so often due to its victors wearing it down over the years. But a firm which is barely 20 years old, backed by London and Partners’ Made Smarter London programme, is already the goldsmiths and silversmiths to the King.
But how does it work? So many trophies resemble one another, except for cricket. The Hundred’s H-shaped trophy was controversial upon its release, while the World Test Championship awards a mace rather than a cup.
“There’s a real authenticity to what we do,” Brewer adds. “We’re not making it abroad. You can come and see your piece being created from start to finish.
“Silversmithing is now referenced as an endangered trade so we very much concentrate on training the next generation through apprenticeships.”
Remarkable London
London is a pretty remarkable city, all things considered. From the establishment of commercialised industrial trade, to the printing, textiles and shipbuilding boom of the 17th and 18th centuries, the City’s status as the heart and soul of global banking and professional services to its clockmaking, fashion and engineering. The capital has been synonymous with the very best labours of love for millennia.
Making some of the world’s most recognisable trophies is another feather in the cap of the capital, and in a changing world it reminds us that nothing is quite the same as a hand-crafted object: AI cannot love doing what it does like a human can.
Every fanbase will have a different trophy they dream of winning, and the chances are now that Thomas Lyte had a hand in creating it. But which one does Brewer hold closest to his heart?
“Is it the Six Nations? Is it the FA Cup? Or something a bit more contemporary, like the Women’s Rugby World Cup?,” he concludes.
“The truth is they’re a little bit like children: you love them all, they all have their own personalities and backstories.”