While at Cambridge, Thring's involvement in football continued.
According to N. L. Jackson, in 1846 "two old Shrewsbury boys, Messrs H. de Winton and J. C. Thring, persuaded some Old Etonians to join them and formed a club.
Matches were few and far between, but some were played on Parker's Piece.
Unfortunately, the game was not popular at the 'Varsity then, and the club did not last long".
According to Thring's own account, written in 1861: 
[I]n 1846, when an attempt was made to introduce a common game, and form a really respectable club, at Cambridge, the Rugby game was found to be the great obstacle to the combination of Eton, Winchester, and Shrewsbury men in forming a football club.

This was among the first of several known attempts to formulate a set of "compromise" rules of football at Cambridge between alumni of different schools.
In his History of the Football Association, Geoffrey Green describes it as "the first positive step to create an identity of views and a common code of laws [of football] acceptable to as many as possible", and laments the absence of a plaque "to commemorate this historic moment".
While at Cambridge, Thring's involvement in football continued. According to N. L. Jackson, in 1846 "two old Shrewsbury boys, Messrs H. de Winton and J. C. Thring, persuaded some Old Etonians to join them and formed a club. Matches were few and far between, but some were played on Parker's Piece. Unfortunately, the game was not popular at the 'Varsity then, and the club did not last long". According to Thring's own account, written in 1861: 
[I]n 1846, when an attempt was made to introduce a common game, and form a really respectable club, at Cambridge, the Rugby game was found to be the great obstacle to the combination of Eton, Winchester, and Shrewsbury men in forming a football club.
This was among the first of several known attempts to formulate a set of "compromise" rules of football at Cambridge between alumni of different schools. In his History of the Football Association, Geoffrey Green describes it as "the first positive step to create an identity of views and a common code of laws [of football] acceptable to as many as possible", and laments the absence of a plaque "to commemorate this historic moment".
John Charles Thring