Full name | Civil Service Football Club | ||
---|---|---|---|
Founded | 1863 | ||
Ground | Kings House Sports Ground, Chiswick | ||
Chairman | Jim Kellett | ||
1st XI Manager | Patrick Carton | ||
League | Southern Amateur League Senior Division 1 | ||
2023–24 | Southern Amateur League Senior Division 1, 6th of 10 | ||
Website | Club website | ||
Civil Service Football Club is an English football club based in London. The club originally played both association football and rugby football and the Civil Service, along with Blackheath F.C., is one of the two clubs that can claim to be a founder member of both the Football Association and the Rugby Football Union. However, the rugby club is now a distinct entity and appears to have been so since the late nineteenth century. They are currently members of the Southern Amateur League Senior Division 1.
In 1863 the newly formed Civil Service club was playing football under both Association and Rugby rules, and sources suggest that the club was similar to Clapham Rovers in that it was a single club playing both codes. [1] It is not clear when the Civil Service Rugby Club became a distinct entity from the association football club. The histories published by the respective clubs do not refer to a joint history past 1863, but the club was still a unified entity when it became a founding member of the Rugby Football Union in 1871 [1] (although it did not provide a member to the inaugural committee). In 1892, contemporary sources refer to Clapham Rovers as being unique in playing both codes, suggesting that the Civil Service had distinct teams by that point.[ citation needed ]
The club was one of the eleven founding sides of the Football Association (FA) on 26 October 1863, and lays claim to an earlier, but uncertain, date of origin. It was represented at the founder's meeting by Mr. Warne of the War Office, leading to the side often being identified as the War Office Club in historical accounts of the FA's founding. Civil Service was also one of the fifteen entrants to the first ever FA Cup competition in 1871–72.
Several members of the Civil Service took a prominent role in organising the first representative matches between sides representing England and Scotland in 1870. The captain of the first Scottish XI was James Kirkpatrick (later Sir James Kirkpatrick, 8th Baronet) [2] who included fellow civil servants Charles and William Baillie-Hamilton and William Lindsay in the team, while the England XI included William C. Butler and Evelyn Freeth. [3] [4] [5]
Civil Service played a significant role in the introduction and popularisation of the game of football in Europe early in the 1900s through touring, undertaking their first continental tour in 1901. In recognition of its contributions, the club is an honorary life member of Real Madrid and Slavia Prague.
Early in the club's history, the decision was taken to remain an amateur side in the face of the emergence of the professional game. Civil Service was subsequently active in the formation of several amateur leagues, including the Amateur Football Alliance, the Isthmian League (1906), and the Southern Amateur Football League (1907).
CSFC enjoyed its greatest success in the years leading up to World War I, with several wins in other cup competitions to its credit including the London Senior Cup (1901), the Middlesex Senior Cup (1908 and 1913), and the Amateur Football Association Cup (1910, and again later in 1920 and 1930). They also captured the Southern Amateur League (SAL) title in 1913 and 1914. In later years, the club's accumulation of honours was modest with a SAL title in 1939 and two more league triumphs in 1969 and 1971. They captured the AFA Senior Cup in 1997 with a 4–3 win over Lensbury, securing the trophy for the first time in 67 years.
The club has eight sides competing in the Southern Amateur League and a Vets side playing in the West London Veterans League. It has also established a women's section with a view to them entering a league in 2019/20.
The club played in the first ever official football match at Buckingham Palace in October 2013, playing Polytechnic F.C., to mark the FA's 150th anniversary. [6]
For notable rugby players, see CS Rugby 1863
The Football Association is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the amateur and professional game in its territory.
1871 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.
Wanderers Football Club was an English association football club. It was founded as "Forest Football Club" in 1859 in Leytonstone. In 1864, it changed its name to "Wanderers", a reference to it never having a home stadium, instead playing at various locations in London and the surrounding area. Comprising mainly former pupils of the leading English public schools, Wanderers was one of the dominant teams in the early years of organised football and won the inaugural Football Association Challenge Cup in 1872. The club won the competition five times in total, including three in succession from 1876 to 1878, a feat which has been repeated only once.
The 1872–73 season was the second season of competitive football in England. When the Football Association football was formed in 1863, the sport was played mainly by public schools, or teams with public school roots, and amateurism was the norm. This remained the case until the 1880s, when working-class teams began to vie for supremacy. The Football Association staged the second edition of the FA Cup, with Wanderers retaining the trophy by defeating Oxford University in the final.
Clapham Rovers was from its foundation in 1869 a leading English sports organisation in the two dominant codes of football, association football and rugby union. It was a prominent club in the late 19th century but is now defunct. The club played variously on Clapham Common, Tooting Bec Common, and Wandsworth Common and wore a cerise and French-grey kit.
Port-Glasgow Athletic was a football club based in Port Glasgow, Scotland. The club was formed in 1878 and originally named Broadfield before changing their name in 1881. They played in the Scottish Football League between 1893 and 1911, and were based at Clune Park. Originally the town name was spelled Port-Glasgow, with a hyphen, this style was dropped after WW2.
The history of association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, stretches back at least to medieval times. Some predecessors of football may date back to ancient Greece and Rome, and similar games were played in ancient China and Japan. The history of football in Britain dates at least to the eighth century CE.
The 1871–72 Football Association Challenge Cup was the first staging of the Football Association Challenge Cup, usually known in the modern era as the FA Cup, the oldest association football competition in the world. Fifteen of the association's fifty member clubs entered the first competition, although three withdrew without playing a game. In the final, held at Kennington Oval in London on 16 March 1872, Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers by a single goal, scored by Morton Betts, who was playing under the pseudonym A. H. Chequer.
Robert Andrew Muter Macindoe Ogilvie was an English footballer who made one appearance as a defender for England in 1874, and was a member of the Clapham Rovers team that won the 1880 FA Cup Final.
Reginald Halsey Birkett was an English footballer who played for Clapham Rovers, as well as the England national side. He also played international rugby union for England in 1871, in the first international rugby match. In this match he scored England's first try.
Edgar Lubbock LLB was an English amateur footballer who twice won the FA Cup and played first-class cricket. He later became a partner in the Whitbread Brewery, a director and Deputy Governor of the Bank of England and the Master of the Blankney Foxhounds.
The Rev. Charles Edward Burroughs Nepean was an English amateur cricketer and footballer who later became a vicar in the Church of England. As a cricketer he played ten first-class matches for Oxford University and Middlesex between 1870 and 1874, whilst in football he was in goal for Oxford University, the winning side in the 1874 FA Cup Final.
William Parry Crake, sometimes known as William Parry, was an English amateur footballer who won the inaugural FA Cup with the Wanderers in 1872 and played for the English XI against Scotland in the representative matches between 1870 and 1872. By profession, he was a merchant in India.
Sir William Alexander Baillie-Hamilton was a Scottish civil servant, who became Private Secretary to the Chief Secretary for Ireland and to the Secretary of State for the Colonies between 1886 and 1892. In his youth, he was a keen sportsman who played for the Scottish side in the first football match against England in March 1870.
Charles Robert Baillie-Hamilton was a Scottish civil servant, who became clerk to the Treasury. In his youth, he was a keen sportsman who played for the Scottish side in the first football match against England in March 1870.
Alexander Andrew Ellis Nash was an English amateur footballer who played for England in the first representative match against Scotland in March 1870.
Galfred Francis Congreve was an amateur sportsman who played for Scotland in the second representative football match against England in 1870.
Civil Service Rugby, mostly known as CS Rugby 1863, currently CS STAGS 1863, an English rugby union team based in Chiswick, Greater London. The club runs three senior sides and the first XV currently plays in Regional 1 South Central following their promotion from London 1 South as champions at the end of the 2017–18 season.
Barnes Football Club is an association football club in Barnes, London. The club had great importance in the development of the game in the nineteenth century and was the first team ever to win a match in the FA Cup.
Clapham Common Club, usually known by its initials C.C.C., was a mid-nineteenth century amateur English football club based at Clapham Common.