Full name | Clarence Football Club | |
---|---|---|
Founded | 1876 | |
Dissolved | 1883 | |
Ground | Battersea Park [1] | |
Secretary | Henry Morton-Carr | |
Clarence, sometimes referred to as The Clarence, was an English association football club from Battersea.
The club was founded in 1876 by Henry Morton-Carr, an Old Carthusian who later founded the Belgrave Harriers Athletic Club. [2] The club took its name from a hotel in Winstanley Road, near to Battersea Park. It was not an aristocratic club - goalkeeper Thomas Bockmaster was a stonemason, [3] and Cup goalscorer Thomas Wilmshurst a schoolteacher. [4]
The club's first recorded match was a 1–0 win at home to Trojans in 1876. [5] For its first three seasons, the club played mostly low-key matches, many of which were not reported. In 1879–80 the club entered the FA Cup for the first time, but lost 5–2 at Pilgrims F.C. in the first round; Clarence had gone 2–0 behind and pulled it back to 2–2 within the first fifreen minutes, but the second half was dominated by Pilgrims. [6] The following season, the club lost 6–0 at Marlow in the first round, having turned up to the match with only ten men, [7] and seems to have ceased operations soon afterwards; four of its players joined Morton Rangers for 1881–82 and the club was not a member of the London Football Association on the latter's foundation in 1882. Its last record is as being listed as a member of the Football Association in 1883. [8]
The club is not related to another Clarence football club, founded in 1875 as the works side for Maple & Co., which played in an all-black kit out of Willesden Green. [9]
The club played in blue with red stripes in 1876–77, [10] and changed the following season to blue and black. [11]
The club played at Battersea Park, and used The Crown on York Road for facilities. [12]
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