Darwen Ramblers F.C.

Last updated

Darwen Ramblers
Full nameDarwen Ramblers Football Club
Nickname(s)the Ramblers
Founded1877?
Dissolved1886
GroundAnchor Meadows

Darwen Ramblers FC was an English association football club based in Darwen, Lancashire.

Contents

History

The club was originally called Hill-Houses [1] and its first recorded match was against the Black Prince club of Little Harwood [2] in December 1878; by this time the club had enough members for a second team which played the Black Prince reserves. [3]

By 1881 the club had changed its name to Darwen Ramblers and rose in prominence in Lancashire, being considered one of the rising sides in Darwen; however there was competition from other sides such as Darwen itself, Lower Darwen, and Lower Chapel, all of whom had, unlike the Ramblers, entered the Lancashire Senior Cup. The Ramblers entered the competition for its third instalment, being drawn against Irwell Springs in the first round, and surprisingly losing 6-3 having been 3-0 up. [4]

Paradoxically the club had more success in the FA Cup than the Lancashire Cup; in 1882-83 the club beat South Shore and Haslingden Association to reach the third round of the FA Cup, where they lost to the eventual winners Blackburn Olympic, but in the Lancashire Cup they lost 4-3 at Padiham, having been 2-0 and 3-1 up. The Ramblers protested the result on the basis that the winning goal came three minutes after the referee should have called for time; the protest was not successful. [5]

That season however marked the only wins in the FA Cup for the Ramblers. Their entries in the next two years saw them eliminated in the first round, although they were unlucky in 1883-84 to be drawn against the holders. The 1883 game against Olympic was the first of that season's competition to be played, as Olympic offered Ramblers £10 and a return fixture to move the fixture up in the calendar, so that the Olympic players would be Cup-tied for the season. [6] However the Ramblers were not attractive opponents and the crowd was a mere 400. [7]

The club remained prominent on the local scene in 1882-83 and 1883–84, including Preston North End among their opponents, [8] and sent a representative to the Football Association AGM in 1883. [9] The club also finally won a tie in the Lancashire Cup, beating Blackburn West End in the first round in 1883-84, but a sign of the distance between the club and the professionals was demonstrated when they lost 4-0 in the second round to a Blackburn Olympic reserve side, as the Light Blues' first team was on a Scottish tour, playing Edinburgh University F.C. on the day of the tie. [10]

Demise

By 1885-86, very few of the club's fixtures were attracting media attention. The last recorded fixture was a 4-1 defeat at Wigan A.F.C. in the Lancashire Senior Cup. [11] The club did not pay its subscription to the Lancashire FA for the 1886-87 season and seems to have been wound up. [12]

Notable players

Related Research Articles

Old Etonians F.C. Association football club in England

The Old Etonians Association Football Club is an English association football club whose players are alumni of Eton College, in Eton, Berkshire.

Fergus Suter Scottish stonemason and footballer

Fergus Suter was a Scottish stonemason and footballer in the early days of the game. Arguably the first recognised professional footballer, Suter was a native of Glasgow and played for Partick before moving to England to play for Darwen and Blackburn Rovers.

Blackburn Olympic F.C. Association football club

Blackburn Olympic Football Club was an English football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire in the late 19th century. Although the club was only in existence for just over a decade, it is significant in the history of football in England as the first club from the north of the country and the first from a working-class background to win the country's leading competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup. The cup had previously been won only by teams of wealthy amateurs from the Home counties, and Olympic's victory marked a turning point in the sport's transition from a pastime for upper-class gentlemen to a professional sport.

The British Football Association was a short lived ruling body for the game of football. It was set up in 1884 in response to the attitude of the Football Association to the issue of professionalism.

Padiham F.C. Association football club in England

Padiham Football Club are an English football team based in Padiham, Lancashire. As of 2019–20, they play in the North West Counties League Premier Division.

Eagley F.C. Association football club in England

Eagley Football Club is a football club based in the village of Eagley, near Bolton in Greater Manchester. They are currently members of the West Lancashire League Division One and play at the Dunscar Sports Complex. The club are affiliated to the Lancashire Football Association. The club's colours are yellow shirts and dark blue shorts.

The 1884 FA Cup Final was a football match between Blackburn Rovers and Queen's Park contested on 29 March 1884 at the Kennington Oval. It was the showpiece match of English football's primary cup competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup, it was the 13th Cup final. It was the first time that a Scottish team reached the final of the tournament, with Queen's Park knocking out the previous holders of the trophy en route.

Witton Football Club was a football club from Blackburn in Lancashire.

Darwen F.C. (1870) Former association football club in England

Darwen Football Club was an association football club from Darwen in Lancashire, North West England. The team, formed in 1870, was an early pioneer of professional football in Northern England, reaching the semi-finals of the 1880–81 FA Cup. They were a Football League member from 1891 to 1899. Darwen joined the Lancashire League in 1900 and remained in regional football afterwards. They last played in the First Division of the North West Counties Football League in 2008–09, when the club was wound-up. A successor team, A.F.C. Darwen, was founded soon after. Darwen played their home games at the Anchor Ground.

The English Game is a British historical sports drama television miniseries developed by Julian Fellowes for Netflix about the origins of modern association football in England. The six-part series was released on 20 March 2020.

Manchester Association F.C. was an English association football club from Eccles, founded in 1875 in order to revive the association game in Manchester.

Church Football Club was an English association football club based in Church, Lancashire, which once reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. The club originally played at the Church cricket ground, moving to Spring Hill in the early 1880s. The club is notable for being the first opponents of Blackburn Rovers in December 1875.

Blackburn Law, originally the Law Football and Cricket Club, was an English association football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire. The club was founded in 1876 and membership was restricted to solicitors, who had contributed 50 guineas through subscriptions by the time the club was entering its second year.

Lower Darwen F.C. was an English association football club from the village of Lower Darwen in Lancashire.

Haslingden Association FC was an English association football club based in Haslingden, Lancashire.

Bolton Olympic F.C. was an English association football club from Bolton in Lancashire.

Bradshaw F.C. was an English association football club from the village of Bradshaw Brow, near Bolton in Lancashire.

Bolton Association F.C. was an English association football club from Bolton in Lancashire. The Association was part of the club name, rather than a descriptor for the code the team played.

Rossendale Football Club was an amateur football club based in the village of Newchurch within the Rossendale borough of Lancashire, England. The club was founded in 1877 and was a founder member of the Lancashire League in 1889–90; however the club folded at the end of the 1896–97 season.

Darwen Old Wanderers F.C. was an English association football club from the town of Darwen in Lancashire.

References

  1. ↑ Johnson, Gill. "Football star Sam was the original one-club man". Lancashire Telegraph. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
  2. ↑ "Football". Blackburn Standard: 6. 19 January 1878.
  3. ↑ "Black Prince v Hill-Houses". Blackburn Standard. 7 December 1878.
  4. ↑ Hindle, Roger (2014). History of Bacup Football Club.
  5. ↑ "Padiham v Darwen Ramblers". Blackburn Standard. 4 November 1882.
  6. ↑ Phythian, Graham (2007). The Brief and Glorious History of Blackburn Olympic 1878-1889. Tony Brown.
  7. ↑ "Blackburn Olympic 5-1 Darwen Ramblers". Blackburn Standard: 3. 20 October 1883.
  8. ↑ In November 1882, losing 5-0 in a match reduced to an hour because of bad weather
  9. ↑ "Football Association". Sheffield Independent. 26 August 1883.
  10. ↑ "Lancashire Cup". Liverpool Mercury: 3. 24 December 1883.
  11. ↑ "Lancashire Cup". Liverpool Mercury: 7. 28 September 1885.
  12. ↑ "Lancashire Football Association Cup". Blackburn Standard: 5. 7 August 1886.
  13. ↑ Johnson, Gill. "Football star Sam was the original one-club man". Lancashire Telegraph. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.