Rangers F.C. (London)

Last updated

Rangers
Full nameRangers Football Club
Founded1876
Dissolved1886?
GroundClapham Common [1]

Rangers F.C. was an association football club who originally played on public grounds in London, and in 1884 moved to the cricket ground in Balham. [2]

Contents

History

The club was founded in 1876 [3] as St Mark's Guild FC, by members of a teacher training college, the club's first reported game taking place in November that year. [4] In 1877, the club changed its name to Auckland Rangers, [5] and some time before the 1879–80 season dropped the Auckland part of the name. The club's secretary was Frederick Wall, future president of the Football Association, and early players included two of his brothers.

The club entered the FA Cup for the first time in 1880-81. It had the unusual distinction of being drawn against both of the initial FA Cup finalists. In the first round, the club was paired with the Wanderers, who withdrew, being unable to field a team, as its members had chosen to play for old boys' clubs instead. In the second round, the club obtained a bye, and in the third, played the Royal Engineers. The match was played at the Kennington Oval, and the Sappers won 6–0. Rangers' high point was having a goal disallowed for offside, and the club was "overwighted as well as overmatched", while the forwards "made no attempt to dribble,and showed little judgment in passing." [6]

The club entered the FA Cup the following year but scratched after being drawn to play Romford. Although the club was a founding member of the London Football Association, [7] it did not enter the FA Cup again.

Colours

The club's colours were dark blue and white.

Grounds

The club originally played at Battersea Park in 1876–77, [8] moving to Clapham Common at the end of the season, [9] and finally to Balham Cricket Ground in 1884.

Related Research Articles

Hendon Football Club was an English association football club founded in about 1876. The club was based at Hendon, today in the London Borough of Barnet, and played its home games at the Hendon cricket ground in Brampton Grove, off Brent Street, London NW4. The club appeared in the F.A. Cup between 1877 and 1887 and had one of its players selected for England in 1884.

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

Wednesbury Strollers F.C. was an English football club based in Wednesbury, Staffordshire which was active in the 1870s and 1880s.

Alexandra Athletic Football Club was a 19th-century football club from Dennistoun, in Glasgow, which participated in the early years of the Scottish Cup.

Notts Rangers Football Club was an English football club, founded in 1868 under the name Nottingham St James. They became Nottingham Rangers in 1880 and by 1886 were habitually referred to as Notts Rangers.

Highbury Union F.C., more usually simply known as Union, was an English association football club from Islington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minerva F.C.</span> Football club

Minerva F.C. was an English association football club, originally playing out of Loughborough Junction in Lambeth, London. They are unrelated to the club of the same name in Scotland which won the Scottish Junior Cup in 1892.

Southill Park F.C. was an English association football club, originally from Hampstead in London.

Grey Friars F.C. was an English association football club based in London.

Norfolk Football Club was an English football club based in the Norfolk Park suburb of Sheffield.

The Birmingham Club was an English association football club based at the cricket pitch on the Aston Lower Grounds, and one of the first clubs in Birmingham.

Dreadnought was an English association football club based in London.

Acton was an English association football club, founded in 1873 under the name St Stephens (Westminster). In 1879 the club changed its name to Acton F.C. and moved to a ground in Acton.

Unity F.C. was an English association football club from Blackheath, founded in 1875.

Clarence, sometimes referred to as The Clarence, was an English association football club from Battersea.

Reading Abbey was an English association football club based in Reading, which entered the FA Cup in 1880–81 and 1881–82.

Hotspur F.C. was an association football club who originally played at Battersea Park in London.

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.

Caledonian Football Club, occasionally referred to as Glasgow Caledonian, was a 19th-century association football club based at Kelvinbridge, in Glasgow.

Newcastle Rangers F.C. was an English association football club from Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

References

  1. Alcock, Charles (1881). Football Annual. p. 179.
  2. Alcock, Charles (1885). Football Annual. p. 243.
  3. Alcock, Charles (1880). Football Annual. p. 149.
  4. "Forest Rovers 0-0 St Mark's Guild". South London Press: 5. 2 December 1876.
  5. Wall, Frederick (1935). Fifty Years of Football. Cassell.
  6. "Royal Engineers 6-0 Rangers". Bell's Life: 11. 12 February 1881.
  7. "History of the London FA". London FA. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  8. "Forest Rovers 0-0 St Mark's Guild". South London Press: 6. 8 March 1877.
  9. "Auckland Rangers 0-1 St Martin's". The Sportsman: 1. 12 October 1877.