Oporto Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club

Last updated
Oporto Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club
Nickname(s)Oporto Cricket Club
Short nameOCLTC
Founded1855;169 years ago (1855) [1]
Ground Campo Alegre

The Oporto Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club is a multi-sports and social club located on Campo Alegre in Porto, Portugal. It was founded in 1855 by the British people working in Porto. [2] Initially founded as Oporto Cricket Club, it is the oldest cricket club in mainland Europe. In 1877 they built three tennis courts and the name of the club was changed to its current form. In 1923 the present grounds were acquired. [2]

Contents

It was one of the first companies to play football in Portugal, and in 1894, the club disputed the first football cup played on the Iberian Peninsula, the Taça D. Carlos I, which they lost to a team from Lisbon. [3]

History

Origins

In the mid 19th century, Porto enjoyed one of the most developed industries in the country, mainly thanks to its wine industry, and for this reason, Porto soon became the home to a British colony, that like in the rest of the world, brought cricket with them, and later football. They began to play cricket matches against each other to pass the time, undergo leisure initiatives, and feel more at home, and inevitably, they founded Oporto Cricket Club in 1855, and it soon become the center of the social life of the Porto British colony. [2] Its grounds were situated south of the River Douro, at Candal in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal's second-largest city, and from where the Port wine was exported until 1896. [4] In 1877 they built three tennis courts, and the name of the club was thus changed to Oporto Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club.

The glory years

During the first years of cricket in Portugal, there was a healthy rivalry between the Porto club and the ex-pats in Lisbon. The first cricket match against Lisbon took place in the Portuguese capital in 1861 and the first return match in Porto in 1867. Moreover, cricket teams visit from the United Kingdom regularly during the spring and summer. [2]

In October 1893, the president of the recently established Futebol Clube do Porto, António Nicolau de Almeida, made an attempt to launch the club with an invitation to Guilherme Pinto Basto, the president of Club Lisbonense, to a football game in Porto, but Pinto Basto declined and instead made the same invitation to Hugh Ponsonby, the then secretary of the Oporto Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club, who accepted it because, at the time, they already had a section dedicated to football due to its rapid growth in England, the homeland of the company's workers. [3] The game ended up taking place in March of the following year on the Oporto Cricket field, the Campo Alegre, with the Oporto Cricket equipment, and with Hugh Ponsonby as team captain. Of the eleven starters who played for Oporto Cricket that day, only two were Portuguese, Francisco Guimarães and Adolfo Ramos, with the latter being the only one who was not a member of Oporto Cricket. [3] The game ended in a 0–1 loss and it was sponsored by the King Carlos I of Portugal, which was pivotal to attract a significant number of spectators, as football was practically an unknown sport in Portugal at the time. [5]

Recent years

Throughout the 20th century, the entity developed into a club with several sports at hand. In addition to cricket, tennis, and football, the Oporto club also hosts other modalities such as squash, billiards, snooker, with pool being opened in the summer months between April and September. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Porto</span> Municipality in Norte, Portugal

Porto, also known as Oporto, is the second largest city in Portugal after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropolitan area, with an estimated population of just 237,559 people in a municipality with only 41.42 km2 (16 sq mi). Porto's metropolitan area has around 1.7 million people (2021) in an area of 2,395 km2 (925 sq mi), making it the second-largest urban area in Portugal. It is recognized as a global city with a Gamma + rating from the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FC Porto</span> Portuguese association football club

Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM, commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campo da Constituição</span> Former sporting venue in Portugal

Campo da Constituição was a football stadium in Porto, Portugal, which served as the home ground of FC Porto between 1913 and 1952. Located in the Rua da Constituição, it was Porto's second ground, after the club moved out of the Campo da Rainha.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portugal national cricket team</span>

The Portuguese national cricket team is the team that represents the country of Portugal in international cricket.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Football in Portugal</span> Overview of association football in Portugal

Association football, the most popular sport in Portugal, has a long and storied history in the country, following its introduction in 1875 in cities such as Funchal, Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra by English merchants and Portuguese students arriving back home from studying in England. This led to the establishment of local clubs dedicated to the practice of the sport.

Sports in Portugal are important in Portuguese culture. High-profile, successful competitive athleticism and sportsmanship in Portugal can be traced back to the time of Ancient Rome. Gaius Appuleius Diocles was a noteworthy charioteer born in Lamego who became one of the most celebrated athletes in ancient history. He is often cited as the highest-paid athlete of all time. Football is the most popular sport in Portugal. Other than football, many other professional or semi-professional well organized sport competitions take place every season in Portugal, including basketball, swimming, athletics, tennis, gymnastics, futsal, rink hockey, team handball, volleyball, surfing, canoeing and rugby union championships among the hundreds of sports played in this country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rugby union in Portugal</span>

Rugby union in Portugal is a very prevalent sport, though still a long distance from association football. The sport is essentially amateur in Portugal, with some professionalisation in its top flight league and the national rugby union team. The rugby union teams in Portugal are mostly university sides, from Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra, with multi-sport clubs like Benfica and Belenenses having rugby union collectivities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Factory House</span> Factory House in Sé, Portugal

The British Factory House, also known as the British Association House, is an 18th-century Neo-Palladian building located in the northern Portuguese centre of Porto, associated with the influence of Britain in the port wine industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Club Internacional de Foot-ball</span> Portuguese sports club

Club Internacional de Foot-ball is a sports club founded in 1902, from Lisbon, Portugal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kadoorie Synagogue</span>

The Kadoorie Mekor Haim Synagogue is a synagogue of the Jewish community of Porto, situated in the civil parish of Lordelo do Ouro e Massarelos, the municipality of Porto, in the Portuguese northern district of Porto. Constructed along the Rua Guerra Junqueiro beginning in 1929 and inaugurated in 1938, it is the largest synagogue in the Iberian Peninsula.

The Portuguese Tennis Federation is the national governing body for tennis in Portugal. It is a member of the regional association Tennis Europe and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is responsible for the Portugal Davis Cup team and the Portugal Fed Cup team. FPT regulates tennis, padel tennis, wheelchair tennis and beach tennis professional and amateur activities in Portugal, including National Championships.

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Porto, Portugal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guilherme Pinto Basto</span> Pioneer of football (soccer) and tennis in Portugal

Guilherme Ferreira Pinto Basto was a Portuguese all-round sportsman and entrepreneur. He is considered to have been the pioneer of both football and tennis in Portugal, playing in the first recorded football match and winning the national tennis championships on nine occasions.

Foot-Ball Club Lisbonense, better known as Club Lisbonense, was a football team based in Lisbon, Portugal, which existed between 1892 and 1902. Lisbonense played a crucial role in the amateur beginnings of football in Portugal, being the very first football club in the capital, winning the first football ‘cup’ in the country on 2 March 1894 and then being at the roots of the foundation of the Club Internacional de Foot-ball. Their equipment was blue.

Eduardo Pinto Basto was a Portuguese football pioneer who is regarded as one of the most important figures in the amateur beginnings of football in Portugal. He had a pivotal and prominent role in promoting this sport in Portugal and particularly in Lisbon when he ordered a series of footballs from England, which he distributed to various military units, thus giving a huge boost to the practice of this sport. Together with his brothers Guilherme and Frederico, he was the fundamental head behind the foundations of some of the earliest clubs in the city such as Club Lisbonense (1892) and Club Internacional de Foot-ball (1902), serving both teams as a forward. The dates of his birth and death are unknown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">António Nicolau de Almeida</span> Portuguese football executive

António Nicolau de Almeida was a Portuguese football executive, who founded FC Porto on 28 September 1893 and then served as its first president until 1896, when he gave up from the club at the request of his wife.

The Taça D. Carlos I was a friendly football tournament that was held only once, in Campo Alegre, Porto, on 2 March 1894. That match was contested by representative teams of Lisbon and Porto, and ended in a 1–0 win to the Lisbonenses, but most important than the result was its historical significance, as it was the first major football event in Portugal as well as the first football ‘cup’ played on the Iberian Peninsula. Moreover, the Taça D. Carlos I was the first domestic match between those two cities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First football match in Portugal</span> Football match

The first football match in mainland Portugal took place in Campo Pequeno, Lisboa on 22 January 1889. Three months earlier, on October 1888, a test match had already been held in Cascais contested between members of the Sporting Club of Cascais, one of the first clubs dedicated to football in Portugal. However, the one held in January was the first proper match in Portuguese football history, since the pitch had markings and goalposts, and the match followed the rules and lasted 90 minutes. It was also more competitive because the match was contested between Portuguese noblemen and a group of English workers living in Portugal, and thus it can be considered as one of the first ‘international’ matches in the history of the sport. Furthermore, the one held in January was a public event, and Lisbon's high society turned out in force to see what the game was like. Both games were held at the initiative of Guilherme Pinto Basto, one of the members of Cascais club.

Frederico Tomás Ferreira Pinto Basto was a Portuguese football pioneer who is regarded as one of the most important figures in the amateur beginnings of football in Portugal. He is best known for playing in the first football match in mainland Portugal in Cascais in October 1888, and for then playing for a Portuguese team on 22 January 1889, against a team made-up British in Lisbon. Together with his brothers Guilherme and Eduardo, he was the fundamental head behind the foundations of some of the earliest clubs in the city such as Club Lisbonense (1892) and Club Internacional de Foot-ball (1902), serving both teams as a forward. He was also the owner of Casa das Gaeiras.

Carlos Augusto Paiva Raposo Vilar was a Portuguese naval officer and a pioneer of football in Portugal.

References

  1. "Calcutta Cricket & Football club". clubsinindia.in. Kolkata: Clubs of India. 1 February 2018. Archived from the original on 27 January 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Cobb, Peter (2020). "Oporto Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club: 150 years on". British Historical Society of Portugal Annual Report. 47. Archived from the original on 29 March 2023. Retrieved 5 January 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 "História da Fundação dos FC Porto" [History of the Foundation of FC Porto]. aventar.eu (in Portuguese). 2 August 2022. Archived from the original on 17 October 2022. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
  4. Porter, Darwin & Danforth Price (2000) Frommer's Portugal 16th ed., p. 402. IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. ISBN   0-02-863601-5
  5. "Porto de 1893 perdeu Taça de D. Carlos com balizas ilegais" [Porto of 1893 lost Cup of D. Carlos with illegal goals]. abola.pt (in Spanish). 19 November 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-11-19. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
  6. "Oporto Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club website". www.oportocricketclub.com. Archived from the original on 26 September 2022. Retrieved 29 October 2022.