Clapham Rovers F.C.
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| Clapham Rovers | |||||||||||||||||
| Full name | Clapham Rovers Football Club | ||||||||||||||||
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| Founded | 1869 | ||||||||||||||||
| Dissolved | c. 1887 (?) | ||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Clapham Common, Tooting Bec Common, Wandsworth Common (Capacity n/a) |
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Clapham Rovers were an English association football club founded in 1869, that played in the late 19th century and are now defunct. The club played variously on Clapham Common, Tooting Bec Common and Wandsworth Common and wore a cerise and french-grey kit.
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[edit] History
Clapham Rovers were one of the fifteen teams to play in the very first edition of the FA Cup, in 1871-72. The first ever FA Cup goal was scored by Clapham Rovers' Jarvis Kenrick, in a 3-0 victory over Upton Park on November 11 1871. [1]
Rovers greatest achievement was winning the FA Cup in 1879-80 with a 1-0 win over Oxford University at The Kennington Oval. Their 1880 FA Cup winning team was as follows:
- Reginald Birkett, Robert Ogilvie, Edgar Field, Vincent Weston, Norman Bailey, Arthur Stanley, Harold Brougham, Francis Sparks, F Barry, Edward Ram, Clopton Lloyd-Jones.
Lloyd-Jones scored the only goal of the game.
The previous year, Clapham Rovers had also reached the final, but lost 1-0 to Old Etonians. In this match, Clapham Rovers' James Prinsep set a record for being the youngest player in an FA Cup Final, at 17 years and 245 days, a record that held until 2004 when it was broken by Millwall's Curtis Weston.
Clapham Rovers were also one of ten founder members of the Surrey County Football Association, in 1877. [2]
The date of the club's dissolution is unclear, although the last time they competed in the FA Cup was in the 1885-86 season, when they were disqualified without playing a match.[3] Their most successful player, Norman Bailey, was still described as a Clapham Rovers player when he made the last of his 19 England appearances on 19 March 1887.[4]
The club probably survived until World War One as there is a reference to their annual dinner in The Sportsman in 1911.
[edit] England players
Eight Clapham Rovers players played for England between 1874 and 1887, who were as follows (caps in brackets): [5]
- Norman Bailey (19 caps)
- Reginald Birkett (1 cap)
- Walter Buchanan (1 cap)
- Edgar Field (2 caps)
- Richard Geaves (1 cap)
- Robert Ogilvie (1 cap)
- James Prinsep (1 cap)
- Francis Sparks (2 caps)
[edit] Modern-day team
Since 1996 a Sunday league team has operated under the name Clapham Rovers; however this club has no formal connection to nor are they an officially-recognised continuation of the original club.
[edit] References
- ^ The first ever matches. TheFA.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-07.
- ^ Surrey County Football Association - A History.
- ^ Clapham Rovers at the Football Club History Database
- ^ Match report: England v Scotland 19th March 1887. Englandstats.com.
- ^ England Players' Club Affiliations - Clapham Rovers. England Football Online.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Clapham Rovers at the Football Club History Database
