Upton Park F.C.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Upton Park
Full name Upton Park Football Club
Nickname(s) The "Scarlet & Black"
Founded 1866
1891 (reformed)
Dissolved 1887 (first time)
c. 1911 (second time)
Ground West Ham Park
(Capacity n/a)

Upton Park Football Club were an amateur football club from Upton Park, London in the late 19th and early 20th century, now defunct. As well as being one of the fifteen teams that played in the inaugural FA Cup, they also represented Great Britain at the 1900 Summer Olympics football tournament, which they won.

Contents

[edit] History

Founded in 1866, the club were one of the 15 teams to play in the very first edition of the FA Cup in 1871-72;[1] they never won the competition but did reach the quarter-finals on four occasions.[2] They were also the inaugural winners of the London Senior Cup in 1882-83. Though resolutely an amateur club, they inadvertently sparked the legalisation of professionalism in the game after complaining about Preston North End's payments to players after the two met in the FA Cup in 1884; Preston were disqualified, but the incident made the FA confront the issue and, under threat of a breakaway, they allowed payments to players the following year.[3]

The club were wound up in 1887 but were resurrected four years later in 1891.[3] In 1892 they were founder members of the Southern Alliance, an early league competition amongst teams from southern England, but were bottom of the league with only one win to their name when the competition folded before the 1892-93 season ended.

Upton Park went on to represent Great Britain en masse at the 1900 Summer Olympics football tournament, which they won, beating Club Française, representing France, 4-0.[4] Although a gold medal was not awarded to the side at the time (it being a demonstration sport), the IOC have since retrospectively awarded one.[5] The team that day (playing a 2-3-5 formation) was:

J. H. Jones; Claude Buckenham, William Grosling; Alfred Chalk, T. E. Burridge, William Quash; Arthur Turner, F. G. Spackman, J. Nicholas, James Zealley, A. Haslam (captain)[6]

The scorers were Nicholas (with two), Turner and Zealley.[4]

Despite the obvious similarity of name to Upton Park stadium (officially known as the Boleyn Ground), the club had no connection with the ground and never played there; indeed there were few formal links between Upton Park and West Ham United (then known as Thames Ironworks) though some players did play for both.[3] In addition, Upton Park's home games in West Ham Park attracted large crowds to their games, which may have influenced Thames Ironworks' decision to move to the area from Canning Town, where football was not as popular.[7]

[edit] Famous players

Famous players for the side included Charles Alcock, later president of the Football Association, FA Cup Final referees Alfred Stair and Segar Bastard (who was also an England international), and Charlie Dove, one of the early leading players for Thames Ironworks.[8] Upton Park also supplied two other England internationals, Clement Mitchell and Conrad Warner.[9]

[edit] Legacy

Upton Park continued to play until at least 1911, according to modern-day records.[8] The Upton Park Trophy, the annual playoff between the league champions of Guernsey and Jersey, is named for the Upton Park side, to commemorate their tenth annual tour of the islands, which they made in 1906.[10]

[edit] References

  1. ^ The first ever matches. TheFA.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-07.
  2. ^ Upton Park. Football Club History Database. Retrieved on 2006-11-28.
  3. ^ a b c Powles, John. "Chapter One: Origins", Iron in the Blood. Retrieved on 2007-04-08. 
  4. ^ a b Games of the II. Olympiad : Football Tournament (Demonstration matches). RSSSF. Retrieved on 2007-04-08.
  5. ^ The Official Olympics website lists Great Britain as being 1900 gold medal-winners in the football tournament.
  6. ^ Team members GREAT BRITAIN. Olympics.org. Note that the spellings of names differs slightly from names listed by RSSSF.
  7. ^ Arnold Hills. Oxford University AFC. Retrieved on 2007-04-08.
  8. ^ a b Upton Park Football Club players. East of London Family History Society. Retrieved on 2007-04-08.
  9. ^ England Players' Club Affiliations: Upton Park. England Football Online. Retrieved on 2006-11-28.
  10. ^ Channel Islands - List of Champions. RSSSF.
Languages