|
The Gipsies Football Club was a short lived 19th century rugby football club that was notable for being one of the twenty-one founding members of the Rugby Football Union, as well as producing a number of international players in the sport's early international fixtures. ==History== The Gipsies Football Club was founded in October 1868, by three Old Tonbridgians,〔Steve Lewis, ''One Among Equals'', page 253, 2008 (Vertical Editions:London)〕 Francis Luscombe, James Alfred Body, and William James Parker. These three men were keen on football and wanted to provide a football club in London with which Tonbridge's former pupils could affiliate, much as the Marlborough Nomads served Marlborough College. These three soon recruited a number of likeminded individuals and in the summer of 1868 they were able to arrange a card of matches for the season 1868-69. After the two first matches had been played a meeting was called on 17 October 1868 and "The Gipsies Football Club" was formed with Francis Luscombe elected as honorary secretary, the rest of the committee made up of Henry Howard Batten, James Alfred Body, Jeaffreson Vennor Brewer, William James Parker, and James Morgan Streeten.〔 Of the six members of the committee, five were Old Tonbridgians, with J Brewer being a pupil of Epsom College. Three of the committee, Brewer, Luscombe and Body would go on to play for England. Of the others, Henry Howard Batten was working in the Charity Commission at the time and was later called to the Bar (Lincoln's Inn) and became a J.P. for Westmorland;〔Tonbridge School, Tonbridge, Eng; Hughes, Walter Oldham Hughes-, 1847-1894, ed, ''The register of Tonbridge School, from 1820 to 1886, also lists of exhibitoners, &c., previous to 1820, and of head masters and second masters (1886)'', p42, (Reading, I.I. Beecroft, Printer)〕 Parker, an exceptional sportsman at Tonbridge, became a member of the London Stock Exchange;〔Tonbridge School Register, p30〕 and Streeten, who played in Tonbridge's Football team for three years in a row, became the Manager of the San Francisco operations of the London and San Francisco Bank and later died in Nome, Alaska.〔Tonbridge School Register, p49〕 The team was based in Peckham.〔Charles Dickens jr, ''Dickens's Dictionary of London'', 1879〕 The team was unbeaten in its first season (with 7 matches won and 11 drawn) and in the next season, 1869–70, the club continued its good form playing 18 out of which they drew 13, won 3 and lost just 2. Records of subsequent games have largely been mislaid, although the club was noted for being at times one of the strongest playing the running game. Among its many opponents were Blackheath FC, Richmond FC, Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Ravenscourt Park, Marlborough Nomads, Woolwich, Sandhurst, Cooper's Hill, St. Andrew's Rovers, Clapham Rovers, and West Kent.〔 In December 1872, Bell's Life wrote of the team: ''"The Gipsies have played and beaten Guy's Hospital, the Civil Service, Oakfield (Croydon), Ravenscourt Park, and have also fought a very hard and equal game with the Marlborough Nomads, and are better than ever this year, and are sure to win most of their matches"''. The same article referred to Blackheath, the Gipsies, and Ravenscourt Park, as being the three crack clubs.〔 Despite its prominenance in the 1870s, the club was disbanded in 1880〔Marshall, Francis, ''Football; the Rugby union game'', contribution by W Parker, (1892) (London Paris Melbourne, Cassell and company, limited)〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gipsies Football Club」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|