Ipswich Soccer In 1888

Key Events:

June 9: The Queensland Times' Town Talk section mentions a soccer club called Blackstone Rovers had formed. 

June 30: St Andrews 1 - 3 Bundanba

July 3: A meeting of the Anglo-Queensand Football Association discussed a proposed intercolonial match with NSW. The clubs represented included St Andrews, Thistles, Caledonians, Rangers, and one called Bundanbas. 

July 14: Blackstone Rovers 2 - 2 Thistle - said to be Blackstone  Rover's first game against a Brisbane Team

July 28: Bundamba Unions 5 - 0 Blackstone Rovers (return match). 

August 4: Bundanba Unions 2 - 4 St Andrews

August 4: Thistle 4 - 0 Blackstone Rovers

September 22: Thistle 2 - 2 Bundanba Unions (Final)

October 13: Thistle 5 - 1 Bundanba Unions (Final replay - also see this match report)

Known Unknowns: 

The match on the 28th of July was noted as the return match between Bundamba Unions and Blackstone Rovers. The date of the first match is unknown but finished 3 - 1 to Blackstone Rovers.

Uncertains: 

Reg Erskine quotes Tom 'Old Sport' Barker  claiming this was the year Bush Rats were formed (or more specifically, 24 years before the Barker's 1912 article was published). This has been disputed, with other evidence putting the date at 1887 (claimed by Barker as part of the dispute), 1889 or more usually 1890.

Key Clubs: 

Blackstone Rovers - red
Players included : Ward (gk - the same one?), F. W. Wort aka F. Williams, Gardiner, Griffith, and Dollan, E. Williams, P. Williams, J. Jones, Evans, A. Jones, Tapps, Taylor

Bundanba Unions (only season, possibly) - black and white
Players included: Archie Waugh, J. Lovell, T. McMurtrie, Ward, and Boyd, McMurdy (gk)

Final's squad v Thistle - Ward (gk - the same as Blackstone?);  A. Waugh and J. Lindsay (backs) ; Graham, Boyd, and Noble (half-backs); Robinson, Noble, McMurtrie, Dobbie, and Lovell, (forwards).

Notable People: 

Frederick William Wort aka Fred Williams - Blackstone founder and captain
Archie Waugh - Bundanba captain

Evan Williams - Blackstone Rovers player (and later source of information about the period)

Historical Notes: 

After a season's silence, two clubs from the Ipswich region contested the Brisbane competition.

Blackstone Rovers formed after the arrival of drill sergeant F. W. Wort late the previous year. It was later remembered by Evan Williams that the squad was made up of members of the Volunteers - the military force Wort trained. This means Blackstone Rovers was originally a military team, though it can be perhaps assumed many of the Volunteers were also miners, allowing the club a player base for many decades.

Further west comes a question - was Bundanba Unions really a new club, or a continuation of Rovers? Could a name change have been simply forced due to the advent of Blackstone Rovers? The first mention of the club in 1888 is as simply Bundanba.

It is intriguing to note the Queenslander of September 15 called this club Bundanba Rovers. Was this habitual from two years previous, or reflecting the true nature of the club as a continuation.

A look at the Unions team shows an overlap with the 1886 Bundanba Rovers. James Glasgow may have gone, but Archie Waugh remained captain, with Gordon, J. Lindsay and  Dobbie all playing.

Also appearing for Bundanba was T. McMurtrie, who came from Brisbane side Rangers.

It was reported on Saturday August 11, in the Queensland Figaro and Punch, that Blackstone Rovers had 40 members, while Bundanba Unions had about 15. This may explain the relative survival or otherwise of the clubs over the next few years.

For Blackstone Rovers, 1888 was the start of a long existence, give or take the odd year without senior team. Rovers finally merged with Bundamba Rangers in 1964 to form Coalstars.

Back in 1888, Bundamba Rangers was still at least 6 years into the future. In contrast, Bundanba Unions were not long for this world.

There is evidence of a club existing in Bundamba in 1889, or at least the rump of one, which will be mentioned in the next post.

Otherwise senior football in Bundamba goes quiet until members of Blackstone Rovers created Call Backs in 1892.

But this was part of a larger trend. Over the next two years soccer is barely heard from in the Ipswich media. Is it a case of lack of football or an uncaring press?

(Or, as Peter Eady reminded me, a lack of club correspondents reporting games to the press.)

Soccer in Ipswich Before 1886

Key Events:

1875:

E.G. Morgan, future president of the Ipswich and West Moreton British Football Association, arrives in Ipswich from Pembroke, Wales, aged 11.

1883:

June: Evan Morris Williams, original Blackstone Rovers, arrived in Blackstone as part of a group from North Wales to work at Lewis Thomas' mine. 
Alexander Stewart, future Bush Rats player, arrives in Ipswich from Scotland.

1885:

William Duck, of the original Bush Rats, arrives in Ipswich from Yorkshire. He is joined by brother George, and the rest of his family in 1887. 

David Gledson (and possibly goalkeeper Jack Ward), arrived in Australia with other players who would go on to play for Blackstone Rovers.

Historical Notes: 

Ipswich Soccer in 1887

Introduction:

There were no known games of officially organised soccer in Ipswich in 1887, but it doesn't mean soccer was entirely dead.

Key Events:

May 12: Third annual meeting of the Anglo-Queensland Football Association reveals Bundanba Rovers may join the association. 

June 6: Thistle Football Club forms in Brisbane. The club decides to write to James Glasgow to see if Bundanba Rovers were playing this year, and if so,to arrange a game. 


Known Date Unknowns: 

A group of young boys met at Beavis's bakery to form a soccer team.

George Duck, later captain of the original Bush Rats, arrives in Ipswich with the majority of his family, reuniting with his older brother and fellow future Bush Rat, William.

Frederick William Wort, the drill sergeant who formed Blackstone Rovers, arrives in Ipswich from the Isle of Wight via Toowoomba.

Uncertain Unknowns: 

Decades later William Lindsay says he played for Bundanba Rangers in 1887. He did play for Bundanba Rovers in 1886, and Rangers did not exist until the early 1890s. But it could mean there was a Bundanba team active but unreported this year. 

Key Clubs: 

Little Rangers:
David Waugh, Andy and Bob Rae; 'Sandy' Muir, Harry Besgrove, Arch, Jim, 'Sandy' and Bob Dobbie; Dave Gledson, Barrower, Jim Biggam (maybe)

Historical Notes: 

The state of Bundanba Rovers was uncertain in the first half of 1887. The association thought there was a possibility the club would affiliate, while Thistles investigated whether a game could be played.

Glasgow is last heard of in February, playing in an an inter-district draughts contest, hosted by whichever one (or the other) W. Hastie. Rover's William Lindsay also plays as Bundanba beat Ipswich 19 to 8.

Lindsay would soon reappear in Ipswich football, but Hastie is not heard from in relation to football after this point, while Glasgow completely disappears.

As does, it seems, Bundanba Rovers.

However soccer was played in Ipswich in 1887.

According to David Waugh six decades later, 1887 was the year a number of children banded together to form a soccer team called Little Rangers, named after the successful club in their native Scotland.

There is a question mark over the dating here.

Waugh states Little Rangers was formed in the same year as Bundanba Rovers was playing in Ipswich. We know Rovers played in 1886, and an argument can be made for 1888, which we will cover in that year's post. But it is also possible Rovers did play in unreported games in 1887, maybe against local players in scratch matches.

Waugh also states there was a senior team in Blackstone in 1887, but this would have been be a year before the formation of Blackstone Rovers. Either Blackstone flirted with soccer a year earlier than is known, or Waugh's memories are slightly out.

In 1946 William Lindsay stated he played for Bundanba Rangers in 1887. He was probably referring to Bundanba Rovers or the Bundanba Unions team of 1888. There are several other testimonies of players decades after the earliest years of Ipswich soccer with similarly sketchy dating.

The revelation of Little Rangers is exciting, because it hints at children's soccer which was largely unreported until the advent of inter-schools competitions.

Little Rangers also gives tantalising hints at the later formation of Bundanba Rangers.

Waugh and Jim Dobbie would later play for Bundanba Rangers. Waugh would have been 10 or 11 in 1887, but was playing for Whitwood as a 14 year old in 1892 before joining Rangers.

Bundanba Rangers are first reported in 1894 - in fact James Dobbie for played for Rangers in their first known game against Waugh's Whitwood.

This opens up a big question - were Bundanba Rangers members of Little Rangers all grown up?

Were the roots of the famous Rangers laid in 1887 (give or take) by a bunch of kids, who named their senior club after their childhood one? 

Perhaps the most important events in Ipswich soccer came in the arrival of two pioneers.

Frederick Wort has already been mentioned in this blog, being the man who started Blackstone Rovers.

George Duck also arrived, joining his brother William. The brothers are considered two of the original New Chum Bush Rats.

So soccer may have been quiet in Ipswich in 1887, but the seeds of its future success were starting to be sown.