Blackheath F.C.

Blackheath

Full name	Blackheath Football Club
Union	Rugby Football Union
Nickname(s)	Club
Founded	1858 (1858)
Location	Blackheath, London, England
Ground(s)	Rectory Field (Capacity: 6,000)
President	Mike Newsom
Director of Rugby	Yusuf Ibrahim
Coach(es)	Colin Ridgeway, Bobby Howe, Sam Howard
Captain(s)	Tom Bason
League(s)	National League 1
2014–15	6th
Team kit
Official website
blackheathrugby.co.uk

Blackheath Football Club is a rugby union club based in Blackheath in south-east London, now playing at the Rectory Field (known as 'The Rec' or 'The Parsonage'). It was founded in 1858 and is the oldest open rugby club in the world since becoming open in 1862. "Open" in this context means that membership was open to anyone, not merely those attending, or old boys from, a particular institution (e.g. a school, university or hospital). It is also the third-oldest rugby club in continuous existence in the world, after Dublin University Football Club and Edinburgh Academical Football Club. The Blackheath club also helped organise the world's first rugby international (between England and Scotland in Edinburgh on 27 March 1871) and hosted the first international between England and Wales ten years later – the players meeting and getting changed at the Princess of Wales public house. Blackheath, along with Civil Service FC, is one of the two clubs that can claim to be a founder member of both The Football Association and the Rugby Football Union. The club currently play in National League 1 the third tier of the English rugby union system.

History

Early history

The institution was founded as "Blackheath Football Club" in 1858 by old boys of Blackheath Proprietary School who played a "carrying" game of football made popular by Rugby School. When the old boys played against the current pupils supporters would shout for either "Club" or "School" accordingly. This is why to this day supporters of BFC shout for "Club", not for "Blackheath".

In 1863 the club developed the tactic of passing the ball from player to player as an alternative to the solo break and the "kick and follow-up".

In 1863 Blackheath was a founder member of The Football Association which was formed at the Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen Street, on Lincoln Inn Fields, London 26 October 1863 with the intention to frame a code of laws that would embrace the best and most acceptable points of all the various methods of play under the one heading of "football". Mr Francis Maule Campbell, a member of Blackheath, was elected treasurer. At the fifth meeting Campbell argued that hacking was an essential element of 'football' and that to eliminate hacking would "do away with all the courage and pluck from the game, and I will be bound over to bring over a lot of Frenchmen who would beat you with a week’s practice." At the sixth meeting on 8 December Campbell withdrew Blackheath, explaining that the rules that the FA intended to adopt would destroy the game and all interest in it. Other rugby clubs followed this lead and did not join the Football Association. In this way the great divide between soccer and rugby took place.

In December 1870 Edwin Ash, secretary of Richmond Football Club published a letter in the papers which said, "Those who play the rugby-type game should meet to form a code of practice as various clubs play to rules which differ from others, which makes the game difficult to play." On 26 January 1871 a meeting attended by representatives from 22 clubs was held in London at the Pall Mall Restaurant. As a result of this meeting the Rugby Football Union (RFU) was founded. Three lawyers who had been pupils at Rugby School drew up the first laws of the game which were approved in June 1871. The Club is one of seven of the original twenty-one clubs to have survived to this day.

Later history

Blackheath initially played its matches on the Heath (meeting and changing at the Princess of Wales public house) but occasional interruptions from spectators led the club to move, initially to a private field (Richardson's Field) in Blackheath before moving to the Rectory Field in 1883.

On 27 March 1871, England (captained by Blackheath's captain and with three other Club players in the 20-strong side) played Scotland at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh, losing by one point. This was the first international rugby union game in history. Richardson's Field hosted the first England v. Wales fixture on 19 February 1881, which England won, again with four Club players in the side. In 1982 Blackheath joined the list of winning teams at the Glengarth Sevens at Stockport R.U.F.C

Club honours

• Middlesex Sevens winners: 1932, 1958
• Glengarth Sevens Main Event winners: 1982
• Glengarth Sevens Davenport Plate winners: 1983
• National Division Three South champions: 2003–04

Current standings

2015–16 National League 1 Table
	Club	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points for	Points against	Points diff	Try bonus	Losing bonus	Points
1	Richmond (C)	30	23	2	5	854	534	320	16	4	116
2	Hartpury College	30	21	0	9	966	558	408	15	5	104
3	Blackheath	30	21	2	7	794	488	306	9	6	103
4	Ampthill	30	20	2	8	746	620	126	14	5	103
5	Rosslyn Park	30	20	0	10	745	578	167	12	3	95
6	Darlington Mowden Park	30	19	0	11	766	640	126	11	4	91
7	Esher	30	17	0	13	801	603	198	14	6	88
8	Plymouth Albion	30	22	0	8	733	647	86	11	3	72
9	Coventry	30	13	2	15	710	653	57	9	6	71
10	Fylde	30	11	1	18	736	804	–68	11	10	67
11	Blaydon	30	10	0	20	565	772	–207	10	7	57
12	Hull Ionians	30	9	0	21	645	872	–227	10	11	57
13	Loughborough Students	30	9	0	21	680	774	–94	10	9	55
14	Wharfedale (R)	30	6	1	23	592	869	–277	10	7	43
15	Cinderford (R)	30	7	1	22	545	969	–424	7	4	41
16	Henley Hawks (R)	30	6	1	23	478	975	-497	5	3	29
Points system: 4 points for a win; 2 points for a draw; 1 point if a team loses by seven points or less (losing bonus); 1 point if the team scores four or more tries in a match (try bonus) If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order: Number of matches won Difference between points for and against Total number of points for Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled
Green background is the promotion place. Pink background are relegation places. Updated: 30 April 2016 Source:

Modern club

• Blackheath FC's first team currently plays in National Division 1 in England, but the club fields many sides.
• The ever popular Mini and Junior sections now have their own home ground, based at Kidbrooke Road, Well Hall, London, SE9.
• The club provides sections ranging from Under-6's right through to Under-18's, and has experienced success at all levels.
• The Mini Section successfully ran its first ever Mini Rugby Festival at Eltham College on 25 November 2007.
• Graduates of the club's junior section include several county players, and Frankie Neale who plays for the first team as well as England academy. The club at Under-18 level works in conjunction with London Leisure College to make sure that players with academic commitments do not get tempted away from the game.

Squad

Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WR nationality.

Player Position Union Simon Legg Prop England Desmond Brett Prop England James Cleverly Prop England Nick Winwood Prop Zimbabwe James Cleverly Prop England Jake Lock Prop England Alex Brown Prop England Mike Freeman Prop England Damien Patot Prop France Joe Brady Prop England Zsa Valishvili Prop Georgia Jack Knight Hooker England Harry Allen Hooker England Bill Sandison Hooker England Joe Bonner Hooker England Rhys Barney Hooker England Nick Agbo Hooker England Charlie Woodall Hooker England Neil Dewale Lock England Alastair Vanner Lock England Tom Bason Lock England Ralph Cooke Lock England Ben Johnson Lock England Gavin Wallis Flanker England James Catt Flanker England Lee Covington Flanker England Richard Pike Flanker England Mark Davey Flanker England Richard Paddick Flanker England Dave Allen Flanker England Tom Lawry Flanker England Dave Brown Flanker England Jabba Hanson Flanker England Trueman Sullivan Flanker England Gareth Jones Number 8 Wales David Packer Number 8 England Mark Harlow-Singh Number 8 England

Player Position Union James Honeyben Scrum-half England Ben Ibrahim Scrum-half England Jack Walsh Scrum-half England Sam Edyman Scrum-half England Henry Johnson Scrum-half England Luke Baldwin Scrum-half England Matthew Leek Fly-half England Matt Vaughan Fly-half New Zealand Paul Humphries Fly-half England Peter Squires Fly-half England Mike Staten Centre England Steve Hamilton Centre England Romain Perret Centre France James Denham Centre England Jonathan Joseph Centre England Richard Lankshear Centre England Sean Moan Centre Zimbabwe Richard Winsor Centre England Henry Staff Centre England Ed Doe Wing England Dan Caprice Wing England Niikolas Van Mol Wing England Ovie Koloko Wing England James Tyrell Wing England Martin Lacey Wing England Martin Olima Fullback Ireland Jake Smith Fullback England Marcus Watson Fullback England Ben Ransom Fullback England

Past players

See also Category:Blackheath F.C. players

• Frederick Stokes (1850–1929), the first captain of the England national rugby union team.
• Lennard Stokes (1856–1933), former captain of the England national rugby union team.
• Alexander William Pearson (born 1854)
• Mike Campbell-Lamerton.
• Harold Dingwall Bateson.
• Thomas Batson
• C.B. Fry
• E H D Sewell sports writer and cricketer
• Mickey Skinner "The Munch".
• George Burton (rugby union)
• Henry Taylor (rugby union)
• Charles Arthur Crompton, played in first ever international for England
• Charles Sherrard (1849–1938), played in first ever international for England
• Aadel Kardooni, England A
• JEC 'Birdie' Partridge
• Thomas Gubb
• Dhani Jones
• Stanley Wakefield Harris.
• Rob Webber.
• Joe Simpson.
• John Gallagher, All Black and member of the team that won the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987.

Fictional players

• Dr. Watson, character from the Sherlock Holmes stories

See also

• Rugby union in London

External links

• Official website