London Welsh F.C.

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For the rugby union team, see London Welsh R.F.C.

London Welsh Football Club is one of the oldest in London having played its first competitive match on 18 October 1891, although it had been founded around a year earlier by officers of the Welsh regiments, with the aim to "honourably uphold the reputation of Wales in the Metropolis".

Their first season was a difficult one, including an emphatic 0–12 loss to Millwall Athletic. They played in the London League in the 1896–97 season, in which they finished bottom. They were suspended towards the end of the season, and the points from their two remaining games went to their opponents, Thames Ironworks (who later changed their name to West Ham), who as a result finished second. At this time the club had 90 members who were all, exclusively, Welsh.

The team was soon to be nicknamed "Preston North End" because "they were never beaten". This was due in part to having 6 Welsh internationals playing for the team, including Price White, Jeffrey Jones, Sam Gillam (1890–93), Robert Lee Roberts (1891-1902) and the charismatic Leigh Richmond Roose (1900–01), who was capped three times while playing for 'Welsh'. Whilst a number of its rivals developed into professional clubs London Welsh retained its amateur status and when the Amateur Football Alliance reconstituted the Southern Olympian League in 1921, following the First World War, 'Welsh' were one of 15 clubs admitted to membership.

Honours[]

London Welsh won the following league honours during their long period in the South Olympian leagues:

> Senior Division 1 - London Welsh 1st XI in 1922-23

> Minor Division 3 - London Welsh 3rd XI in 1951-52

> Senior Division 3 - London Welsh 1st XI in 1953-54

> Senior Division 3 was won by London Welsh 1st XI in 1968-69

> Senior Division 3 was won by London Welsh 1st XI in 1973-74

> Minor Division E was won by London Welsh 3rd XI in 1979-80

> Senior Division 4 was won by London Welsh 1st XI in 1993-94

> Minor Division C was won by London Welsh 3rd XI in 1993-94

London Welsh also won the Middlesex Cup in 1921–22.

In 2002 the SOL and the Old Boys' Football League merged to form the Amateur Football Combination, one of Europe's biggest leagues. Of the original SOL clubs only London Welsh and Witan remain as members of the AFC. Up until the early 1990s Gunnersbury Park was Welsh's home until it they decided to seek better facilities and move to the Ibis ground nearby. London Welsh suffered from the selling off of sports pitches and for the next few years the club went through a nomadic period that included two seasons in south east London at Charlton. London have now come back to our West London roots and use the facilities of The Polytechnic Football Club from the Southern Amateur League.

Present day club[]

London Welsh currently operate two football teams, who play home games at the Quentin Hogg Memorial Ground in Chiswick and compete in the Amateur Football Combination. In the 2016–17 season London Welsh's two teams competed in the South 1 and South 5 divisions. After a lean period the 'Welsh' picked up silverware in 2015–16, with the first XI winning the South Division 3 (and being promoted two divisions in a league re-organisation) and the second XI won the A.F.A. Cup.

References[]

  • Blows, Kirk & Hogg, Tony (2000). The Essential History of West Ham United. Headline. ISBN 0-7472-7036-8.
  • Newspaper reports on the formation of London Welsh http://newspapers.library.wales/view/3766371/3766377/67/ http://newspapers.library.wales/view/4321836/4321839/7/

External links[]

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