The Flores Old Ground (also known as "Old Polo Ground" or "Old Polo Field" or "Flores Polo Ground") was the stadium of defunct

Flores Athletic Club Flores Athletic Club was an Argentine sports club from Flores, Buenos Aires. The club was pioneer in the practise of some sports that would become popular in Argentina, such as football (competing in some of the first official championships hel ...

. Located in the barrio of

Caballito, Buenos Aires Caballito (; Spanish for "little horse") is a '' barrio'' (neighborhood) of the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. It is the only ''barrio'' in the administrative division ''Comuna'' 6. It is located in the geographical centre of the city, limite ...

,''Historia del Fútbol Amateur en la Argentina'', by Jorge Iwanczuk. Published by Autores Editores (1992) – just behind the

Buenos Aires Western Railway The Buenos Aires Western Railway (BAWR) (in Spanish: Ferrocarril Oeste de Buenos Aires), inaugurated in the city of Buenos Aires on 29 August 1857, was the first railway built in Argentina and the start of the extensive rail network which was ...

freight sheds,El día que los ferroviarios se llevaron las medallas
Página/12, 18 Oct 2010 it hosted several

polo Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

and

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

matches during the period Flores A.C. was active.Historia del Flores Athletic Club
12 Jun 2013

History

By 1860 a big

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

community lived in the "

porteño In Spanish, the term (feminine: ''Porteña'') means "port city person". It is used to refer to residents of port cities such as Buenos Aires, Argentina; El Puerto de Santa María, Spain; Valparaíso, Chile; Mazatlán, Veracruz, Acapulco and Tamp ...

s" neighborhoods of

Caballito Caballito (; Spanish for "little horse") is a ''barrio'' (neighborhood) of the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. It is the only ''barrio'' in the administrative division ''Comuna'' 6. It is located in the geographical centre of the city, limited ...

and

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Including the Komodo Islands off its west coast (but excluding the Solor Archipelago to the east of Flores), the land area is 15,530.58 km2, and th ...

, with most of their members working in commerce activities. They usually spent summertime in their

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

s located in Barracas, Belgrano and Flores, which was the favorite place of Argentine high society families to spend their free time. Some of the biggest palaces (such as "Miraflores", built in 1886 and currently a school, or "Las Lilas") had been erected in that zone. Flores A.C. was established in the same lot where in 1875 the first

match had been played in Argentina.''El polo en la Argentina. Primera parte: Las prácticas iniciales en el país'', Ernesto Ceballos, Buenos Aires (1969)''100 años de polo en la Argentina 1888–1988'', Elsa Boglione, Buenos Aires, 1988 The stadium was a multi-purposed venue, being used by the polo, rugby union and football teams from the club during the last years of the 19th century. The Old Ground was a recurrent venue not only for the Flores A.C. team (which played in Primera División from

1893 Events January–March * January 2 – Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers, which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America. * Mark Twain started writing Puddn'head Wilson. * January 6 – Th ...

to 1897) but for other football teams such as Buenos Aires F.C. in 1891.Argentina 1891
by Osvaldo Gorgazzi at RSSSF.com Moreover, the first final match of Argentine football (between St. Andrew's and Old Caledonians) was held in the Old Ground. Rosario goal vs curcc 1904

The Old Ground was also used as home venue by the rugby union (as the club was one of the founding members of Argentine Rugby Union) and polo teams from the institution. In fact, the first registered rugby union match played by Flores A.C. was on July 19, 1896, against Buenos Aires FC at Flores Ground. The stadium was also used by the Buenos Aires FC to play Rosario Athletic Club. In 1900, the Old Ground hosted the

Tie Cup The Tie Cup Competition (also known as Copa de Competencia Chevallier Boutell) is a defunct international football tournament played between representatives of the Argentina and Uruguay Associations. It was one of the earliest international footbal ...

final match when Belgrano A.C. beat Rosario A.C. by 2–0. The stadium would be used for another final game in 1904 when Rosario A.C. defeated Uruguayan team

CURCC Central Uruguay Railway Cricket Club (mostly known for its acronym CURCC) was a Uruguayan sports club, originally established by British railway workers for the practise of cricket. Nevertheless, the club would be notable for its football section ...

by 3–2.1900 Tie Cup Competition final
by Osvaldo José Gorgazzi on RSSSF In 1907 Flores Athletic sold some of its facilities to Club Ferro Carril Oeste, for m$n 700. The agreement included two fields, but it is unclear if the Old Ground was part of the transaction."Una investigación sobre la Historia del Flores Athletic Club"
by Rubén Ayala, C.E.H.R., Buenos Aires (1997)

Notes

References

{{Commons cat, Flores Old Ground Sports venues in Buenos Aires Defunct football venues in Argentina Defunct rugby union venues Multi-purpose stadiums in Argentina 1907 disestablishments in Argentina

History

See also

Notes

References