Gitanos Football Club was an English association football club and one of the first members of the

Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

History

The club was founded in 1864, their name, Spanish for " gypsies", and primarily consisted of

Old Etonians Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

and Old Carthusians (men who had attended

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

or Charterhouse).(March 1900)
A Chance for the Public Schools
''National Review'', p. 86 The earliest known report of the club playing an external fixture dates from 1867. As a "select" club, in an era before players concentrated their efforts on one club, the Gitanos enjoyed the ad hoc services of a number of prominent players of the day, such as Arthur Kinnaird,

Edgar Lubbock Edgar Lubbock LLB (22 February 1847 – 9 September 1907) was an English amateur footballer who twice won the FA Cup and played first-class cricket. He later became a partner in the Whitbread Brewery, a Director and Deputy Governor of the Bank ...

, Albert Thompson, George Holden of the Clapham Rovers, and J.H. Giffard of the Civil Service. There was a particular overlap with the Wanderers as old boys of Eton and Charterhouse were eligible for both sides. The club competed in the FA Cup in 1873, losing to

Uxbridge F.C. The Uxbridge Football Club are a football club representing Uxbridge, based in Yiewsley, in the London Borough of Hillingdon, England. They were established in 1871 and are one of the oldest clubs in the South of England. They were founding mem ...

in the first round. Given the overlap of membership with the Wanderers, most players preferred to play for the more successful club in Cup competition, and the Gitanos' one FA Cup tie saw only eight players turn up. Those who did play were not the first choice players; of the line-up that faced the Royal Engineers that season, only four played against Uxbridge, and two other players played instead for the Wanderers in the competition. The club did not enter the FA Cup again.(17 October 1874)
Opening of the Season
''Lads of the Village'', p. 224 ("Twenty-nine clubs have entered for the Association Challenge Cup--one in excess of last year--but the Trojans, the Gitanos, 1st Surrey Rifles, and Amateur Athletic teams do not compete.") The club gradually petered out over the 1870s, with competition for loyalty from the

and Old Carthusians sides which gained more prominence over the decade. The club could still occasionally put out a strong side; Gitanos for instance gained a surprising 7–1 win over the Old Etonians - at the time the FA Cup holders - to open the 1879–80 season at Eton College. It was still registered as a member of the

in 1882 but it does not seem to have played after meeting Westminster School in January 1881.

Records

Only FA Cup performance: 1st Round – 1873–74

Colours

The club wore scarlet, violet, and white, in broad "stripes", which in the context of the time referred to hoops.

Ground

As the club's name - being Spanish for "gypsy" - suggested, the club played most of its matches away from home; it originally declared it had no ground and 16 of its 18 matches in 1873 for instance were at the opponent's venue. It did however host two games at Lillie Bridge that year. In 1874 the club gained a tenancy at the

Prince's Cricket Ground Prince's Cricket Ground in Chelsea, London was a cricket ground, created by the brothers George and James Prince as part of the Prince's Club, on which 37 first-class matches were played between 1872 and 1878. The ground was built on in 1883. The ...

Legacy

In 1891, an article in ''Fores's Sporting Notes'' reviewed a copy of the 1874 '' Football Annual'' and commented on how clubs had come and gone over time. The 1874 annual listed less than 200 football clubs in all of England, and by 1891 the author asked "what has become of such old giants as the Gitanos,

Harrow Chequers Harrow Chequers Football Club was a football club from London, England in the 1860s to early 1890s. It played as the Harrow Chequers from 1865 to 1876, when it was then renamed the Old Harrovians, and continued play until at least 1891. Derive ...

, Pilgrims, and

Woodford Wells Woodford Wells is a small settlement on the edge of Epping Forest, in Woodford, East London. The area lies about north-east of Charing Cross. The name is shown in the Chapman and Andre 1777 map of Essex, and shortly after on an Ordnance Surv ...

."An Old Football Annual
''Fores's Sporting Notes'', p. 14 (1891)

References