High Wycombe F.C. was an English

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 ...

based in

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, south-southeast of Ayl ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

History

The club was formed in 1871 and played its first match in December that year, against Marlow. The match was affected by both a dense fog and "the behaviour of the spectators, who joined to the insolence of the town the coarseness and boorishness of the country rough, and thoroughly impeded the game,on two occasions bringing it to an actual standstill." Like many other provincial clubs, High Wycombe was not a club of those from the public schools; the club's captain and secretary in the late 1870s and 1880s, Arthur Thurlow, was a corn merchant, and most of the players were involved in the chair manufacturing trade. In then 1872–73 season, the club played 17 matches, with a record of 7 wins, 7 draws, and 3 defeats; all opponents had been clubs local to the town. Perhaps because of this growing reputation, the club entered the

1873–74 FA Cup The 1873–74 Football Association Challenge Cup was the third staging of the FA Cup, England's oldest football tournament. Twenty-eight teams entered, twelve more than the previous season, although six of the twenty-eight never played a match. ...

. The scheduled first round opponents, the Old Etonians, withdrew, as at this time the better players had chosen to play for the Wanderers. The club lost to

Maidenhead Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England, on the southwestern bank of the River Thames. It had an estimated population of 70,374 and forms part of the border with southern Bu ...

in the second round, the only goal coming from Wild, following up his own saved shot. The club entered the Cup in the next four seasons, suffering a 15–0 defeat to holders the Royal Engineers in 1875–76 and withdrawing the following year to avoid similar humiliation at the hands of

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, but in 1877–78 the club finally won a tie for the first time, beating Wood Grange at

West Ham Park West Ham Park is a privately owned public park in West Ham in the London Borough of Newham. Spanning , it is the largest park in the borough. The park has been managed by the City of London Corporation since 1874. Records from 1566 show that th ...

4–0 in the first round, all of the goals coming in the second half. However, in the second round, the club lost 9–0 at home to the Wanderers, and the result seems to have dissuaded the club from tilting at such top-class windmills again, as for the following season four of its most regular players joined Marlow, and High Wycombe never entered the Cup again. The club instead continued on a lower level, being one of the founder members of the

Berks & Bucks Football Association The Berks & Bucks Football Association is the County Football Association for Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. It is responsible for the development of association football in the two historic counties. It organises cup competitions between affiliat ...

and was the inaugural winner of the even more local Wycombe Challenge Cup in 1883–84. However, in 1889–90 the club's total gate income was a mere £13 13s, of which over £4 had to go to the cricket club. The association club fizzled out with

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their home ...

becoming the leading club in the town. In 1891, the club started a

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

section, but, at the joint meeting of the football and rugby clubs to discuss fixtures for the 1892–93 season, "there was scarcely a single member of the association club present", and no football matches had in fact been arranged.

Colours

The club's original colours were orange and black, which it changed to navy and red from the 1877–78 season.

Ground

The club originally played at the Rye, a quarter of a mile from

High Wycombe railway station High Wycombe railway station is a railway station in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. The station is on the Chiltern Main Line between and stations. It is served by Chiltern Railways. History The original terminus station ...

, but from 1889 gained use of the cricket ground, on the basis that the club paid over half of the gate money to the cricket club.

References

{{Reflist Defunct football clubs in England Defunct football clubs in Buckinghamshire Association football clubs established in 1871 Association football clubs disestablished in 1892 High Wycombe