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Ayr Rovers F.C.

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Ayr Rovers
Full nameAyr Rovers Football Club
Nickname(s)the Rovers
Founded1885
Dissolved1887
GroundSpringvale Park
SecretaryF. G. M'Gregor

Ayr Rovers Football Club was an association football club from Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland.

History

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The club was founded in 1885, originally with 30 members,[1] but within a year had grown to 70, which made it nearly as big as Ayr F.C. The club was not related to an earlier Ayr Rovers which played at Robbsland Park[2] and which disbanded in 1881.[3]

Soon after the club's foundation, it joined the Scottish Football Association,[4] and entered the 1885–86 Scottish Cup. Indeed the club's first recorded match was its first round tie with Dalry, which the club scheduled to take place after the Ayr v Maybole tie on the same day had finished, hoping to attract spectators; however the weather militated against people wanting to watch two matches, and Dalry dismantled Rovers to the tune of 8 goals to 0.[5] A mix-up with the wires had the score originally reported as a Rovers win.[6]

The Rovers recovered enough to beat the Stevenson Dynamite in its first Ayrshire Cup tie, albeit in a second replay at Monnkcastle, by 1–0, plus having two goals disallowed.[7] In the second round, the Rovers hosted Ayr, whose players were distracted by a Scottish Cup tie with 3rd Lanarkshire R.V. the following week, and who put in a "wretched" performance, but nevertheless were still good enough to beat the Rovers 2-0.[8]

The club was given a boost at the start of 1886, when it received an invitation to enter the Ayr Charity Cup, after Kilmarnock and Lugar Boswell turned down theirs.[9] The club successfully protested its first round defeat by Annbank on the basis that Barbour had not been registered as an Annbank player for the required 6 weeks.[10] The protest availed the Rovers little as Annbank won the replay at Springvale 5–0.[11]

The club's performances gradually improved in 1886–87; it lost in the Scottish Cup once more to Dalry, although this time only by 5–2, in a tie which aroused next to no media interest.[12] The club's performances in the county cup were more creditable, a walkover and a win over Kilmarnock Athletic[13] putting the club into the quarter-finals, where it faced Hurlford. Hurlford had beaten Kilmarnock in an earlier round, and Kilmarnock had put 7[14] and 12[15] past the Rovers in two friendlies that season. Rovers arranged the tie for New Year's Day 1887, which meant Hurlford refused to play as having already arranged a fixture, and Rovers claimed the tie.[16] The Ayrshire FA ordered the tie to be played by the end of January, and the Rovers gained a surprising draw.[17] Hurlford set matters right in the replay, scoring inside 3 minutes, turning around at half-time 5–0 up, and winning 7–0;[18] the man of the match was Rovers' goalkeeper Dunbar, hailed as an "Ayrshire Macaulay".[19]

Nevertheless, the Rovers were on an upward trajectory, winning 5–1 at Monkcastle in the Charity Cup,[20] and beat Clyde in a friendly, shortly after the latter had beaten Ayrshire Cup holders Kilmarnock.[21] The club's final match in the season was a defeat at Kilbirnie in the Charity Cup semi-final,[22] and players competed in athletic sports over the summer.[23]

However the increasing success appears to have proved fatal for the club. By the start of the 1887–88 season, "the majority of the team ha[d] gone over to Ayr", with others to the new Ayr Thistle club,[24] and the club did not renew its membership of the Scottish FA.[25] The club had already entered the Ayrshire Cup[26] and a side was got up to play a tie at Irvine, which ended 6–1 to the home side.[27] The club was definitively defunct by the start of the 1888–89 season, with goalkeeper Dunbar and back Simpson joining up with some former team-mates at the new Ayr Athletic.[28]

Colours

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The club wore black and white vertical stripes with white knickers.[29]

Ground

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The club's ground was Springvale Park in Midton Road.[30]

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References

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  1. ^ McDowall, John (1885). Scottish Association Annual 1885–86. Glasgow: H. Nisbet. p. 60.
  2. ^ "Coylton Coyla v Ayr Rovers". Irvine Herald: 3. 1 January 1881.
  3. ^ "report". Irvine Herald: 3. 9 April 1881.
  4. ^ Scottish FA Minutes 1884–87. Glasgow: Scottish Football Association. 25 August 1885. p. 109.
  5. ^ "Ayr Rovers v Dalry". Ayrshire Post: 8. 18 September 1885.
  6. ^ "Scottish Cup - First Round". Athletic News: 2. 15 September 1885.
  7. ^ "Ayr Rovers v Stevenson Dynamite". Irvine Express: 2. 16 October 1885.
  8. ^ "Ayr v Ayr Rovers". Ayr Observer: 8. 10 November 1885.
  9. ^ "Ayr Charity Cup". Ayr Advertiser: 5. 14 January 1886.
  10. ^ "The Ayrshire (?) Cup [sic]". Ayr Observer: 5. 12 March 1886.
  11. ^ "Football". Ayr Advertiser: 4. 8 April 1886.
  12. ^ "Football". Ayr Observer: 2. 14 September 1886.
  13. ^ Not the former Scottish Cup semi-finalists, or the side originally known as Rosebank, but a short-lived side previously known as Kilmarnock Britannia.
  14. ^ "Football". Dundee Courier: 4. 6 September 1886.
  15. ^ "Football". Ayrshire Weekly News: 3. 19 November 1886.
  16. ^ "Football". Irvine Herald: 6. 8 January 1887.
  17. ^ "Athletics". Ayrshire Weekly News: 5. 4 February 1887.
  18. ^ "Ayrshire Cup". Irvine Herald: 2. 19 February 1887.
  19. ^ "Athletic Notes". Ayr Observer: 5. 25 February 1887.
  20. ^ "Ayr Charity Cup (First Round)". Ayrshire Weekly News: 7. 4 March 1887.
  21. ^ "Ayr Rovers v Clyde". Irvine Herald: 2. 14 May 1887.
  22. ^ "Ayr Charity Cup". Glasgow Evening Post: 3. 4 June 1887.
  23. ^ "Athletic notes". Ayr Observer: 3. 19 August 1887.
  24. ^ Albeit the Ayr-bound players mostly played for Ayr's reserve side Ayr Strollers: "Athletics". Ayrshire Weekly News: 7. 2 September 1887.
  25. ^ Scottish FA Minutes 1884–87. Glasgow: Scottish Football Association. 23 August 1887.
  26. ^ "Jottings by the way". Ayr Observer: 3. 2 September 1887.
  27. ^ "Athletic jottings". Ayrshire Post: 2. 4 November 1887.
  28. ^ "Athletic notes". Ayr Observer: 2. 2 October 1888.
  29. ^ McDowall, John (1886). Scottish FA Annual 1886–87. Hay Nisbet. p. 49.
  30. ^ McDowall, John (1886). Scottish FA Annual 1886–87. Hay Nisbet. p. 49.
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