Rock Football Club, usually referred to as Dumbarton Rock, was an

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 t ...

club based in the town of

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 19,990. Dumbarton was the ca ...

, in

West Dunbartonshire West Dunbartonshire ( sco, Wast Dunbairtonshire; gd, Siorrachd Dhùn Breatann an Iar, ) is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. The area lies to the west of the City of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgow's commuter to ...

History

The club was formed in 1882, made up of abstemious Clyde shipyard workers of Irish extraction, and, after an 1883–84 season in which it won 12 of 22 matches, it joined the

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility fo ...

. The club may have been influenced by having a match secretary, William Meikle, who had previously held the role at

Pollokshields Athletic Pollokshields Athletic F.C. was a Scottish football team, based in the Pollokshields district of Glasgow (at the time a separate burgh). History The club was founded in 1875, originally as a rugby union club, and was playing association footb ...

. The club therefore entered the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Dumbartonshire Cup The Dumbartonshire Cup was the championship trophy of the Dumbartonshire FA from its inception in 1884 until the organization disbanded in 1938. There was however an 'extra' playing of the competition in 1939, immediately after the outbreak of the ...

for the first time in 1884–85. In the

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

, the club lost 2–0 to

Yoker Yoker ( gd, An Eochair) is an area of Glasgow, Scotland, on the northern bank of the Clyde east of Clydebank, west of the city centre. From the fourteenth century, the Renfrew Ferry has linked Yoker with Renfrew on the south bank. Althou ...

, a protest against Christie of Yoker not being properly registered being dismissed, although Rock did not lose the protest deposit. Rock also lost in the first round of the Dumbartonshire, to Vale of Leven Wanderers. The club's Irish links helped it get an invitation to

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

to play a friendly with

Limavady Limavady (; ) is a market town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, with Binevenagh as a backdrop. Lying east of Derry and southwest of Coleraine, Limavady had a population of 12,032 people at the 2011 Census. In the 40 years between ...

, which Rock won 6–4, and strong enough to draw with a strong

Dundee Our Boys Dundee Our Boys Football Club were a football club from Dundee, Scotland. Founded in 1877, the club merged with Dundee East End in 1893 to form Dundee, with the new side elected to the Scottish Football League. History Our Boys' first app ...

on a trip to Tayside at the end of the season. The club seemed to have finished the season on a high, as its reserve side reached the final of the Dumbartonshire Junior Cup by beating Renton Athletic, but for some reason the Athletic was put into the final, which it duly won. Despite an active season, the club never seems to have played another match. In 1885–86, the club reached the second round of the Scottish Cup, because opponents

Levendale Levendale is a small housing estate in the south-east of Yarm, in North Yorkshire, England, which is bordered by the River Leven. It is also known as Ingleby Grange. The estate is built in former area occupied by Leven Mouth Farm. Levendale h ...

scratched; but Rock in turn scratched to

Albion Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than 'Britain' today. The name for Scot ...

in the second. It seems to have had its talent raided by other local sides - in the 1885–86 season, centre-half Hartley and forward Gourlay were playing for

, itself having lost players to the professional English game, and left-forwards Kerr and Galbraith were at Dumbarton Athletic. The club left the Scottish FA in August 1886, so could not enter the Scottish Cup again, but had a remarkable afterlife, entering the Dumbartonshire Cup every season from 1885–86 to 1890–91 and scratching before the first tie every time.

Colours

The club's colours were blue jerseys, white knickers, and red hose.

Ground

The club played at Netherbog Park on Cemetery Road.

External links

Dumbartonshire Cup scratchings

References

{{Defunct Scottish football clubs, state=collapsed Union (Dumbarton) Association football clubs established in 1882 Association football clubs disestablished in 1890 Football in West Dunbartonshire Dumbarton 1882 establishments in Scotland 1890 disestablishments in Scotland Irish diaspora sports clubs in Scotland