Reading Amateur F.C. was an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club from

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, England, and the county town of Berkshire. It is the United Kingdom's largest town, with a combined population of 355,596. Most of Reading built-up area, its built-up area lies within the Borough ...

, active before the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

History

The club was founded on 13 June 1895 at the Queen's Hotel as a reaction to

Reading F.C. Reading Football Club ( ) is a professional football club based in Reading, Berkshire, England. They compete in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. They play their home matches at the Select Car Leasing Sta ...

deciding to turn professional; the newly-professional side was rumoured to be objecting to

Football Association A football association, also known as a football federation, soccer federation, or soccer association, is a governing body for association football. Many of them are members of the sport's regional bodies such as UEFA and CONMEBOL and the world gov ...

membership for the amateur club on the basis of a similarity of names. The initial meeting included a number of personnel associated with Reading Minster F.C. and the new side effectively took over the role of the Minsters. The club's official name was Reading Amateur (i.e. singular, referring to the club), but the media often referred to the club as Reading Amateurs. The club entered the

FA Amateur Cup The FA Amateur Cup was an English football competition for amateur clubs. It commenced in 1893 and ended in 1974 when the Football Association abolished official amateur status. History Following the legalisation of professionalism within footb ...

from 1895–96 to 1910–11, its best runs being to the first round proper (last 64) in 1907–08 and 1908–09 - its best achievement being to hold

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 188 ...

to a draw on the former occasion, going down 5–3 in a replay. It also tried its luck in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

qualifying rounds from 1903–04 until 1908–09, but only ever won one match, 4–2 at

Slough Slough () is a town in Berkshire, England, in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways. It is part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. In 2021, the ...

in 1904–05. The club's greatest honours came in the

Berks & Bucks Senior Cup The Berks & Bucks FA County Senior Cup is the Senior County Cup competition of the Berks & Bucks FA. History The competition first took place in 1878–79 – a time when the FA Cup had only been going for seven years, there was no Football Lea ...

, the leading local competition at the time. It reached the final for three years in a row (from 1903–04 to 1905–06), losing to Chesham Town in a replay in its first final, but winning the other two. In 1904–05, it beat

Chesham Generals Chesham United Football Club is a semi-professional football club in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England. Nicknamed "the Generals", they are currently members of the and play at the Meadow. They are sponsored by the Channel 4 programme '' Taskma ...

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, two goals in the first ten minutes setting the club on to a 3–2 win; and in 1905–06 the Amateurs beat Maidenhead Norfolkians 4–0, aided by a Norfolkian player being ordered off for striking a spectator. The club joined the

Amateur Football Association The Amateur FA (Football Alliance) is a county football association in England. It is unusual among county FAs in not serving a particular geographical area. It was founded in 1906 as the Amateur Football Defence Council, was briefly known as t ...

in September 1909, which caused it to scratch to

Yiewsley Yiewsley ( ) is a large suburban village in the London Borough of Hillingdon, England, 2 miles (3 km) south of Uxbridge, the borough's commercial and administrative centre. Yiewsley was a chapelry in the ancient parish of Hillingdon, Middl ...

in the FA Cup. It went into abeyance in 1914 as so many of its players were on active service, and it did not re-emerge after the war. Before the 1921–22 season, Reading United was given permission to change its name to Reading Amateurs, and it won two ties in the 1921–22 FA Cup qualifying rounds, but amidst confusion as to whether the Amateurs club was a replacement rather than a re-naming, the renewed push for amateurism in Reading did not last more than two seasons; the last recorded match taking place in 1923.

Colours

The club's colours on formation were claret and gold. The club changed to black shirts with a shield in 1899, originally with white shorts, and in 1908 it changed the shorts to navy or black. It retained black until at least 1912. The club's devotees, in a nod to the town's industry, sometimes wore biscuits in their hatbands.

Ground

The club played at the Reading Sports Ground.

References

{{reflist Football clubs in Reading Defunct football clubs in England Defunct football clubs in Berkshire Association football clubs established in 1895 Association football clubs disestablished in 1914