Renfrew Ramblers Football Club was a Scottish football team located in the town of
Renfrew
Renfrew (; sco, Renfrew; gd, Rinn Friù) is a town west of Glasgow in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It is the historic county town of Renfrewshire (historic), Renfrewshire. Called the "Cradle of the House of Stewart, Royal Stewarts" ...
.
History
The club was founded in 1875, the same year as
Renfrew F.C.
Renfrew Football Club are a Scottish football (soccer), football club based in the town of Renfrew. Formed on 6 May 1912, they play in the . The ''Frew'' wear a home shirt of blue and white stripes
Current squad
Histo ...
; indeed the first recorded match for the Ramblers was against Renfrew in March 1876. Its first full season was successful, with 12 wins and only 3 defeats in 24 matches.
The club had a disadvantage to the Renfrew club as it did not have its own ground, playing instead at a public park. As a result, 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 ...
rejected the Ramblers' application for membership in 1877 because of its lack of private facilities. The club therefore joined the West of Scotland Football Association, set up with other similarly rejected clubs, and entered the
West of Scotland Cup
The West of Scotland Cup was an association football cup competition for clubs in Scotland which were barred from the Scottish Football Association which was played in 1877–78 and 1878–79.
Format
The competition was a single-elimination tou ...
for 1877–78. However the Ramblers scratched before playing a tie.
The Ramblers finally joined the Scottish FA in 1879, after a season in which it won 10 of its 14 games, as it had obtained use of a private ground. It only enjoyed the 1879–80 season as a senior club, in which its record was, on the face of it, similar to Renfrew's, with 7 wins and 7 defeats in 17 matches. However Renfrew had signed up 65 members, while the Ramblers were behind on 40, and the gap was already too big to make up. The club did not even join the Renfrewshire Association, so could not play in the
Renfrewshire Cup
The Renfrewshire Cup was an annual association football competition between teams in the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The final was generally a Renfrewshire derby contested between the two largest teams ...
.
In its one senior season, the Ramblers played in the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,23rd R.R.V. had disbanded before the tie was played. In the second it lost 2–1 at home to Barrhead Rangers. It also lost in the final of the Yoker Cup, a competition the club had won in 1878–79, 2–0 to
Jordanhill
Jordanhill ( sco, Jordanhull, gd, Cnoc Iòrdain) is an ...
in front of a small but enthusiastic crowd of 500.
The Ramblers entered the Cup in 1880–81, and was drawn at home 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 ...
, but scratched from the tie, and there is no further record of the club; the last regular XI match it is known to have played was a 3–0 win at St Mirren in May 1880. The name was revived in 1886 for a short-lived Junior club.
Colours
The club wore the same dark blue shirts, white knickers, and blue and white hose as did Renfrew F.C.
Ground
The club originally played at a public park in Renfrew before securing its own private ground at Longcroft Park on Inchinnan Road in 1879. The club's first home match on its own private turf was a charity match, to raise funds for the Renfrew unemployed, against the Springfield side from
Partick
Partick ( sco, Pairtick, Scottish Gaelic: ''Partaig'') is an area of Glasgow on the north bank of the River Clyde, just across from Govan. To the west lies Whiteinch, to the east Yorkhill and Kelvingrove Park (across the River Kelvin), and to t ...