Rising Thistle Football Club was a 19th-century

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

Lochmaben Lochmaben ( Gaelic: ''Loch Mhabain'') is a small town and civil parish in Scotland, and site of a castle. It lies west of Lockerbie, in Dumfries and Galloway. By the 12th century the Bruce family had become the local landowners and, in the 14th ...

Dumfriesshire Dumfriesshire or the County of Dumfries or Shire of Dumfries (''Siorrachd Dhùn Phris'' in Gaelic) is a historic county and registration county in southern Scotland. The Dumfries lieutenancy area covers a similar area to the historic county. ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

History

The club was founded as Rising Thistle; from 1891, the club registered its name as Thistle (Lochmaben). The media often continued to refer to the club as Rising Thistle. 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 ...

in 1890, despite having no record of which to speak before doing so. It was, statistically, one of the least successful in Scottish senior football, mirroring the few results of the previous senior club in the village

. Its results in competitive ties were: *

1890–91 Scottish Cup The 1890–91 Scottish Cup was the 18th season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. Heart of Midlothian defeated Dumbarton 1–0 to win the trophy. First round * * Match Declared Void *** St Johnstone Declared ...

first round: lost 16–1 to Mid-Annandale * 1890–91

Churchill Cup The Churchill Cup was an annual rugby union tournament, held in June, contested by representative men's (and formerly women's) teams from Canada, England, the United States, and other invited teams (originally one and later three) from a wide arr ...

first round: lost 17–0 to Dumfries * 1891–92 Churchill Cup first round: lost 13–0 at home to the 5th K.R.V. * 1891–92

Southern Counties Cup The Southern Counties Cup is an association football cup competition for clubs in the historic counties of Dumfriesshire, Wigtownshire, and Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. The competition was founded in 1891. Format The competition was a knock-out ...

first round: lost 7–2 at home to Annan * 1892–93 Scottish Cup first qualifying round: lost 6–2 at home to Douglas Rovers * 1892–93 Churchill Cup first round: lost 14–0 at home to Mid-Annandale * 1892–93 Southern Counties Cup first round: lost 8–0 at home to Gladstonians * 1893–94 Scottish Cup first qualifying round: lost 9–0 at home to the 5th K.R.V. Thistle protested its 1892 defeat to Douglas Rovers, on the basis that the Rovers did not turn up on time for the tie; however, as this was down to a delay on the trains, the protest was not entertained. It also protested its defeat to Mid-Annandale later that year on the basis that the Steel brothers had played for

Moffat Moffat ( gd, Mofad) is a burgh and parish in Dumfriesshire, now part of the Dumfries and Galloway local authority area in Scotland. It lies on the River Annan, with a population of around 2,500. It was a centre of the wool trade and a spa town ...

in the Churchill Cup, so were therefore Cup-tied - the club presented the protest to the referee at half-time, when the score was a mere 5, the Mids thereafter showing no mercy. The club scratched from the 1891–92 Scottish Cup when drawn to visit

Newton Stewart Newton Stewart ( Gd: ''Baile Ùr nan Stiùbhartach'') is a former burgh town in the historical county of Wigtownshire in Dumfries and Galloway, southwest Scotland. The town is on the River Cree with most of the town to the west of the river, and ...

, putting it down to "the distance to be travelled and the unsuitable tram arrangements", and also from its last entry in competitive football, in the 1893–94 Southern Counties Cup against Annan; indeed the Annan reserve XI was strong enough to beat Thistle 3–0 in October 1893. The club did at least win in its final season, 3–1 against Dumfries Thistle in September 1893. However a new Lochmaben club had started up, and, with several players (Robert M'Vittie, William Moffat, Brown, and Scott) having switched allegiances, the new club was already capable of holding the older one to a draw. The return at Innerfield in October 1893 ended in a way that summed up the club's tragicomic existence; with the game goalless, the ball burst, and Thistle did not have a replacement. Thistle was struck from the Scottish FA register in August 1894, and the Thistle players re-joined with their former team-mates at Lochmaben, to play as Lochmaben Thistle, albeit not as a senior club.

Colours

The club's original colours were black and yellow. In 1891 it changed to 1" dark blue and white "parallel" (i.e. vertical) striped shirts.

Ground

The club originally played at West Croft. In 1892 it moved to Innerfield Park, which was provided free by a Mr Gass, who owned Innerfield Farm; the club presented him with a handsome timepiece in gratitude.

References

{{reflist Defunct football clubs in Scotland Association football clubs established in 1890 Association football clubs disestablished in 1894 Football clubs in Dumfries and Galloway 1890 establishments in Scotland 1894 disestablishments in Scotland