Tarff Rovers Football Club are a defunct

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club from

Kirkcowan Kirkcowan is an area about 15 miles in length, and from nearly two to nearly seven miles in breadth, comprising 30,580 acres, of which 7000 are arable, 300 woodland and plantations, and the remainder meadow, pasture in Machars, in the historical ...

Wigtownshire Wigtownshire or the County of Wigtown (, ) is one of the Counties of Scotland, historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Wigtownshire was an counties of Scotland, administrative county used for ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. One of Scotland's oldest clubs, they were formed in 1874 and were full members of both the

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (; also known as the Scottish FA and the SFA) is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA incl ...

and the Southern Counties Football Association. Having full SFA status entitled Rovers to compete in the Scottish Qualifying Cup South competition and, on occasion, play in the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Alloa Athletic Alloa Athletic Football Club is a Scottish association football semi-professional club based in the town of Alloa, Clackmannanshire. They compete in as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League. According to the official club hist ...

in the Scottish Cup. This home tie saw Tarff triumph by one goal to nil. Despite belonging to a remote and sparsely populated part of Scotland – indeed Kirkcowan's current population is less than 400 – Tarff enjoyed certain periods of success. During their final few years of the club's existence, a local businessman's financial assistance led to several titles, cup wins, and big name signings, including

Chic Charnley James Callaghan "Chic" Charnley (born 11 June 1963) is a Scottish former football player and coach. Charnley's playing career lasted nearly 20 years, with spells at Hamilton Academical, St Mirren, Hibernian and Dundee, however he is perhaps b ...

and Rowan Alexander. The club folded in 2003 when local interest quickly dwindled to the point where a committee could not be formed. The club's home ground of Balgreen Park still exists, and is currently used by local Sunday league side Kirkcowan Wanderers.

References

Defunct football clubs in Scotland Association football clubs established in 1874 Association football clubs disestablished in 2003 1874 establishments in Scotland 2003 disestablishments in Scotland South of Scotland Football League teams Football clubs in Dumfries and Galloway {{Scotland-footyclub-stub