Windsor Football Club was an English

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 based in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

. The club was founded in September 1882 as a merger between the

Windsor Home Park The Home Park, previously known as the Little Park (and originally Lydecroft Park), is a 2.65 km2 royal park near Windsor, Berkshire, administered by the Crown Estate of the United Kingdom. It is the private grounds of Windsor Castle. It lies ma ...

and Grosvenor clubs.

History

The club entered 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 ...

three times in the 1880s, its best run coming in its first entry, in 1882–83, reaching the third round. Although the club had been drawn at home to the

Clapham Rovers Clapham Rovers was from its foundation in 1869 a leading English sports organisation in the two dominant codes of football, association football and rugby union. It was a prominent club in the late 19th century but is now defunct. The club play ...

, the tie was played at the St Mark's College ground, probably because Home Park was waterlogged. The club's final entry in 1884–85 ended in withdrawal, after being drawn away at Chatham, although the club was more successful at local level. Windsor won 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 ...

twice; in 1884 beating South Reading 6–2 after an initial drawn match, and beating the same opponents 2–0 in 1887. In 1888

Prince Albert of Schleswig-Holstein Albert, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein (Albert John Charles Frederick Alfred George; 26 February 1869 – 27 April 1931), was a grandson of Queen Victoria. He was the second son of Victoria's daughter Princess Helena of the United Kingdom, Princess H ...

was elected as a club member. However, the club does not seem to have played after the Senior Cup final in 1890, which it lost to Marlow after a "clinker" of a shot from Shaw was fumbled over the line by goalkeeper Husted. The last record of Windsor is its withdrawal in favour of Windsor Phœnix in the 1890–91 competition, and five of the 1890 final line-up were playing for Phœnix in the 1890–91 season. Phœnix would merge into the new Windsor & Eton club.

Colours

The club listed its colours as chocolate and light blue, probably in halves as that was a popular design for the colours.

Ground

The club played at

Honours

FA Cup *Best performance: 1882-83: 3rd Round (last 25) Berks & Bucks Senior Cup *Winners: 1883–84, 1886–87 *Runners-up: 1884–85

References

Association football clubs established in 1882 Defunct football clubs in England Defunct football clubs in Berkshire Association football clubs disestablished in 1890 Windsor, Berkshire 1882 establishments in England 1890 disestablishments in England {{England-footyclub-defunct-stub