Partick Thistle - The Early Years
Over at the Scottish Sport History website Andy Mitchell has researched the birth of Partick Football Club (rivals of Partick Thistle) who played at Inchview and went defunct in 1885.
… pinpointing the precise date of formation of Partick Cricket and Football Club. The issue of 27 March 1875 reported: ‘On Tuesday evening [ie 23 March] a meeting was held in the Lesser Burgh Hall to take into consideration the advisability of forming a club for the practice of cricket and football’. A committee was appointed to find a suitable ground, and among them are several names who would feature regularly in reports over the coming years: William Swan (convenor and interim secretary), Alex Anderson, William T Campbell, John Paton, John Riddoch, James S Campbell, T Kirkwood, David Muirhead and T Marr.
Of particular interest to Thistle fans is the mention of Partick Thistle Cricket Club who were playing matches in 1875 along with several other clubs in the burgh. The existence of a Partick Thistle cricket team was previously unknown and the newspapers of the time give no information other than the occasional fixture announcement.
Of course the exact founding date of the football club is unknown, but publications in the 1870s state the club started in 1875. Its interesting to speculate whether the cricket and football clubs were founded at the same time, whether the cricketers decided to start their own football team to occupy the cricketless winters, or if the cricket club began to give local footballers something to do in the summer.
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