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The English Colony of Barcelona Football Team was a football scratch team that mainly consisted of players from the British colony of Barcelona, hence its name, but sometimes also with players hailing from all across Catalonia. The team was formed and reformed numerous times in its 8-year-history between 1892 and 1900, and mergers have happened with neighboring clubs who also struggled to keep the club alive, such as FC Barcelona in 1899 and Escocès FC in 1900. Its first version was simply known as the British Club de Barcelona (1892–94), which developed into the Sociedad de Foot-Ball de Barcelona (1894–96), giving the presidency to the British consul William Wyndham, and after football in the city crossed its first crisis which lasted three years, this entity returned in 1899 being known in the press as Team Anglès or English Colony Team (1899–1900).[1] Some historians ascribe this entity as "a group of thirty friends, English workers, who played alternately and without a regular squad".

English Colony of Barcelona Football Team

Nickname(s)	Team Anglès English Colony Team
Founded	December 1892; 129 years ago, as the British Club de Barcelona
Dissolved	Mid-1900
Ground	Hippodrome of Can Tunis Velódromo de la Bonanova
Home colours

This entity is best remembered for its pioneering role in the amateur beginnings of football in Catalonia, organizing the first known football match in Barcelona in 1892 and being the catalyst for many other historic landmarks such as the oldest photograph of a football team in Spain and the first proper chronicle of a football match in Spain, both regarding a game between the club's members held on 12 March 1893.[2] Moreover, they were part of the first rivalry in Spanish football, when they faced the Scottish colony of Sant Martí a few times during the winter of 1893–94. Their game against a team from Torelló in 1895 marked the first time that teams from two different cities played against each other in Catalonia.

They also played a massive role in FC Barcelona's beginnings, since Team Anglès merged with them on 13 December 1899, just two weeks after Barça was founded, and some of its players were prominent figures in Barça's early success.[3] Furthermore, the British brought their more advanced knowledge of football to the region, a sport still relatively unknown in Barcelona at the time. Despite its very short life, the football teams of the English Colony of Barcelona left a big mark in the history of Catalan football.

History

British Club de Barcelona (1892–94)

At the end of the 19th century, Catalonia enjoyed the most developed industry in Spain, especially thanks to its cotton industry, and for this reason, Barcelona became the home to a British colony.[2] Football first entered Catalonia thanks to the British colony that worked and lived there (and later through the Catalans returning from studying abroad), among whom a certain James Reeves stood out. He arrived in Barcelona at some point in 1892, a time when football was a sport practically unknown in the city. The Barcelona Cricket Club of Ronda de Sant Pere, founded by Britons a year earlier (debuted on 28 August 1891), was the only sign of football in Catalonia, as they played cricket in the summer and then football in the winter (which was common at the time).[2] However, they were a strictly British club, so instead of joining this team, Reeves, an enthusiastic and passionate lover of the game, decided to create a football club himself that would include British and Catalans alike.[4]

James Reeves spent months until managing to gather enough people to assemble two teams, convincing 22 individuals to play football. In the end, this group consisted of some British cricket players of the Barcelona Cricket Club, such as Wood, Dumsday, Richardson, the Morris brothers, Beaty Pownall and MacAndrews; [lower-alpha 1], some Catalan and French members of the Club Regatas de Barcelona (a club of rowing and sailing), such as Daunt, Dagniere, Barrié, Chofre, Figueras, Tuñi and Serra.[4] Together they formed a Society called British Club de Barcelona, located on La Rambla, and finally, on 25 December 1892, they were able to play the first known football match in the city (actually in the neighboring municipality of Sants), which was held at the Hippodrome of Can Tunis. Very little is known about that Christmas Day in 1892, only that it was hosted by Can Tunis, and played by British men and Catalan people who were members of Barça's English colony and Club Regatas.[5]

On the grounds near the Hippodrome of Can Tunis, James Morris Campbell, an English entrepreneur and engineer who moved to Barcelona to run the Barcelona Tramways Company Limited, taught his three sons Samuel, Enrique (Henry) and Miguel (Júnior) the practice of football, a sport which was then practically unknown in the city. In the early 1890s, the three Morris's brothers took part in the first football matches organized in Barcelona, and together with Reeves, they were crucial in its success.[6] Another pioneering pair of brothers were the Parsons, John and William, although they only joined the English colony team in 1895.

Reeves kept organizing football games among members of the British Club de Barcelona, including the historic match of 12 March 1893 between a blue team captained by George Cochran and a red one led by Reeves. This game was the subject of the first proper chronicle of the dispute of a football match, which appeared in La Dinastía on 16 March 1893, written by Enrique Font Valencia, who detailed the aspects of the game, including lineups, the color of the clothes, the name of the referee, the result and the goalscorers.[2] According to the chronicle, the match took place at four in the afternoon, in a field near the Hippodrome of Can Tunis, and it concludes by assuring that they will start a football team in the next year.[2] The blue team "was captained by Mr. Cochran, Lockie, as guard; Wood and Chofre, as rear guard; Barrié, Park and Higgins forming the avant-garde half; and P. Noble, Bell, H. Morris, and Figueras the vanguard. Among the incarnations (reds), which was captained by Mr. Reeves, S. Morris, was the guard; the rear guard was made up of MacAndrews and Tuñi; the middle vanguard by Dumsday, Brown and Richardson, and the vanguard by Beaty Pownall, Serra, Daunt and Dagniere. Mr. Collett acted as field judge". The blue team won 2–1 with goals from Mr. Figueras and Barrié, while the red's one was netted by Mr. Reeves himself.[2]

Years later, specifically on 6 January 1906, Joaquim Escardó of Los Deportes published a picture of the 22 footballers that played that match, plus the referee and a young boy who watched from the stands, Miguel Morris, the younger brother of Samuel (standing, second from the left) and Enrique (wearing a beret).[6] This is widely regarded as the oldest photo of a Spanish football team dating back to 12 March 1893 and has been suggested to be the team of a Methodist church in Barcelona, which is not true, since most of them are Catholic.[6] The 1906 article also states: "The individual from the English colony Reewes was the soul of that Club and managed to impress some of his countrymen with his entrepreneurial spirit so that in a short time he achieved a respectable number of members".[2]

After the summer of 1893, football returned to the Catalan capital for the winter, and in fact, between December 1893 and April 1894, the news in the Barcelona press of those months related several matches between the English Colony from Barcelona and the Scottish colony from Sant Martí, with the press reporting at least three matches between them, played on 8 December 1893, 11 March, and 15 April 1894.[2] Local historians claim that this was the first ever 'unofficial' rivalry in Spanish football. The Scottish colony's history began in 1893, when John Shields and Edward B. Steegmann rented the central warehouses of a factory in Sant Martí, to create a branch of Johnston, Shields & Co in Catalonia, which become known as La Escocesa. These Scottish workers would later create Escocès FC, and likewise, the English Colony went on to create Team Anglès, two teams who were pivotal in the history of Catalan football.[7]

Sociedad de Foot-Ball de Barcelona (1894–96)

Despite some encouraging first steps, the British Club de Barcelona, which was never officially established, seems to disappear in the summer of 1894 or changed its name, becoming known as Sociedad de Foot-Ball de Barcelona in late 1894, and Reeves is again the team's captain.[4] Together with the change of names, came also the change of fields, as the club left the Hippodrome of Can Tunis, where they had been playing football, and moved to the Velódromo de la Bonanova, as they were looking for a place of easier access to the city center. The first football match played in Bonanova took place on 27 January 1895 and was played by 16 players from the Barcelona Football Society divided into two teams: one dressed in blue and the other one in red.[8]

From then on, Sunday football games became a regular event at Bonanova, although its vast majority were training matches (Blues vs Reds), such as the one held on 2 February 1895, in which the Blues, captained by Reeves, played with ten men against the eleven of the Reds, captained by Beaty Pownall, and it was the extra man who made the difference as the Reds won 4–1 in a game that saw both captains score once, while John Parsons (2) and Phillips netted the other three.[9] This match featured the likes of Reeves, Serra, the Parsons brothers, and the Morris brothers. Also in early February of 1895, this group of football pioneers offered the honorary presidency of their society to the British consul William Wyndham, which he accepted; surely a detail that highlights that this entity was, at least, a serious and very well organized group, but despite that, there is no evidence of ever being legally established.[3][6]

Apart from the training matches, the Barcelona society only played two matches in the 1894–95 season, both against a team from Torelló (Torelló Foot-ball Association or Torelló AFC), with Reeves being the captain in both games.[4] The first match took place on 24 March 1895 and ended in an 8–3 local victory, and the result was attributed to the fact that Torelló played against the sun and against the wind and that their five forwards (or runners as the local press of the time called them) had trouble getting through Barcelona's strong and robust defenders.[10] Barcelona's goals were netted by Reeves, John and William Parsons, Enrique Morris, Barrié, Fallon and Beaty Pownall, with John Parsons being the only one who did it twice.[11] The second match took place on 14 April, after the Torelló Football Association, fulfilling a duty of courtesy, accepted the invitation of the Barcelona Football Society to play another match, this one at Torelló's field.[3] According to the chronicles of the time, they disputed said "challenge" as an act of revenge, and this time victory smiled at those from Torelló with a 5–3 win. Barcelona played with the same team except for three changes, having substituted Fallon, Barrié and Wilson with Richardson, Heater and Quiney; on the other hand, Torelló played with only one change.[12] With a capacity of 3,000, Bonanova was seen completely full on both occasions as the public wanted to witness the very first football games between teams from two different cities (in Catalonia), being interested in the affair as if it was well known to most of them, and after the games were over, the attendees left the venue enthusiastic and satisfied, and with some of the young spectators dedicating themselves to rehearsing some passes and hits with the ball, thus demonstrating the pleasure with which they had witnessed it.[10]

Coinciding with the closure of the Barcelona Waterworks Company Ltd, James Reeves returned to the United Kingdom in the autumn of 1895, leaving the club orphaned in its management.[4] Following his departure, it was the Catalans who took the reins of the team, but without him, the entity soon declined and around 1896 this society, which was never officially established, seems to disappear as news about the Barcelona Football Society become non-existent.[6] However, it is known that many of the players of the Barcelona society continued to practice football through other societies such as the Barcelona Velocipedistas Society, which used to organize football games and other typically English Sports, but such arrangements also seem to be gone by the end of 1896.[13][3] For this reason, no Briton played football in Catalonia (that we know of) in 1897 and 1898. They only began to play again in 1899, with the emergence of Team Anglès.[6]

Team Anglès (1899–1900)

Team Anglès was formed in 1899 by members of the British colony living in Barcelona that had been playing, and they never formed as a society. The football context of Barcelona at the turn of the century was remarkably prolific at club level, with FC Barcelona and Català FC being founded in November and December of 1899. The very first match played by Barça was against Team Anglès on 8 December, and ended in a 1–0 win in favor of the Britons, courtesy of a goal from Arthur Witty.[14] Five days later, on 13 December, the Blaugrana team merged with Team Anglès, which meant a big leap in quality for the club, and as a result, Barcelona become one of the strongest teams in Catalonia at the turn of the century. Some of the British players that joined Barça were prominent figures in Barça's early success, such as the Wittys, the Parsons and the Morris brothers, and Stanley Harris, who went on to be the first Barça player to get a red card. This merge also lead to the expansion of Barça's board of directors with John Parsons becoming the vice-president of the club while his brother William was appointed as the new vice-captain of the team behind Joan Gamper, and when William left he was replaced by Ernest Witty.[1]

On 26 December, Team Anglès faced a combination of FC Barcelona and Català FC, losing 2–1, courtesy of a brace from Gamper. Two weeks later, on 6 January 1900, the same scenario was held again, and Team Anglès achieved the revenge they were looking for with a comfortable 3–0 win. In this game, they used two players from Escocès FC, John Hamilton and Jim Dykes, to cover losses.[7] On 9 March 1900, six players from Team Anglès reinforced Escocès FC, a team made up of Scottish workers from a factory in Sant Martí, in a match against HMS Calliope, which ended in a 2–3 loss, and naturally, the Scots blamed their misfortunes on their neighbors.[7]

This entity, which like its predecessors was also never officially established, seems to disappear around 1900, and never to be reformed again.

Notable players

• James Reeves: Founder and Captain. The undisputed leader and main driving force behind the foundations of British Club de Barcelona and Sociedad de Foot-Ball de Barcelona.[4]
• Samuel Morris: Originally from the Barcelona Cricket Club, he played several friendly matches with them at the Hippodrome of Can Tunis and a few others at the Velódromo de la Bonanova between 1892 and 1896, where he stood out as a great scorer, but he later moved on to play as a goalkeeper.[6]
• Enrique Morris: Originally from the Barcelona Cricket Club, he was part of this entity from 1892 to 1896 as a forward. He was later a winner of the 1900–01 Copa Macaya with Hispania AC, the first-ever official title in Spanish football.[6]
• Miguel Morris: The youngest of the Morris brothers, he is the boy who appears in the 1893 photograph of the two sides of the British Club de Barcelona.[6]
• John and William Parsons: Originally from the Barcelona Cricket Club, but they only joined in 1895. John scored twice for the Reds in a match in 1895 and twice again in an 8–3 victory over Torelló, with William also scoring on the latter. They went on to be co-founders of FC Barcelona.
• Alberto Serra: Originally from Club Regatas, he was part of this entity from 1892 to 1896 as a forward. He later became the first to write a chronicle of a FC Barcelona match.
• Mr. Figueras: Originally from Club Regatas, he was part of this entity from 1892 to 1896 as a forward, netting the winner for the Blue team in the infamous match of 12 March 1893.[2]
• Barrié: Originally from Club Regatas, he was part of this entity from 1892 to 1896 as a forward, netting a goal for the Blue team in the infamous match of 12 March 1893, and another on Barça's 8–3 victory over Torelló.[2]
• Beaty Pownall: Originally from the Barcelona Cricket Club, he was part of this entity from 1892 to 1896 as a forward. He captained the Red team in 1895 and netted three goals against Torelló in 1895, including a brace in a 3–5 loss.[12]
• Mr. Cochran: He was part of this entity from 1893 to 1896 as a forward, captaining the Blue team in the infamous match of 12 March 1893, and later leading Torelló in both games of 1895, netting a hat-trick on the latter.[12]

Results

British Club de Barcelona

Sociedad de Foot-Ball de Barcelona

Team Anglès

Notes

References

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