Queen of the South Wanderers
Full nameQueen of the South Wanderers Football Club
Nickname(s)Wanderers[1]
Founded1876
Dissolved1889
GroundNunholm
Change colours

Queen of the South Wanderers F.C. was an association football club from Dumfries, Dumfriesshire, Scotland.

History

The club was founded in 1876[2][3] and named after a description of the town of Dumfries by the poet David Dunbar. It was the second club founded in the town, after the original Dumfries club in 1869. The media occasionally referred to the club under the name of Dumfries Wanderers.[4]

The club first entered the Scottish Cup in 1876–77, losing to Girvan in the second round after a bye in the first. The club's first round match with the 5th KRV in 1883–84 made history by being the highest recorded scoring draw in British first-class history, finishing 7–7.[5]

The club had a substantial Cup run in 1886–87, reaching the fifth round, but it came at a cost; the Scottish Football Association investigated the club for professionalism, and suspended the club for 2 months.[6][7] The investigation had repercussions which ultimately killed the club off. For the start of the next season, the club moved to a new ground, Cresswell Park, with the first visitors being the Scottish Cup holders Hibernian; remarkably, the Wanderers won 8–2.[8]

The club's high point was in the 1888–89 season. The club gained friendly victories against Rangers (6–2) and Bolton Wanderers (5–3).[9][10] It also went on its joint-best Scottish Cup run, with some eye-opening scores; 9–4 against the 5th KRV, 14–2 against Newton Stewart Athletic, 11–1 against Vale o' Nith, and 10–2 against Falkirk, which remains the Bairns' joint record Cup defeat. The run came to an end with a 3–1 defeat at St Mirren.[11]

Professionalism scandal

In July 1889, the club president, George Henry Cole, brought an action against Alexander Haining, the club's former treasurer, in the Dumfries Sheriff Court, asking for a full set of accounts or £50 compensation for money that seemed to be missing. Haining defended the action by stating that there was no such loss; after the SFA investigated in 1887, at the club committee's suggestion, he burned the account books which recorded payments to players, and presented clean cashbooks to the auditors.[12] To ensure players were paid and the books were acceptable to the SFA, Haining kept some club subscriptions off the accounts, and used that money to pay the players, rather than using the accounts for audit.[13] The secret payments made included paying two players (Calderhead and Provand) £1 per month as wages, plus their travel expenses, Provand's expenses in moving from Glasgow, and £10 to Calderhead set up as a coal agent; two unemployed players (Halliday and Barbour) were given free food; another (Bob Brand) a free suit of clothes.[14] Another player (Barbour) was offered money to stay with the club, but he moved to Accrington F.C., as professionalism was legal in England and he could earn more there.[15]

Cole denied knowing anything about the payments, as he thought the club was amateur, and the evidence suggested that news of the payments had been deliberately kept from him.[16] Haining claimed many of the 22 members of the committee knew about the payment, and his lawyer submitted that one director, if he genuinely did not know about the payments, was "a more complete example of stupidity and ignorance than they would expect in a man occupying his position"; the club claimed it was only ever meant to be an amateur club and Haining had no authority effectively to turn it into a professional club in secret.[17]

Sheriff Hope found in favour of Haining, stating that the evidence was "very sad as indication of the widespread deficiency in truth and honour among the class to which the football players and their friends in the town belong".[18]

It was a Pyrrhic victory. Haining had to set up a request for money to have his legal expenses paid.[19] From the club's perspective, the case was fatal. After the Wanderers beat Moffat F.C. 3–1 in the first round of the Churchill Cup on 16 November 1889,[20] Moffat raised a protest that the club was employing professionals;[21] after three secret sittings inside a week, the Scottish FA expelled the club for professionalism, along with the entire committee and two players.[22] Many of the club's players left for England, where professionalism was legal.[23]

A new club was promptly set up under the name Leafield Swifts F.C., which, after playing for a season as Dumfries Wanderers, changed its name to Queen of the South Wanderers.

The club has no connection to the modern football team called Queen of the South.[24]

Colours

For most of the club's existence, its colours were 2" blue and white hooped jerseys (described as navy blue in 1878–79[25] and royal blue thereafter[26]) and blue and white stockings with white kmickers.[27] From 1888 the club wore 1" black and white hooped shirts and blue knickers.[28]

For two matches at the end of the 1886–87 season, against Vale o' Nith and Moffat, the club wore white shirts, as a change kit to avoid a clash with the Vale's black and white, and Moffat's navy and white.[29][30]

Ground

The club played at a number of grounds, including:

  • 1879–86: Nunholm[31][32]
  • 1886–87: Caledonian Park[33]
  • 1887–89: Cresswell Park[34]

The club built a pavilion at Cresswell Park, with a partition so that a concert room could be converted into two dressing rooms.[35]

Honours

Churchill Cup[36]

Southern Counties Charity Cup[39]

Notable players

References

  1. ↑ "Football". Dumfries & Galloway Standard: 4. 30 October 1886.
  2. ↑ Dick, William (1878). Scottish Football Annual 1878–79. Cranstonhill: Mackay & Kirkwood. p. 69.
  3. ↑ The club later claimed a foundation date of 1872, but there is no evidence of the club playing football at this time.
  4. ↑ "The Charity Football Cup and the Moffat Club". Dumfries & Galloway Standard: 3. 22 March 1884.
  5. ↑ "The Scottish Cup Miscellaneous Records". Beautiful Dribbling Game. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
  6. ↑ Welsh, Robert (25 February 1888). "Annbank and Stewarton Again". Kilmarnock Standard: 4.
  7. ↑ "The Football Case". Dumfries & Galloway Standard: 10. 11 December 1889.
  8. ↑ "Local intelligence". Dumfries & Galloway Standard: 3. 13 November 1889.
  9. ↑ "FOOTBALL". Irvine Times. 3 May 1889 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  10. ↑ "FOOTBALL". Dundee Courier. 27 May 1889 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  11. ↑ "Notes on football and other sports". Glasgow Herald: 10. 26 November 1888.
  12. ↑ "The Association's Decision". Dumfries & Galloway Standard: 3. 23 November 1889.
  13. ↑ "Charges of professionalism against a Dumfries football club". Lothian Courier: 6. 27 July 1889.
  14. ↑ "The Dumfries Football Scandal". North British Daily Mail: 4. 10 December 1889.
  15. ↑ "The Football Case". Dumfries & Galloway Standard: 10. 11 December 1889.
  16. ↑ "The Dumfries Football Scandal". Kirkcudbrightshire Advertiser: 4. 13 December 1889.
  17. ↑ "Dumfries Football Scandal". Dumfries & Galloway Standard: 4. 5 February 1890.
  18. ↑ "The Dumfries Scandal". Paisley Daily Express: 2. 7 June 1890.
  19. ↑ "Dumfries Football Case". Dumfries & Galloway Standard: 5. 8 October 1890.
  20. ↑ "The Churchill Cup - First Round". Kirkcudbrightshire Advertiser: 5. 22 November 1889.
  21. ↑ Moffat may have had some lingering resentment after losing to the Wanderers in the Charity Cup in 1884, supposedly because the referee was a Wanderers man; Dumfries & Galloway Standard, 5 March 1884, p. 7
  22. ↑ "Decision in the Wanderers' case". Dumfries & Galloway Standard: 4. 20 November 1889.
  23. ↑ "The Old Wanderers". Dumfries & Galloway Standard: 10. 20 January 1940.
  24. ↑ "10 THINGS ABOUT QUEEN OF THE SOUTH". SPFL. 7 January 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
  25. ↑ Dick, William (1878). Scottish Football Annual 1878–79. Cranstonhill: Mackay & Kirkwood. p. 69.
  26. ↑ Dick, William (1879). Scottish Football Annual 1879–80. Glasgow: Dunlop & Foote. p. 83.
  27. ↑ McDowall, John (1886). Scottish FA Annual 1886–87. Hay Nisbet. p. 62.
  28. ↑ M'Dowall, John (1888). Scottish Football Annual 1888–89. Glasgow: Hay Nisbet. p. 81. The 1889 annual suggests 1" blue and white hoops but the colour may be a typographical error.
  29. ↑ "Football". Dumfries & Galloway Standard: 7. 13 April 1887.
  30. ↑ "Football". Dumfries & Galloway Standard: 3. 4 June 1887.
  31. ↑ "Queen of the South Wanderers' Football Club". Dumfries & Galloway Standard: 1. 27 September 1879.
  32. ↑ "Queen of the South Wanderers". Dumfries & Galloway Standard: 4. 3 April 1886.
  33. ↑ "Football". Dumfries & Galloway Standard: 5. 13 October 1886.
  34. ↑ "Football". Dumfries & Galloway Standard: 3. 23 October 1889.
  35. ↑ "Opening of new pavilion". Dumfries & Galloway Standard: 7. 14 September 1887.
  36. ↑ "Churchill Cup". Scottish-Football-Historical-Archive. 12 July 2021. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  37. ↑ "FOOTBALL". Renfrewshire Independent. 21 February 1885. Retrieved 3 October 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  38. ↑ "FOOTBALL". Dundee Courier. 9 March 1886. Retrieved 3 October 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  39. ↑ "Southern Counties Charity Cup". Scottish-Football-Historical-Archive. 19 July 2020. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
    "A POWERFUL VISIT FROM SCOTLAND". PlayupLiverpool.com. 29 September 1892. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  40. ↑ "FOOTBALL CHARITY CUP". Dumfries and Galloway Standard. 22 May 1886 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  41. ↑ "SOUTHERN COUNTIES CHARITY CUP". Evening Post. 21 May 1887 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  42. ↑ "FOOTBALL". Dumfries and Galloway Standard. 8 May 1889. Retrieved 20 September 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  43. ↑ "Football club Queens of the South Wanderers FC, Dumfries". EU Football. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  44. ↑ "A Dumfries player across the border". Dumfries & Galloway Standard: 3. 4 December 1889.
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