View source for Blackheath F.C.

{{Short description|English rugby union club, based in Eltham, London}}
{{coord|51.458|0.046|display=title}}
{{EngvarB|date=May 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
'''Blackheath Football Club''' is a [[rugby union]] club based in [[Well Hall]], [[Eltham]], in south-east [[London]].
{{Infobox rugby team
  | teamname    = Blackheath 
  | image       = Blackheath rfc logo.png
  | imagesize   = 125px
  | union       = [[Kent Rugby Football Union|Kent RFU]], [[Middlesex Rugby Football Union|Middlesex RFU]]
  | fullname    = Blackheath Football Club
  | nickname    = Club
  | location    = [[Well Hall]], [[Eltham]], [[Royal Borough of Greenwich|Greenwich]], London, England 
  | region      = 
  | founded     = {{Start date and age|1858}}
  | disbanded   = 
  | ground      = Well Hall 
  | capacity    = 1,650 (550 seats)
  | president   = Rory O'Sullivan 
  | captain     = Billy Harding
  | league      = [[National League 1]]
  | season      = [[2024–25 National League 1|2024–25]]
  | position    = 6th
  | url         = http://blackheathrugby.co.uk/
|pattern_la1=_black_hoops
|pattern_b1=_blackhoops
|pattern_ra1=_black_hoops
|pattern_sh1 = 
|pattern_so1=
|leftarm1=ff0000
|body1=ff0000
|rightarm1=ff0000
|shorts1=000000
|socks1=000000
}}

The club was founded in [[Blackheath, London|Blackheath]] in 1858 and is the oldest open rugby club in continuous existence in the world. The Blackheath club also assisted in organising the [[1871 Scotland versus England rugby union match|world's first rugby international]] (between [[England national rugby union team|England]] and [[Scotland national rugby union team|Scotland]] in [[Raeburn Place|Edinburgh]] on 27 March 1871) and hosted the first international between England and Wales ten years later – the players meeting and getting changed at the Princess of Wales public house. Blackheath, along with [[Civil Service F.C.]], is one of the two clubs that can claim to be a founder member of both [[The Football Association]] and the [[Rugby Football Union]].

The club currently plays in [[National League 1]], the third tier of the [[English rugby union system]], with matches played at Well Hall after a move from [[Rectory Field]] in Blackheath at the end of the 2015–16 season.

==History==
===Early history===
The institution was founded as "Blackheath Football Club" in 1858 by old boys of [[Blackheath Proprietary School]] who played a "carrying" game of football made popular by [[Rugby School]]. When the old boys played against the current pupils, supporters would shout for either "Club" or "School" accordingly. This is why, to this day, supporters of BFC shout for "Club", not for "Blackheath". In 1863, the club developed the tactic of passing the ball from player to player as an alternative to the solo break and the "kick and follow-up".

[[File:Blackheath football club team 1862.jpg|thumb|left|Blackheath FC team of 1862]]
Blackheath is the fourth-oldest rugby club in continuous existence in the world, after [[Dublin University Football Club]] (1854), [[Liverpool St Helens F.C.]] (1857) and [[Edinburgh Academical Football Club]] (1857), but asserts it is the "oldest independent Rugby club, meaning that it was not attached to any institution such as a military establishment, hospital, school or college."<ref name="BFChistory">{{cite web |title=Our history |url=https://blackheathrugby.co.uk/our-history/ |website=Blackheath Rugby |access-date=13 July 2022}}</ref>

In 1863 Blackheath was a founder member of [[The Football Association]] which was formed at the [[Freemasons' Tavern]], Great Queen Street, on Lincoln Inn Fields, London 26 October 1863 with the intention to frame a code of laws that would embrace the best and most acceptable points of all the various methods of play under the one heading of "football". [[Francis Maule Campbell]], a member of Blackheath, was elected treasurer. At the fifth meeting Campbell argued that [[hacking (rugby)|hacking]] was an essential element of 'football' and that eliminating hacking would "do away with all the courage and pluck from the game, and I will be bound over to bring over a lot of Frenchmen who would beat you with a week’s practice."<ref>Richard Holt,''Sport and the British: A Modern History'', Oxford University Press, 1990 {{ISBN|0-19-285229-9}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vtChCoG6veMC&pg=PA86 p. 86]</ref> At the sixth meeting on 8 December Campbell withdrew Blackheath, explaining that the rules that the FA intended to adopt would destroy the game and all interest in it. Other rugby clubs followed this lead and did not join the Football Association. In this way the great divide between association football and rugby took place.

In December 1870, Edwin Ash, secretary of [[Richmond F.C.|Richmond Football Club]] published a letter in the papers which said, "Those who play the rugby-type game should meet to form a code of practice as various clubs play to rules which differ from others, which makes the game difficult to play." On 26 January 1871 a meeting attended by representatives from 22 clubs was held in London at the [[Pall Mall Restaurant]]. As a result of this meeting the [[Rugby Football Union]] (RFU) was founded. Three lawyers who had been pupils at Rugby School drew up the first laws of the game which were approved in June 1871. The Club is one of seven of the original twenty-one clubs to have survived to this day.

===Later history===
[[File:Oxford v blackheath rugby.jpg|thumb|170px|Blackheath playing [[Oxford University R.F.C.|Oxford University]] in 1905]]
Blackheath initially played its matches on the Heath (meeting and changing at the Princess of Wales [[public house]]) but occasional interruptions from spectators led the club to move, initially to a private field (Richardson's Field) in Blackheath before moving to the Rectory Field in 1883.

On 27 March 1871, [[England national rugby union team|England]] (captained by Blackheath's captain and with three other Club players in the 20-strong side) played [[Scotland national rugby union team|Scotland]] at [[Raeburn Place]], Edinburgh, losing by one point. This was the first international rugby union game in history. Richardson's Field hosted the first England v. [[Wales national rugby union team|Wales]] fixture on 19 February 1881, which England won, again with four Club players in the side.  In 1982 Blackheath joined the list of winning teams at the [[Glengarth Sevens]] at [[Stockport R.U.F.C]].

Blackheath were one of the opponents for [[The Original All Blacks]] on their 1905–06 northern hemisphere tour, the first-ever New Zealand rugby union tour outside of Australasia. The touring side ran out 32–0 victors. 

After 158 years it was announced that the 2015–16 season would be the last playing at the historic [[Rectory Field]] as the club had made the difficult decision to move to their training ground, [[Well Hall]] in [[Eltham]], for the 2016–17 season to maximise matchday revenue and to continue developing for the future.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blackheathrugby.co.uk/bfc-executive-satement-9-12-15/ |title=BFC Executive Statement 9.12.15 |publisher=Blackheath Rugby |date=9 December 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rolling-maul.com/blackheath-to-leave-the-rectory-field_topic14131_page1.html |title=Blackheath to leave the Rectory Field |publisher=Rolling Maul |date=10 December 2015 }}</ref> Blackheath played their last game at the Rectory Field on 30 April 2016, beating [[Blaydon RFC|Blaydon]] 45–17.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blackheathrugby.co.uk/the-big-match-blackheath-v-blaydon/ |title=The Big Match: Blackheath v Blaydon |publisher=Blackheath Rugby |date=29 April 2016 }}</ref>

==Current standings==
{{#section:2025–26 National League 1|Table}}

==Modern club==
*Blackheath FC's first team currently plays in National Division 1 in England, but the club fields many sides. 
*The mini and junior sections have their own home ground, based at Kidbrooke Road, Well Hall, London, SE9.
*The club also has two women's teams, the first XV winning the Championship South East 2 League back to back in seasons 2015–16 and 2016–17.
*The club provides sections ranging from under-6's right through to under-18's, and has experienced success at all levels. 
*The mini section ran its first Mini Rugby Festival at [[Eltham College]] on 25 November 2007.
*The club also runs a rugby academy, which started in its current format in 2013, for boys who wish to continue their academic studies alongside playing rugby. The academy is also based at Well Hall.

==Notable players==
:''See also [[:Category:Blackheath F.C. players]]''
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
*{{flagicon|ENG}} [[David Allen (rugby union)|David Allen]] – [[Flanker (rugby union)|openside flanker]] who played at Club for 13 seasons between 2004 and 2016, scoring 147 league tries from 274 appearances and becoming the all-time top try scorer in [[National League 1|tier 3]].  Gained 8 caps for the [[England Counties XV]] as well as appearing for the [[Barbarian F.C.|Barbarians]].
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Harold Dingwall Bateson]].
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Thomas Batson]]
* {{Flagicon|Scotland}} [[Norman Bruce]]
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Mike Bulpitt]]
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[George Burton (rugby union)]]
* {{Flagicon|Scotland}} [[Mike Campbell-Lamerton]].
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Charles Arthur Crompton]], played in England's first international
* {{Flagicon|Scotland}} [[Walter Michael Dickson]]
* {{Flagicon|Scotland}} [[John Douglas (rugby union)|John Douglas]]
* {{Flagicon|Scotland}} [[Hector Forsayth]]
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Edward Fraser (rugby union)|Edward Fraser]]
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[C.B. Fry]]
* {{Flagicon|New Zealand}} [[John Gallagher (rugby)|John Gallagher]], All Black and member of the team that won the inaugural [[Rugby World Cup]] in 1987.
* {{Flagicon|Canada}} [[Steve Gray (rugby union)|Stephen Gray]], played for Canada 1987,91,95 World Cups.
* {{flagicon|United Kingdom}} [[Thomas Gubb]]
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Stan Harris]]
* {{flagicon|USA}} [[Dhani Jones]]
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Aadel Kardooni]], England A
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Frank Mitchell (sportsman, born 1872)|Frank Mitchell]].
* {{Flagicon|UK}} [[John Selwyn Moll]]
* {{Flagicon|Germany}} [[Raynor Parkinson]]
* {{Flagicon|South Africa}} [[Joseph Edward Crawshay Partridge|JEC 'Birdie' Partridge]]
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Alexander William Pearson]] (born 1854)
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Charles Pillman]]. Played for England 18 times before WW1.
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Robert Pillman]]. Charles Pillman's younger brother who played for England against France in 1914 and was killed in Belgium in 1916
* {{Flagicon|Scotland}} [[Hamish Scott (rugby union)|Hamish Scott]]
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[E H D Sewell]] sports writer and cricketer
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Charles Sherrard]] (1849–1938), played in England's first international
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Joe Simpson (rugby union, born 1988)|Joe Simpson]].
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Mickey Skinner]] "The Munch".
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Stephen Smith (rugby union, born 1934)|Stephen Smith]]. Five England caps
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Graham Standing]]
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Frederick Stokes (rugby union)|Frederick Stokes]] (1850–1929),<ref name="one">Steve Lewis, ''One Among Equals'', 2008, pp9-10 (Vertical Editions:London)</ref> the first captain of the [[England national rugby union team]].
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Lennard Stokes]] (1856–1933),<ref name="one"/> former captain of the [[England national rugby union team]].
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Henry Taylor (rugby union, born 1858)|Henry Taylor (rugby union)]]
* {{Flagicon|England}} [[Rob Webber]].
{{div col end}}

===Fictional players===
* [[Dr. Watson]], character from the [[Sherlock Holmes]] stories

==Honours==
* '''[[Middlesex Sevens]] (2)''': 1932, 1958
* '''[[Gala Sevens]] (1)''': 1957
* '''[[Kent Cup]] (16)''': 1891, 1972, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1996, 2003, 2009, 2013
* '''[[Glengarth Sevens]] Main Event (1)''': 1982
* '''[[Glengarth Sevens]] Davenport Plate (1)''': 1983
* '''[[National League 2 South|National Division Three South]] (1)''': [[2003–04 National Division Three South|2003–04]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hampshirerugby.co.uk/component/content/414.html?task%3Dview |title=National Division Three South - 2003/2004 |access-date=21 May 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140521220300/http://www.hampshirerugby.co.uk/component/content/414.html?task=view |archive-date=21 May 2014  }}</ref>
* '''[[National League 2 East]] (1)''': [[2022–23 National League 2 East|2022–23]]

==See also==
* [[Rugby union in London]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Wikisource|Rules of Blackheath Football Club (1862)}}
* {{Official website}}

{{National League 1}}
{{National League 2 East}}
{{Rugby Football Union Founding Clubs}}
{{The Football Association}}


[[Category:1858 establishments in England]]
[[Category:Blackheath, London]]
[[Category:Eltham]]
[[Category:Rugby union teams in England]]
[[Category:Rugby clubs established in 1858]]
[[Category:Rugby union teams in London]]
[[Category:Rugby union teams in Kent]]
[[Category:Sport in the Royal Borough of Greenwich]]