Buenos Aires Cricket & Rugby Club

Buenos Aires Cricket & Rugby Club, sometimes known simply as Buenos Aires, is an Argentine sports club based in San Fernando, Buenos Aires. Having set its official date of foundation on December 8, 1864, the club claims to be the oldest club still in existence in Argentina, according to reports of a cricket match played by the club in Recoleta, Buenos Aires, in 1831.[note 1]

Buenos Aires
Full nameBuenos Aires Cricket & Rugby Club
UnionURBA
Nickname(s)Biei
Founded8 December 1864 (1864-12-08) [note 1]
LocationSan Fernando, Argentina
Ground(s)San Fernando [5]
PresidentPablo Traini
Coach(es)Martin Mato
Gonzalo Camacho
League(s)Primera A
2019Promoted
1st kit
2nd kit
Official website
bacrc.com

A highlight of club's history was in 1951 when the Buenos Aires FC (established in 1886 as a rugby union club and founder member of the "River Plate Rugby Championship" (now the Argentine Rugby Union[6]) merged to BACC, renaming "Buenos Aires Cricket & Rugby Club". Since then, rugby union became the main sport of the institution.[1]

Rugby's senior squad participates in Top 12, the highest division of the URBA league system. The club also has a women's field hockey team that plays in the Torneo Metropolitano B (Second Division), organised by the Buenos Aires Hockey Association (AHBA), while the cricket squad competes in the Argentine Cricket Association tournaments.

Other sports practised at BACRC are football and golf.

History

Cricket origins
Buenos Aires C.C. team of 1867
The BACC clubhouse in 1868. The first association football and rugby union matches in Argentina were played in the club field in Palermo

The exact date of establishment of the "Buenos Aires Cricket Club" is not clear because of the fire that destroyed most of the club's facilities and its archives. Nevertheless, there are records of a cricket match played by members of the club in the Recoleta district of Buenos Aires in 1831, where a flag with the legend "Buenos Aires Cricket Club" was displayed. That match was covered by English language newspaper The British Packet, published in Buenos Aires.[3][1]

The first president of the club was British consul Frank Parish, named in 1858. In April, 1868, BACC played its first club match facing Montevideo Cricket Club (MVCC) in the city of Montevideo. BACC won by 156–124. The rematch was played in Buenos Aires in 1869, where BACC defeated Montevideo again by 174–121.

On 8 December 1864, the club officially inaugurated its game field in Parque Tres de Febrero of Palermo, Buenos Aires, where the Galileo Galilei planetarium is placed nowadays. That day BACC defeated HMS Bombay team by 85 runs to 31, just 6 days before that ship would be destroyed in a fire on the River Plate, in a freak target practice accident.

In 1877 the BACC played its first match against Rosario Cricket Club.

Football and rugby pioneers
Main article: Buenos Aires Football Club
The Buenos Aires F.C. in 1891. The club would then merge with BACC in 1951

On 26 June 1867, several members of the club met on the Buenos Aires Cricket Club's field in Palermo, Buenos Aires to play what would be the first game of football ever played in Argentina. The game, had originally planned to be played in La Boca but had to be moved due to floods.

The game was such a success that some members would go on to found the Buenos Aires Football Club, which would be the first football club in South America. For years to come both clubs would share facilities and members with the BACC playing cricket in the summer and BAFC playing football in the winter.[7][8]

Rugby union rules were first adopted by Buenos Aires FC in 1874[1] but the club was dissolved one year later.[3][9]

Buenos Aires and Rosario A.C. players posing together during a cricket match, 1916

In 1886 a new a new "Buenos Aires Football Club" was founded as a rugby union club exclusively. The club played against Rosario AC, being the first time two different clubs ever met for an interprovincial rugby game in the country.[10]

In 1899, along with Rosario AC, Belgrano AC and Lomas, Buenos Aires FC became a founding member of "The River Plate Rugby Championship", which would later become today's Argentine Rugby Union.

The first Unión de Rugby de Buenos Aires championship was created the same year. Buenos Aires won 8 of the first 15 editions of this tournament. During the decades of the 1920, 1930 and 1940 the club would not win any title, finding strong resistance in younger clubs; such as CA San Isidro and San Isidro Club, which have won most of the URBA titles to date.

A new foundation

In 1948 the facilities of the BACC were destroyed by the fire (some sources affirm it was intentional although those versions could never be confirmed). The fire destroyed most of the archives and documents of the club. Three years later, more precisely on 4 May 1951, both clubs BACC and BAFC decided to merge into one, under the name "Buenos Aires Cricket & Rugby Club".[11][12] The recently created club had not a definitive location until 1952 when it moved to the Don Torcuato district, where Buenos Aires CRC established its headquarters. The club stayed there until 1987, when the lands were sold to Hindú Club. Buenos Aires would move again that same year to San Fernando, Buenos Aires, where it has remained up to present days.

In 1997 BACRC inaugurated the first purpose-built rugby union stadium in Argentina, erected in Los Polvorines, Greater Buenos Aires. A total of nine international games were played there by the Argentina national team. In 2005, the land where the stadium had been built, was sold to a Germany-based company.[13]

Field hockey

"Surí Hockey Club" was established as a women's field hockey club by a group of former students of the Northlands and St. Hilda's schools. In 1945 Surí ("rhea" in Quechua languages) began to play the tournaments organized by field hockey association, starting at third division. After many years playing its home games at different venues due to Surí not having a stadium, the team finally joined BACRC in 1966, changing its name to Buenos Aires.[1]

Buenos Aires and its predecessor Surí have been successful teams in Argentine hockey, winning a total of 7 Metropolitano championships between 1962 and 1988, 2 by Surí and 5 by BACRC.[14]

In 2007 the club inaugurated its synthetic grass hockey field in San Fernando. The women's field hockey team plays its home games there since then.[15][16]

Honours

Cricket
  • Primera División (18): 1904–05, 1919–20, 1924–25, 1927–28, 1930–31, 1938–39, 1939–40, 1940–41, 1941–42,
    1949–50, 1952–53, 1956–57, 1957–58, 1963–64, 1966–67, 1971–72, 1975/76, 1976–77[17]

Rugby union
gollark: Anyway, excluding the tensor cores and VRAM, standard colab's T4s are worse than a 1080 Ti. The K80 is worse than most recent things and you often get those now.
gollark: If you use it heavily you may as well just buy a P100 on eBay, they're "just" £600 or so now.
gollark: It's worse now! There's a Pro+ for 5 times as much and Pro people mostly get T4s.
gollark: 700-series, not 1000.
gollark: Fascinating.

See also

Notes
  1. BACRC's itself states the date of foundation "before 8 December 1864".[1] This date has been recognized by the Buenos Aires Rugby Union.[2] It is believed that the club was founded in 1831, with existing documentary evidence about a cricket match played by Buenos Aires that same year.[3][4]
  2. 1900–1915: titles won by the Buenos Aires Football Club (then merged with Buenos Aires Cricket Club).

References
  1. ""Historia del Club" at BACRC official website". Archived from the original on 13 September 2014. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
  2. "Buenos Aires CRC on "Guía de Clubes", URBA website". Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  3. Historia de Fútbol de AFA: Orígenes 1891/1899, by Carlos Yametti. Published by Edición del Autor (2011) – ISBN 978-987-05-9773-5
  4. El Origen Británico del Deporte Argentino by Víctor Raffo, Gráfica MPS (2004) – ISBN 978-987-43-8107-1
  5. "Buenos Aires CRC at URBA webpage". Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  6. "Hechos históricos de la Unión" at UAR website
  7. "El fútbol nacional cumple años", Clarín, 20 June 2007
  8. "140 años del primer partido de fútbol en la Argentina", by Eduardo Cantaro, 2007
  9. Historia del Fútbol Amateur en la Argentina, by Jorge Iwanczuk. Published by Autores Editores (1992) – ISBN 9504343848
  10. "Cuando el Rosario Athletic salió campeón... de fútbol" – CIHF Archived 18 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  11. "El club de rugby más antiguo de la Argentina" at Rugbytime.com Archived 12 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine, 19 September 2008
  12. "Buenos Aires Cricket & Rugby Club" at Centro de Documentación, Investigación y Referencia Histórica-Deportiva, June 2009
  13. "Adiós a un escenario de triunfos históricos", Clarín, 4 December 2005
  14. "Ganadores campeonatos de primera división" – HSRA website Archived 11 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  15. "Buenos Aires Cricket inauguró una cancha de césped sintético" Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, El Comercio Online, 12 August 2007
  16. "Buenos Aires Cricket & Rugby ya tiene su cancha sintética", La Nación, 14 August 2007
  17. "Todos los campeones 1897–2010" at Argentine Cricket Association website
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