This is a good club from long ago existing in suspended animation – but ready just in case, one dread day, they may have to take the field once again.
Founded: 1873
Grounds: Reading Recreation Ground / Mr Heelas’ Meadow
HQ: The Upper Ship Hotel, Duke Street, Reading
Website: readinghornetsfc.co.uk
Colours: Amber and red hoops, black shorts
Change colours: Blue and white hoops, white shorts (of course)
Nicknames: The Stingers, The Sting-a-Ding, The True Biscuitmen
Honours: The first club from Reading to enter the FA Cup (1876)
The first club to defeat Reading FC on their home ground (1875)
Record victory: 9-0, Wokingham (a) October 1875
Last match: FA Cup 1st Round, Maidenhead (a) 0-10, 27 October 1877
The Hornets’ reason for being
It’s been 143 years of hurt – and counting – since the last game but the Hornets never folded nor merged. If Reading FC was the big brother then the Hornets were the little brother, just 15 months or so the younger. Like brothers, Reading FC and Reading Hornets shared – and scrapped – in childhood. The little fella has patiently watched the big un’s back all these years in case he falls over. And if, heaven forfend, he does, then Reading Hornets stand ready, with its ancient pedigree, to carry the banner of ‘football in Reading’ forward into the world.
A brief history of Reading Hornets FC
The Hornets were founded in early 1873 and played their first game against Reading FC on 1st March that year. The club quickly grew in popularity, soon having more members than Reading FC and engaging opponents of a similar calibre from other local towns such as Maidenhead and Marlborough.
The Hornets usually played on Saturdays, while Reading FC tended to play on Wednesdays, but the clubs did manage to get together often enough to play nine matches against each other over a four year period.
Staging matches on Saturdays enabled factory workers from Huntley & Palmers and Reading Ironworks to take up football with the Hornets. In terms of social class the Hornets team was more mixed than Reading FC. But many players played for both clubs, especially the two captains Harry Rogers (RFC) and George Gibson (Hornets). The two clubs were both fierce rivals and, for the most part, good friends. Not only did they often share the same players but also the same ground and even the same kit!
When Reading Hornets made their FA Cup debut in 1876 Harry Rogers and Donald Marks of RFC were both in the line-up. Later in the season both played against the Hornets in a feisty match that soured relations between the clubs. The upshot of the row was that two key Hornets, Gilbert Sillence and Fred Richardson, joined the Reading FC committee in September 1877. There was never any merger as some club histories have suggested.
However, the Hornets were now short-handed and suffered a record defeat at Maidenhead in the FA Cup the following month. Since then they have been biding their time and allowing old wounds to heal. The Hornets are ready to return to the fray, if required, and defend the footballing honour of the town of Reading and will, of course in their own right, be one of the oldest clubs in the land.
From the desk of the late Geo. J. Gibson, Hon Sec, Reading Hornets FC.
Mr Gibson will function in the manner of Adam Adamant; if we’re lucky. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059963/
It is conceivable he can be reached via the medium of email geojgibson@btinternet.com