I Zingari?

[Rob]

On the 25th May 1887 Rangers played a team called I Zingari I have been trying to find out who this team are. I can find a nomadic cricket club with the same name. I think they were maybe doing a tour of Scotland. My first thought was Rangers played them at cricket but I do have details of the Rangers team. And it looks like the football team. I suspect the Rangers cricket team would have had different players. With the most unusual name I Zingari has anyone got any other details of this team playing any other games around the same time. I cant see them coming all the way to Scotland for only one game.

[Alan McCabe]

I seem to recall reading somewhere, can't recall where unfortunately, that this club were Inter Zingari. I think they were a Lancashire club (possibly Burnley, Darwen, Accrington area?) and they appear to have been some sort of touring club. Such outfits were popular in football's early years with clubs such as Corinthians, the Casuals and even Dick Kerr's Ladies' XI building credible reputations.

[PJ]

There is a team called Preston Zingari refered to in Albert Mackie's "The Hearts" (page 82). The book is on the London Hearts website.

I also think there is reference to this team in one of the books I have read on the history of Preston North End.

[the hibLOG]

I Zingari means the gypsies in Italian by the way, in case anyone's wondering.

[Rob]

So I am looking for a Football team then. I wonder if they were the same club as the cricket team. Who are still playing today. I thought it a bit unusual that there was not a return match. There always seemed to be in those days. Of course a Nomadic football team brings its own problems where were they from

[Alan McCabe]

I'm sure the Scottish Amateurs club of the period up to World War I were a similar kind of organisation. They always seemed to play away from home suggesting, like Zingari possibly, that they also were a nomadic representative team. Were all these organisations the footballing fore-runners to basketball's Haarlem Globetrotters or rugby's Barbarians?

[soccerhistory]

Touring clubs comprising amateur players were quite common in the pre-WW1 period. For example, The Pilgrims toured North America on two occasions, English Wanderers are another example. The only club of this nature which has survived as far as I know is Middlesex Wanderers, which I believe still arranges tours around the world.

[Rob]

I got someone to check Wisden for me. Wisden always publishes I Zingaris Results and Stats. And theu never played Rangers at cricket. So it was a football match.

[soccerhistory]

By chance I came across the following report in the Scottish Referee for 28 April 1890: "A pleasant game is fixed on Wednesday evening, on Hampden Park, between the I Zingari and Rugby Rovers in aid of the Langside Dorcas Society. Mr Charles Campbell has undertaken the management of the match, and the fact should be synonymous with success. The Rovers' team will be comprised mostly of West of Scotland players, and the Zingari of Queen's Park players."

[LLD]

By chance I came across the following report in the Scottish Referee for 28 April 1890: "A pleasant game is fixed on Wednesday evening, on Hampden Park, between the I Zingari and Rugby Rovers in aid of the Langside Dorcas Society. Mr Charles Campbell has undertaken the management of the match, and the fact should be synonymous with success. The Rovers' team will be comprised mostly of West of Scotland players, and the Zingari of Queen's Park players."

A game between two teams playing composite football and rugby rules?

[LEATHERSTOCKING]

Queen`s did play as "I Zingari" when they didn`t want to use the club`s name. I did @ one time have a partial list of their games but can`t find it now I`m afraid. Queen`s played charity games vs. "Rugby Rovers" (select Rugby players) until the 1960s one code for either half. It was good fun but it also allowed Queen`s to spot any potential talent from Rugby playing schools & clubs.

[Scottish]

There was a match between I Zingari "composed principally of Queen's Park players" according to the Glasgow Herald, v Strathmore of Dundee at Rollo's Pier, Dundee on June 17th 1886. Strathmore won 3-1. Both teams fielded eleven players with no suggestion it was anything other than an association football match.

[StAndrewsHMFC]

Not sure if this is any help or not but I'm sure there is a reference to I Zingari playing St.Johnstone twice in the late 1880's/early 1890's in their history. Its probably in the stats section of that book. Maybe they did a tour of Tayside?

I've not got that book just now though so can't check.

[Scottish]

I've found a few more matches.

On June 1st 1887 I Zingari (again with several Queen's Park players) played at Uddingston in a match to raise funds for the home club as the cost of levelling their pitch had left them in debt. Both Rangers and Third Lanark had previously done the same

There was a game v Shettleston on August 27th 1888. Then on August 22nd 1891 a side described as "an I Zingari team of the Queen's Park" met Dundee East End in a match to mark the opening of their new ground.

There were also 'select' sides playing under the name of 'Crusaders' and 'Bohemians' around this time which usually took part in benefit matches.

[Rob]

What was the thinking behind Queens playing under a different name. I also have Rangers playing under the title Ibroxonians on a couple of occasions. I cant see what benefit teams would gain by playing under a different name. I was wondering if there was something in the SFA rule book that clubs were by-passing