Part 2: http://hobnob.royals.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=112664
Reading's home ground from the first game in 1872 up until 1878 was the Recreation Ground, now part of Kings Meadow. Also, Reading Hornets played their home games there from formation in 1873 to the merger with Reading in 1877. But there were times when the Recreation Ground was unavailable or unsuitable, and on those occasions matches were played elsewhere. This part is about two of those times.
For the first of these, I need to give credit to A. N. Other, but as I know his real name rather than his board username he will have to remain anonymous in this thread. It was a match in January 1875 between Reading and Reading Hornets, and I don't actually know who was meant to be the home team (or indeed if that concept even mattered to those taking part). For the record, Reading won 3-0.
This game was played in "Mr Heelas' Meadow", which was here:
It's probably not obvious but that is the corner of Oxford Road and Prospect Street, on the west side of Prospect Street. For those that don't know this part of town, Prospect Street is a road which is basically a hill. The first 125m from Oxford Road to Argyle Road has a gradient of 3%, and the remaining 125m has a gradient of 6%. The meadow was effectively the back garden of a house in Argyle Road, running all the way down to Oxford Road. It was too narrow for the pitch to be parallel to Oxford Road, and even if played on a much shorter than usual pitch, there would still have been a serious slope. My photo is of the flattest part of the road, but visit the site for yourself and try to work out how they could have got a match on - it defeats me.
So obviously no-one guessed that right in the previous thread, although SpaceCruiser did get the first word right with his "Prospect Park" effort.
Another home game which was played away from the Recreation Ground was Reading's first ever appearance in the FA Cup in 1877/78. Reading were drawn at home to South Norwood, and due to the expected large crowd switched the match to the Dolphin Ground in Slough. In later years, a proper football stadium was built on this site, which Slough used up to 1974, but in 1877 it was just an enclosed field. It's on Uxbridge Road, and this is what it looks like now:
This ground also had a slope but I bet it was nothing compared to Mr Heelas' Meadow. Reading won the Cup tie 2-0.
Reading have entered the FA Cup every season since 1877/78. That means we have the longest continuous entry of any team other than Marlow, who have entered every season. The only other clubs who have entered for as long as us are Notts County and Maidenhead, although given that Reading Hornets entered in 1876/77 and subsequently merged with Reading, we could even claim one extra season of continuous entry. (In case you're wondering Maidenhead have entered every FA Cup bar one, but the one they missed was 1876/77.)
This leads to the fact (often misquoted) that Reading have lost more FA Cup ties than any other League club. That's because we've lost one tie every year we've entered, and we've entered more often than anyone else - with the exception of Notts County who have entered the same number of times, but have lost one fewer tie because they won the competition in 1894. Another record that Alan Sedunary came up with is that Reading were the first of the current League clubs to win an FA Cup tie - that's because we won our 1877/78 Round 1 game against South Norwood on the site of the future Sainsbury's superstore, whilst Notts County went out in round 1 that season.
In the next part - Reading's new ground is flat, but often a lake.
at playing 90 minutes on that slope.
