Locomotoras Albacete
.jpg) | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1893 |
| Founders | Alejandro Goicoechea John Hulse |
| Headquarters | Albacete , Spain |
| Products | Steam locomotive |
The Locomotoras Albacete was a steam locomotive manufacturing company established in the 19th century in the Albacete, Spain.[1] It is best known for its football team, Locomotoras Albacete Balón-Pie, who played a pivotal pioneering role in the amateur beginnings of football in Albacete, organizing the first known football match in the city in 1896 and being the predecessor of the latter Albacete Balompié. Thus, like in Swindon, football in Albacete is originally linked to the railway industry.[2]
History
The company manufactured Mikado locomotives. The company was founded with capital from the Goicoechea family, owners of Talgo, and the British Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. In 1893, the company opened a new factory in Albacete, with John Hulse, an English industrial engineer of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railways Company, being the one in charge of laying the foundations for the manufacture of steam locomotives in the said Spanish city in 1893.[3] Football began taking root in the city in the 1890s, and soon it gained followers among workers of the factory, where Hulse was also a teacher for the workers, and since he was a great football fan himself, he soon began organizing games between the workers, thus becoming one of the pioneers of football in Castilla–La Mancha.[3]
Football team
The owners of Locomotoras Albacete and Hulse's boss, encouraged football among workers to distract them from unions and vices, but when Hulse saw the rudiments of football in Albacete, he took the initiative to properly implement the Sheffield rules. In this way, he gathers workers and foremen in a tavern near the Hightown and explains to them the Sheffield Rules.[3] Finally, in December 1893, Hulse manages to summon enough men to make two teams of six players each: one with workers from Albacete Locomotives, and another with English engineers, the latter consisting of 2 managers, 1 foreman, and 3 loose workers, and thus they were able to play the first known football match in the city.[3] The game was held in the then outskirts of the capital, on land known as La Era La Primera, in reference to the nickname of the very young mother who owns the farm.[3] This match meant the birth of an amateur football club which was named Locomotoras Albacete Balón-Pie, established by John Hulse, who brought the rules of English football according to the Sheffield protocol to the city of Albacete.[3] This team developed its activity by participating in matches and tournaments mainly in the regions of Castilla–La Mancha and Murcia.
The club's first matches to be reported are against recreational groups and clubs from Recreativo de Huelva (1896), Murcia (1897), Alcázar de San Juan (1899), and Villarrobledo (1899).[4] However, due to the little statistical rigor that the newspapers had at that time, the exact details of those games are unknown as very little was officially reported about them, of which the most notable was a knock-out stage in 1896 against Recreativo de Huelva, in an unofficial national cup championship, where they lost 2–9 to a very young Huelva side.[5] But despite that, Albacete still managed to qualify for that final phase of the Alfonso XII Cup as champions of Murcia.
In 1899 the politician and businessman Gabriel Lodares, who later became mayor of Albacete, turned his interest in this growing sport and facilitated the acquisition of a field with better conditions closer to the factory that gave rise to the team, the Campo del Paseo de la Cuba.
References
- ^ Camacho Cabello, José (1999). "2". La población de Castilla-La Mancha: (siglos XIX y XX) (in Spanish). Toledo, Spain: Junta de Comunidades de Castilla La Mancha, Consejería de Cultura. p. 21. ISBN 84-7788-219-3.
- ^ Galdón Hoffenheimmer, Otto (18 November 2020). "Ottoleaks". Ottoleaks.
- ^ a b c d e f "Capítulo 4: el primer partido de foot-ball de La Mancha" [Chapter 4: the first football game in La Mancha]. ottoleaks.blogspot.com (in Spanish). 24 June 2019. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
- ^ Panadero Moya, Carlos (1983). "4". Albacete, tierra de encrucijada: un reconocimiento a través de su historia, su arte y su cultura (PDF) (in Spanish). Albacete, Spain: Instituto de Estudios Albacetenses. p. 203. ISBN 8450092019. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
- ^ "Capítulo 5: los primeros jugadores de Locomotoras Albacete" [Chapter 5: the first players of Locomotoras Albacete]. ottoleaks.blogspot.com (in Spanish). 24 June 2019. Retrieved 10 October 2022.