Montevideo Cricket Club

The MVCC proper was founded on 18 July 1861.[1] The club is recognised as the oldest sports club of Uruguay, having been the pioneer in the practise of cricket, field hockey, association football, rugby union and tennis.[3]

In 1868, the MVCC played its first international cricket game against Argentine Buenos Aires Cricket Club. It is the oldest international match registered in South America and was played on MVCC's ground in La Blanqueda.[1][4]

The MVCC played its first association football match in 1878, between MVCC and a visiting ship. This was the first organised match in Uruguay. In 1881, the MVCC played its first club match against the Montevideo Rowing Club. MVCC also took part of the first international match involving an Uruguayan football squad, when faced the "Buenos Aires Team" at Montevideo in 1889.[5]

In 1983, the MVCC first played the Club Universitario de Buenos Aires (C.U.B.A.), and has played them annually ever since.

In 1974 and 1975, the MVCC swimming teams won the summer championships in swimming and diving.

The ladies' field hockey team won the local championships in 1987, 1989, 1993 and 1997, and men's team won its first championship in 2000. The club also competes in athletics, cycling and tennis.

Its original ground was known as "La Blanqueada" or the "English ground",[1] but in 1889, it moved from its original location to make way for a military hospital to a new site nearby. This was also known as "La Blanqueada" or the "New Ground" to distinguish it from the original site. The new site was purchased by debentures that members bought.

The MVCC moved a third time in 1945 to near the town of Sayago. It moved for a fourth time to Carrasco, in 1955, where fields were shared by The British Schools of Montevideo.

In 1996, the MVCC moved yet again to Solymar on the outskirts of Montevideo.[6]

English cricket clubs were the incubators of rugby in South America, although rugby has survived much better in these countries than cricket has.[7] It has been claimed that MVCC played rugby football as early as 1865,[7] but the first certain match was between Uruguayans and British members of the MVCC in 1880.[7] One observer, apparently disdainful of the Britons mixing with the "natives", found it:

"...at the same time sublime and ridiculous... [that the] young sons of distinguished families practising the games of the Anglo-Saxon in their youth and young Englishmen of blond Albion, face to face ... and on all sides [were] people strangely dressed who ran and shouted, pushed, fell, rose and finished by joining to form now a circle, now a pyramid, now a compact mass in which one could only distinguish heads without shoulders, legs without bodies and hands without arms."[7]

Carlos E. Cat, also known as "Charlie", was a member of the MVCC, and was also president of the club in 1946.

In 1950, the Campeonato Uruguayo de Rugby was inaugurated and continues today. The first game was between the MVCC, and Carrasco Polo Club.[1]

MVCC had some success in the 1950s, winning the national title 3 times. In recent years however, the club has had to live in the shadows of Montevideo's two powerhouses: Carrasco Polo Club and Old Christians Club.

• Richards, Huw A Game for Hooligans: The History of Rugby Union (Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh, 2007, ISBN 978-1-84596-255-5)
• The Development of Rugby in the River Plate Region: Irish Influences by Hugh FitzGerald Ryan in "Irish Migration Studies in Latin America", Society of Irish Latin American Studies.

• Official site