Buenos Aires Cricket & Rugby Club

Cricket origins

The Buenos Aires Cricket Club in 1868. The first football and rugby union matches in Argentina were played there.

Buenos Aires and Rosario C.C. players posing together during a cricket match, 1916.

The exact date of establishment of the "Buenos Aires Cricket Club" is not clear because of the fire that destroyed most of the club's facilities and its archives. Nevertheless, there are records of a cricket match played by members of the club in the Recoleta district of Buenos Aires in 1831, where a flag with the legend "Buenos Aires Cricket Club" was displayed. That match was covered by English language newspaper The British Packet, published in Buenos Aires.^[3][1]

The first president of the club was British consul Frank Parish, named in 1858. In April, 1868, BACC played its first club match facing Montevideo Cricket Club (MVCC) in the city of Montevideo. BACC won by 156–124. The rematch was played in Buenos Aires in 1869, where BACC defeated Montevideo again by 174–121.

On 8 December 1864, the club officially inaugurated its game field in Parque Tres de Febrero of Palermo, Buenos Aires, where the Galileo Galilei planetarium is placed nowadays. That day BACC defeated HMS Bombay team by 85 runs to 31, just 6 days before that ship would be destroyed in a fire on the River Plate, in a freak target practice accident.

In 1877 the BACC played its first match against Rosario Cricket Club.

Football and rugby pioneers

On 26 June 1867, several members of the club met on the Buenos Aires Cricket Club's field in Palermo, Buenos Aires to play what would be the first game of football ever played in Argentina. The game, had originally planned to be played in La Boca but had to be moved due to floods.

The game was such a success that some members would go on to found the Buenos Aires Football Club, which would be the first football club in South America. For years to come both clubs would share facilities and members with the BACC playing cricket in the summer and BAFC playing football in the winter.^[7][8]

Rugby union rules were first adopted by Buenos Aires FC in 1874^[1] but the club was dissolved one year later.^[3][9]

In 1886 a new a new "Buenos Aires Football Club" was founded as a rugby union club exclusively. The club played against Rosario AC, being the first time two different clubs ever met for an interprovincial rugby game in the country.^[10]

In 1899, along with Rosario AC, Belgrano AC and Lomas, Buenos Aires FC became a founding member of "The River Plate Rugby Championship", which would later become today's Argentine Rugby Union.

The first Unión de Rugby de Buenos Aires championship was created the same year. Buenos Aires won 8 of the first 15 editions of this tournament. During the decades of the 1920, 1930 and 1940 the club would not win any title, finding strong resistance in younger clubs; such as CA San Isidro and San Isidro Club, which have won most of the URBA titles to date.

A new foundation

The Buenos Aires Football Club in 1891. The club then would merge with BACC in 1951.

In 1948 the facilities of the BACC were destroyed by the fire (some sources affirm it was intentional although those versions could never be confirmed). The fire destroyed most of the archives and documents of the club. Three years later, more precisely on 4 May 1951, both clubs BACC and BAFC decided to merge into one, under the name "Buenos Aires Cricket & Rugby Club".^[11][12] The recently created club had not a definitive location until 1952 when it moved to the Don Torcuato district, where Buenos Aires CRC established its headquarters. The club stayed there until 1987, when the lands were sold to Hindú Club. Buenos Aires would move again that same year to San Fernando, Buenos Aires, where it has remained up to present days.

In 1997 BACRC inaugurated the first purpose-built rugby union stadium in Argentina, erected in Los Polvorines, Greater Buenos Aires. A total of nine international games were played there by the Argentina national team. In 2005, the land where the stadium had been built, was sold to a Germany-based company.^[13]

Field hockey

"Surí Hockey Club" was established as a women's field hockey club by a group of former students of the Northlands and St. Hilda's schools. In 1945 Surí ("rhea" in Quechua languages) began to play the tournaments organized by field hockey association, starting at third division. After many years playing its home games at different venues due to Surí not having a stadium, the team finally joined BACRC in 1966, changing its name to Buenos Aires.^[1]

Buenos Aires and its predecessor Surí have been successful teams in Argentine hockey, winning a total of 7 Metropolitano championships between 1962 and 1988, 2 by Surí and 5 by BACRC.^[14]

In 2007 the club inaugurated its synthetic grass hockey field in San Fernando. The women's field hockey team plays its home games there since then.^[15][16]

Cricket

• Primera División (18): 1904–05, 1919–20, 1924–25, 1927–28, 1930–31, 1938–39, 1939–40, 1940–41, 1941–42,
  1949–50, 1952–53, 1956–57, 1957–58, 1963–64, 1966–67, 1971–72, 1975/76, 1976–77^[17]

Rugby union

• Torneo de la URBA (10): 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1908, 1909, 1915,^{[note 2]} 1958, 1959