The club was founded in 1885, originally with 30 members,[1] but within a year had grown to 70, which made it nearly as big as Ayr F.C. The club was not related to an earlier Ayr Rovers which played at Robbsland Park[2] and which disbanded in 1881.[3]
Soon after the club's foundation, it joined the Scottish Football Association,[4] and entered the 1885–86 Scottish Cup. Indeed the club's first recorded match was its first round tie with Dalry, which the club scheduled to take place after the Ayr v Maybole tie on the same day had finished, hoping to attract spectators; however the weather militated against people wanting to watch two matches, and Dalry dismantled Rovers to the tune of 8 goals to 0.[5] A mix-up with the wires had the score originally reported as a Rovers win.[6]
The Rovers recovered enough to beat the Stevenson Dynamite in its first Ayrshire Cup tie, albeit in a second replay at Monnkcastle, by 1–0, plus having two goals disallowed.[7] In the second round, the Rovers hosted Ayr, whose players were distracted by a Scottish Cup tie with 3rd Lanarkshire R.V. the following week, and who put in a "wretched" performance, but nevertheless were still good enough to beat the Rovers 2-0.[8]
The club was given a boost at the start of 1886, when it received an invitation to enter the Ayr Charity Cup, after Kilmarnock and Lugar Boswell turned down theirs.[9] The club successfully protested its first round defeat by Annbank on the basis that Barbour had not been registered as an Annbank player for the required 6 weeks.[10] The protest availed the Rovers little as Annbank won the replay at Springvale 5–0.[11]
The club's performances gradually improved in 1886–87; it lost in the Scottish Cup once more to Dalry, although this time only by 5–2, in a tie which aroused next to no media interest.[12] The club's performances in the county cup were more creditable, a walkover and a win over Kilmarnock Athletic[13] putting the club into the quarter-finals, where it faced Hurlford. Hurlford had beaten Kilmarnock in an earlier round, and Kilmarnock had put 7[14] and 12[15] past the Rovers in two friendlies that season. Rovers arranged the tie for New Year's Day 1887, which meant Hurlford refused to play as having already arranged a fixture, and Rovers claimed the tie.[16] The Ayrshire FA ordered the tie to be played by the end of January, and the Rovers gained a surprising draw.[17] Hurlford set matters right in the replay, scoring inside 3 minutes, turning around at half-time 5–0 up, and winning 7–0;[18] the man of the match was Rovers' goalkeeper Dunbar, hailed as an "Ayrshire Macaulay".[19]
Nevertheless, the Rovers were on an upward trajectory, winning 5–1 at Monkcastle in the Charity Cup,[20] and beat Clyde in a friendly, shortly after the latter had beaten Ayrshire Cup holders Kilmarnock.[21] The club's final match in the season was a defeat at Kilbirnie in the Charity Cup semi-final,[22] and players competed in athletic sports over the summer.[23]
However the increasing success appears to have proved fatal for the club. By the start of the 1887–88 season, "the majority of the team ha[d] gone over to Ayr", with others to the new Ayr Thistle club,[24] and the club did not renew its membership of the Scottish FA.[25] The club had already entered the Ayrshire Cup[26] and a side was got up to play a tie at Irvine, which ended 6–1 to the home side.[27] The club was definitively defunct by the start of the 1888–89 season, with goalkeeper Dunbar and back Simpson joining up with some former team-mates at the new Ayr Athletic.[28]
Colours
The club wore black and white vertical stripes with white knickers.[29]
Ground
The club's ground was Springvale Park in Midton Road.[30]
^Not the former Scottish Cup semi-finalists, or the side originally known as Rosebank, but a short-lived side previously known as Kilmarnock Britannia.
