Crewe Alexandra F.C.
Cricket was a more popular sport than football in the early years of Crewe and in 1866 the Crewe Alexandra Cricket Club was formed, named after the wife of the Prince of Wales. It soon became a club for various sports including cycling and athletics, and in 1977 Crewe Alexandra Football Club was formed. They were based at the Alexandra Recreation Ground, adjacent to Crewe railway station, and played their first match against a side from Basford in North Staffordshire on December 1st 1877, drawing 1 all.
An advertisement for a sporting event at the Alexandra Athletic Grounds on Saturday 15th August 1896.
The Team in the mid 1880s.
The football club eventually split away from the cricket club - a step that was condemned by Francis Webb, chief engineer of the town's railway works, who supported the exclusion of professional sportsmen; following the schism, Webb and the LNWR said the company would 'refuse to find employment in the Crewe Works for any professional football player'. Crewe were founding members of the Football League Second Division in 1893, having previously been members of the Football Alliance, but lost their league status in 1896 after only four seasons, this was possibly due to a player budget that was a quarter of that of other clubs.
The club left the Alexandra Recreation Ground during the 1895–96 season, and after playing at a number of different venues, including in nearby Sandbach, they moved to their current home on Gresty Road in 1897. Crewe spent two seasons in The Combination followed by three seasons in the Lancashire League, before spending ten years competing in the Birmingham & District League, during which period they won the Cheshire Senior Challenge Cup in 1907 and 1910. They spent the 1910s in The Central League, finishing second in 1913-14 and 1920-21.
1912 Grandstand view of the crowd at Crewe Alexandra Athletic Sports.
Supporters queue for tickers for the match against Tottenham Hotspur in 1960. The match was a 2-2 draw; but at the replay Crewe was beat 13-2.
Crewe rejoined the Football League in 1921; they finished 6th in their first two seasons in the Third Division North, but then did not finish as high again until 1931-32, and again in 1935-36. Crewe earned their first major honours by winning the Welsh Cup in 1936 and 1937, before being barred from entering as Crewe is located in England not Wales. In 1936, Bert Swindells scored his 100th League goal for Crewe Alexandra and went on to score 126 League goals for the club, a record that still stands to this day.
The period from the 1950s to the early 1980s was not considered a successful time for the club, between 1894 and 1982, Crewe finished in last place in the Football League eight times, more than any other league club. In 1955 Crewe embarked on a sequence where they did not win away from home for 56 matches. The dismal run ended with a 1–0 win at Southport.
Crewe finished bottom of Division Three North three times in a row from 1955-56 to 1957-58, gaining just 21 points from 46 games in the 1956-57 season, and 23 points the following season. The club was placed into the newly formed Fourth Division in 1958-59.