Fetttesian-Lorettonian Club

The Fettesian-Lorettonian Club is a sports club which all Old Fettesians and Old Lorettonians may join.

Founded when Fettes College and Loretto School were each too small to field viable teams of Old Boys to play the teams of the larger schools, it continues to give an opportunity for friendly co-operation and comradeship between former pupils of the two schools following their previous strong rivalry.

The Fettesian-Lorettonian Club is probably unique in the fact that it is a friendly association between two rival schools. It came into being in 1881, largely by accident, when a scratch team of Fettesians, describing themselves as 'the Fettes Rovers', arranged a short cricket tour in North Yorkshire but found they were short of numbers and asked the Loretto Headmaster, Dr Almond, if he would allow some of the Loretto XI to join them. He did, and the experiment proved such a success that those taking part determined to make the alliance between the Schools more permanent.

It was at Rugby Football, however, rather than at cricket that the Club made its name, and football tours continued regularly, except during the War years, until 1974. They began against Scottish Clubs but soon moved to the North of England and eventually to London, and the traditional matches against Old Cranleighans and Rosslyn Park over the New Year period continued for over forty years. They were finally abandoned for two reasons; the greater cost of travelling to London for most of the team and of housing them there in an hotel, and the unavailability of the best players due to increasing club, district and international commitments. Later, these tours were succeeded by a series of matches against London Scottish, each played in London prior to the biennial Calcutta Cup match at Twickenham.

From time to time cricket tours were arranged, especially to the Liverpool area in the 1930s, and cricket matches were played for some years after World War II against the Grange and the two Schools. For many years, too, there was an annual golf match against Edinburgh Academicals but this was finally abandoned in the late 1980s. The increasing commitment by available players to the strong fixture lists of the Old Lorettonian Golfing Society and of its Old Fettesian equivalent had made it difficult to raise a full Club team, even for this single annual match.

In 1999 a Club team participated in the Hong Kong 10s, progressing as far as the semi-finals of the Plate competition. The visit to Hong Kong was being repeated in 2000. A golf tour in the early 1990s to North-West England proved most successful. Cricket has had a series of testing and enjoyable annual tours to Surrey which started in 1994. Four or five matches were played on each tour against teams such as Old Cranleighans and Old Georgians. The results of the six tours to date show that the Club XI has maintained the Club's strong competitive tradition, losing only 25% of all matches played.

Unfortunately there has been little activity by the Club in recent years.

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