Rugby union was introduced and emerged as second most popular winter sport after association football. At the ground of CFC, first recorded match was played in 1872. In 1874, the club joined Rugby Football Union. As the rugby section became defunct in later years, the sport came back at the CC&FC in 1884. In 1890, an inter club trophy was incepted by the club, named Calcutta Rugby Union Challenge Cup (known simply as Calcutta Cup), and its second division trophy was clinched by the club. Football Run by the British, Calcutta Football Club was once one of the leading football teams and had a great rivalry specially with Mohun Bagan. The team for the first time was defeated by Mohun Bagan in 1923 in the return leg of CFL, but managed to clinch both the league and IFA Shield titles in that season. Other rivals of the club were Mohammedan Sporting, Aryan and Dalhousie. Calcutta FC won the prestigious Calcutta Football League (CFL) eight times, and the IFA Shield nine times before merging to the Calcutta Cricket Club. Field hockey CC&FC's hockey team is known as CCFC Gremlins, and is affiliated with the Bengal Hockey Association (often shortened to 'Hockey Bengal'). Once consisting of Anglo-Indian players, the team is currently participating in Calcutta Hockey League, and Beighton Cup (which is one of world's oldest field hockey tournaments). Home ground There was absence of permanent venue for the club. They used grounds in Esplanade, parallel with the river Hooghly, between Fort William and Government House. In 1825, 'Sketch of the Maidan' was done by the club, and in 1841, they were allowed to enclose the ground. The club later used Auckland Circus Gardens. The club later played its home games at the Calcutta FC ground in Kolkata Maidan, now known as Mohun Bagan Ground. It was used as venue of the 1954 edition of Quadrangular Series. Notable members A large number of notable athletes are associated with the club, including: Football: Chuni Goswami, Subhas Bhowmick, S. Bhattacharjee, Pradip Choudhury, P. Ganguly, Santo Mitra, Shyam Thapa, Kiyan Nassiri. Hockey: Keshav Chandra Datt, Gurbux Singh, Dr. Vece Paes, Anand Mandapaka. Cricket: Punya B. Datta, Ashok Gandotra Devang Gandhi, Sourav Ganguly, Saba Karim, Arun Lal, Pranab Roy, Biswajit Bhowmick. Tennis: Chiradip Mukerjea, Enrico Piperno, Leander Paes. Honours Football As Calcutta FC Calcutta Football League Champions (8): 1899, 1907, 1916, 1918, 1920, 1922, 1923, 1925