scratch team

{{for|the group that develops and moderates Scratch|Scratch (programming language)}}

{{Short description|Sports team brought together on a temporary basis}}

A scratch team is a team, usually in sport, brought together on a temporary basis, composed of players who normally play for different sides. A game played between two scratch teams may be called a scratch match.

The earliest instance of the term "scratch team" recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary"scratch, adj.". OED Online. November 2010. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/173358?rskey=APOmdQ&result=3&isAdvanced=false (accessed February 15, 2011). is a restaurant guide in 1851 (London at table, by an anonymous author, referring to "'a scratch team' of servants"{{cite book|title=London at table; or, How, when, and where to dine and order a dinner|year=1851|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dg8HAAAAQAAJ}}). The OED also records the term "scratch match" – defined as an impromptu game played by scratch teams – being used in the same year in Rev. James Pycroft's The Cricket Field – one of the earliest books about cricket – "...that is the time that some sure, judicious batsman, whose eminence is little seen amidst the loose hitting of a scratch match, comes calmly and composedly to the wicket and makes a stand;..."{{cite book|title=The cricket-field. By J. Pycroft|author=Pycroft, J.|year=1862|url=https://archive.org/details/cricketfieldbyj00pycrgoog}}

Another early and notable use of the term is from 1874, when The Wanderers, who had just lost an FA Cup match for the first time, were due to play a match against Upton Park.{{cite book|title=The Wanderers - Five Times F.A. Cup Winners|author=Cavallini, R.|year=2005|publisher=Dog N Duck|isbn=9780955049606|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DmQL_fnLcsQC}} In the words of the contemporary report, "unfortunately the Wanderers failed to put in an appearance. In order, therefore not to disappoint a large number of people who had assembled to witness the play, a scratch team was chosen to represent the missing team." The match was lost, 11–0, with each of the opposing team scoring a goal.."

The term is listed in the 1913 Nelson's Encyclopedia, among slang terms.{{cite book|title=Nelson's Encyclopaedia: Everybody's Book of Reference ...|author1=Colby, F.M.|author2=Sandeman, G.|year=1913|publisher=Thomas Nelson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MAJCAAAAYAAJ}}

The Barbarians is an example of a rugby club that only fields scratch (invitational) teams.