article

Weymouth F.C., also known as "The Terras", are a Dorset-based English Association football (soccer) club, who will play in the Conference National for the 2006-07 season. The Terras spent many years in the top level of non-League football (initially the Southern League, then later in the Football Conference) before a period of decline. In recent years they were widely regarded as among the biggest underachievers in non-League football, but defied this reputation in the 2005-06 season by winning the Conference South championship.

Background

The team is currently managed by Garry Hill, while the club is controlled by local hotelier Martyn Harrison.

In the 2005-6 season, the club briefly reached national attention after holding former European Cup winners Nottingham Forest to a 1-1 draw in the FA Cup. Forest won the replay 2-0, in front of 6,500 fans at the Wessex Stadium and a live Sky TV audience.

The club averages attendances of over 1,500 for league matches (based on 2005/6 season figures supplied by the club), amongst the highest gates outside the top tiers of English football.

The location of the club's Wessex Stadium on the south coast of England is such that they rarely have home matches frozen off even when other non-League grounds in south-east England are unplayable. The club has a great rivalry with its more famous neighbours Yeovil Town F.C., although it has been many years since the two clubs last met, with the sides moving in different directions.

History

Weymouth Football Club were founded in 1890 and played their first game on 24 September of that year. Nicknamed 'The Terras' almost immediately, due to their terracotta strip, the team won the Dorset Junior Cup for the first three seasons, becoming a senior club as the team rose in stature. Founder members of the Dorset League, Weymouth joined the Western League in 1907-1908. The club embraced full-time professionalism in 1923 after winning the Western League, joining the Southern League in the process. By 1928-9, with debts mounting, the club withdrew from the Southern League to become amateur once again.

The Second World War saw an end to football in Weymouth as the Recreation Ground was requisitioned for the War effort in 1939. The club reformed in 1947 on a semi-professional basis, and soon achieved promotion back into the Southern League. In successive seasons 1964-65 and 1965-66, The Terras were Southern League champions, and they share with Telford United and Yeovil Town F.C. the distinction of playing all twenty seasons in the Premier Division prior to the re-organization of the league structure at that time.

Weymouth have enjoyed considerable FA Cup success since first entering in 1893-1894. They first reached the national stages in 1905-1906 when they were thrashed 1-12 by Gainsborough Trinity F.C. In 1949 they lost 0-4 at Old Trafford to Manchester United in the Third Round proper, then in 1962 they reached the Fourth Round proper where they lost 0-2 at Deepdale to Preston North End. 2005 saw the team hold former European Champions Nottingham Forest to a 1-1 draw at the City Ground, before losing 2-0 in the replay.

Famous Weymouth players include: Graham Roberts and Peter Guthrie (both Tottenham), Andy Townsend (Southampton, Aston Villa, Middlesbrough and Eire), Shaun Teale (Motherwell, Aston Villa), Tony Agana (Watford, Sheffield United) and Tom Jones (Aberdeen). Olympic gold medal-winning sprinter Darren Campbell was briefly a Weymouth player.

A move from the club's town centre ground to the new Wessex Stadium in 1987 brought initial success, but the club entered a bit of a slump after relegation from the Conference, see-sawing between the Premier and Southern Divisions of the Southern League .

Journalist and author Ian Ridley took control of the club in 2003-2004, and his large injection of cash and the appointment of former Millwall F.C. striker Steve Claridge as manager brought a new optimism. This was short-lived, and despite a near-miss with promotion to the Conference, both Ridley and Claridge were to leave amongst some acrimony.

The arrival of respected local businessman Martyn Harrison steadied the club and its finances, and the appointment of Garry Hill as manager, plus the decision to embrace full-time professionalism promise a return of relative success to Weymouth F.C. At the club's 2005 AGM, Harrison confirmed tentative plans, pending local authority approval, to move away from the Wessex Stadium to a new ground in Weymouth in 2008. The move, he said, may be funded by selling the current ground to the Asda supermarket chain. Coincidentally, Asda's current base in Weymouth is on the site of the old Recreation Ground which Weymouth left to move to the Wessex Stadium in 1987, at a time when 32 years had gone by since a Football League club had built a new stadium.

Managerial History

Honours

  • Conference South: 1
    • 2005-06 Champions
  • Dr Marten's Premier Division
    • 2003-04 Runners-Up
  • Dr Marten's Southern Division: 1
    • 1997-98
  • Southern League: 2
    • 1964-65, 1965-66
  • Western League Division One: 3
    • 1922-23, 1936-37, 1937-38
  • Western League Division Two: 1
    • 1933-34
  • Dorset League Division One: 1
    • 1921-22
  • Dorset League: 2
    • 1897-98, 1913-14

Squad

Club Officials

  • Chairman: Martyn Harrison
  • Chief Executive: Gary Calder
  • President: Bob Lucas
  • Vice-Chairman: Matthew McGowan
  • Directors:
    • Nigel Beckett
    • Chris Pugsley
    • Tristan Murless
    • Faye Harrison
  • Manager: Garry Hill
  • 1st Team Coach: Kevin Hales
  • Club Doctor: Mr Gankande F.R.C.S
  • Chartered Physiotherapist: Roger Hoare M.S.S.TDip.ST. Cert.Ed.FA Diploma. S.R.P.
  • Football in the Community Officer: Tim Davis

Players

External links

English football clubs | Football Conference | Sport in Dorset | Weymouth F.C.

Weymouth Football Club

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Weymouth F.C.".

Home Page • arts • business • computers • games • health • hospitals • home • kids & teens • news • physicians • recreation• reference • regional • science • shopping • society • sports • world