Wealdstone F.C.
Wealdstone Football Club is an English semi-professional
football club based in the
London Borough of Harrow. The club are currently members of the
Southern League Premier Division. They play in blue and white quartered shirts and are nicknamed "The Stones", or "The Royals".
There were, in fact, two separate Wealdstone Football Clubs in existence as far back as the 19th century, but the present club was formed at the start of the 1899-1900 season. They began with a friendly match on 7 October
1899, winning 6-1 at Northwood. Unfortunately, just 7 years later, the club were forced to close down, largely through lack of interest among both players and fans. They reformed in time for the 1908-09 season, enjoying a successful period before another closedown during
World War I, which claimed the lives of a great many of its members. From the 1920s onwards, though now drawing very sizeable crowds for amateur football, the club had little success on the pitch until the 1950s. Finally, in
1952 they won their first major trophy when they were champions of the
Athenian League. The club then began a period of sustained growth, winning three Middlesex Senior Cup titles, in 1959, 1963 and 1964. Major national success was achieved in 1966 when the club won the
FA Amateur Cup at
Wembley Stadium, beating local rivals
Hendon F.C.The club decided to turn semi-professional in 1971, and the
Southern League Division One title was won in 1974.
The early 1980s proved to be the club's most successful period to date, to the extent that they became the top non league side in the entire country. Highly talented full back
Stuart Pearce was sold to
Coventry City FC and went on to become a stalwart for the England national side. The club won the both the
Southern League Championship and Southern League Cup in 1982. In 1985 they became the first ever club to achieve the non league "double", when they won both the
FA Trophy, beating
Boston United F.C. at Wembley Stadium, and also the Gola League (now the
Conference National).
With an experienced and talented squad, which contained future
Wimbledon FC and Wales midfielder
Vinnie Jones, the club confidently applied for election into the
Football League (the voting system for entry into the Football League was then in its last season, prior to automatic promotion as now happens). However, they lost out, and with a change of managership and a, by then, aging team they were relegated from the Conference two years later, back into the
Southern League.
At this point, the club were then forced to move from their Lower Mead stadium in central Harrow when the then chairman, John Morritt, controversially sold the land to
Tesco supermarkets in dubious circumstances and then resigned, with the club itself receiving very little money for the sale.
Ultimately, this proved financially disasterous for the club, and left them homeless for the next twenty years. The club's new owners then entered into a prestigious but extremely costly two year ground share agreement at
Watford FC, a move which may have destroyed the club entirely had it not been for the fund raising efforts of its fans. A much cheaper ground share at
Yeading F.C. followed, and then a ten year period sharing with
Edgware Town F.C. In 2005, they moved yet again to share with
Northwood F.C.Throughout this long period of homelessness, the club has been run on a very tight budget because of its minimal income sources, as the massive financial damage caused by the sale of the old ground is slowly repaired.
On the pitch, although the team initially slipped rapidly downwards as a result of the severe lack of funds, the decline was eventually reversed. The club requested that the Football Association move it from the
Southern League into the equal standard but less geographically wide-spread
Isthmian League, in order to save on travelling expenses. The FA agreed to this but insisted that the club join the the Istmian League at its lowest level, which effectively meant the club voluntarily taking two steps down in playing standard.
The
Isthmian League Division 3 title was won in 1997, and then promotion from Division 2 was gained the following season. In 1999, the club finished third in Division One and thereby earnt promotion to the Premier Division. However, this was frustratingly denied to them when
Edgware Town F.C.'s ground, at which Wealdstone were then tenants, failed a ground grading inspection. In 2004, the club finally returned to the Premier Division of the Isthmian League, having won the First Division Play-Off Final against
Dulwich Hamlet F.C. on penalties.
With very little money to spend on wages to attract players, the club found itself relying on a large number of inexperienced youngsters, but narrowly avoided relegation in both 2005 and 2006.
In the the summer of 2006, following non league re-organization, the club were very reluctantly reassigned back to
Southern League for the 2006-7 season.
Since being forced to leave Lower Mead, the club and its supporters have sought to be in a position to afford the building of a new home stadium within the
London Borough of Harrow. This plan finally found substance when a suitable site was found at the Prince Edward Playing Fields in
Canons Park, a facility which had fallen into disuse and disrepair. Planning permission for a new stadium with substantial community ammenities was attained, and partial funding given from the national lottery. Construction began in 2003, although the project has been dogged with various financial problems and the work was halted in 2004, when a private company paying the builders went into liquidation. However, good progress has been made in sourcing alternative funding, and it it is hoped that the stadium will now be completed and open in 2007.
#Wealdstone were the first ever Non League "double" winners (Gola League (National Conference) and FA Trophy) in 1985.#Wealdstone have played at
Wembley Stadium three times and have never lost. #Wealdstone took part in the first televised broadcast of a football match in 1946 when they played at
Barnet in an Athenian League game. They also participated in the first live showing of an
FA Cup tie in 1949 v Colchester United at Lower Mead.#
Stuart Pearce and
Vinnie Jones were both discovered by Wealdstone F.C. and went on to captain their respective countries (
England and
Wales).
Some unofficial sites
*http://www.wfcsc.co.uk/
*http://www.come-to-wealdstonefc.co.uk/
*http://www.wealdstonefc.com/index.php
*http://www.wealdstone.net/
