W*ymouth: Club history

It is probably not a coincidence that football clubs in W*ymouth and Yeovil were both formed in the same year, 1890, as the game spread from its early heartlands into remoter corners.

W*ymouth’s first six years were filled with playing in various cups and friendlies with the Terras, so named because of their terracotta coloured kit, winning the Dorset Senior Cup for the first three seasons.

Founder members of the Dorset League, W*ymouth joined the Western League in 1907–08 when they faced Yeovil Casuals the first time in March 1908. A double header saw the home sides prevail in each game, with W*ymouth winning the opening encounter 8-3 and then losing 2-1 in the reverse fixture in Somerset.

The club turned semi-professional in 1923 after winning the Western League, joining the Southern League in the process, but withdrew five years later amid mounting debts and returned to amateur status.

The Terras’ stadium since 1897, The Recreation Ground, was requisitioned in 1939 to assist the Second World War effort and it was not until 1947 that the club reformed in the Western League. After two campaigns at that level, they returned to the Southern League for the 1949-50 campaign where they remained until the end of the 1970s.

In successive seasons, 1964–65 and 1965–66, W*ymouth were Southern League champions, and they share with Telford United and Yeovil Town the distinction of playing all 20 seasons in the Premier Division from its inception in 1959 to the re-organisation of the Non-League structure with the creation of The Alliance in 1979. As founder members, the Terras remained in the top flight of Non-League for a decade.

The club moved to its current home, initially called the Wessex Stadium, in 1987 and played a Manchester United side at the stadium’s opening in October 1987. A goal from Peter Conning, who would go on to become one of a string of players to represent both Yeovil and Weymouth, was the only scorer that night. Having spent the first two seasons in their new ground in what was by then called the (GM Vauxhall) Conference, W*ymouth were relegated in 1988-89, returning to the Southern League.

Yeovil Town celebrate an 3-1 FA Cup win at the Wessex Stadium in 1987.
Picture courtesy of Tim Lancaster.

They’d beaten Yeovil at Huish on Boxing Day 1988 but went down 0-2 at The Wessex in the return fixture on January 2nd, 1989; and that was the last we saw of our friends down the A37 in league action for more than three decades.

For the next fifteen seasons they bobbed around between the Southern League Premier and Southern League South.

The club had been taken over by journalist Ian Ridley as chairman who appointed Steve Claridge (he’s played at the highest level you know), who’d turned out 110 times for the Terras in the 1980s before going on to career at the likes of Birmingham City, Leicester City and Portsmouth; and in 2003-04 they finished second in the SLPD to reach Conference South.

The arrival of hotelier Martyn Harrison, who owned the Hotel Prince Regent in the resort, led to the ousting of Ridley early the following season. If you’ve not read his 2006 book Floodlit Dreams, How To Save A Football Club on the events at that time I can highly recommend it. Some Terras, painted in a particularly unflattering light, have still not forgiven him two decades later!

Claridge was sacked in October following the defeat to lowly Thame United in an FA Cup third qualifying round and Harrison appointed Steve Johnson, brother of Gary.

Johnson lasted less than a season and Garry Hill, a familiar face in non-League football after spells at a plethora of clubs, was put in charge. Hill guided W*ymouth to the Conference South title in 2006. However, the success was built on as much sand as you’d find on W*ymouth beach, with Harrison committing the club to £20,000 a week in full-time wages. In January 2007, the owner transfer listed the entire first team and dispensed with Hill and assistant Kevin Hales, placing player Jason Tindall in charge along with former Glover Roy O’Brien named player-coach.

The following summer Harrison (allegedly) cleared the club’s debts and sold the club to Mel Bush, the father-in-law of Tindall. That didn’t save him, sacked after a year in charge to be replaced by John Hollins who just about kept them up.

The spiral of financial chaos merely continued. Bush sold the club to Malcolm Curtis. Hollins was initially suspended and then sacked for what the club described as an “unprofessional attitude”. Assistant Alan Lewer took over. At the start of 2009 chief executive Gary Calder announced that Curtis had resigned as Chairman and from the Board. Irregularities with first-team medical insurance saw them forced to field an under-18s team in February in a game against Rushden & Diamonds, suffering a 9-0 thrashing, the heaviest in their history. Many first team players never returned.

Step forward saviour Stephen Beer with a £300,000 cheque to save the club. Calder announced to the world (well the tiny bit that was listening): “It is not everyday that a person like Stephen Beer drops out of the sky and makes such an investment. Stephen Beer’s investment is a huge boost and it will help stabilise everything.” Or not… as Calder discovered when he went to deposit the cheque and discovered banks do not accept the validity of cheques that have parts tippexed out and re-written. Within days it all unravelled: Beer was a fantasist who actually had no money at all, being a part-time cleaner. Calder’s position would become untenable.

Ridley returned briefly to try to salvage something from the fiasco but this just split the club further as there remained huge bitterness amongst some about how they had been portrayed in that book concerning his first spell as Chairman. Lewer was sacked, replaced by Bobby Gould, but he was on a hiding to nothing. Still with a makeshift team W*ymouth were relegated from the Conference Premier, having not won a game since that February debacle. Gould departed at the end of the campaign to be replaced by Matty Hale.

The club started the 2009-10 season in Conference South badly on the field, and worse off it. A desperate appeal for fund raising kept it afloat during September, but in October they hit the bottom of the division and Hale resigned as manger. The following week Ridley resigned as Chairman along with chief-executive Dave Higson.  On October 26th the club announced  it could see no option but to enter into administration.

Could things get any worse? Well the next saviour to arrive was George Rolls, a man who came with a reputation from his chairmanship at Cambridge United that was dubious at best. (In 2012 the F.A. would go on to fine him £10,000 and ban him from all involvement in football for five years.)

Ian Hutchinson had taken over as manager after Hale but he only lasted until January.  In came Jerry Gill. He resigned after 44 days. In March Rolls announced that there were debts of £822,000 and applied for a Company Voluntary Agreement, declaring if the CVA was not accepted the club would be liquidated. Creditors had little option but to agree and at least get something. They received 9% of what they were owed. Meanwhile, on the pitch, W*ymouth was relegated to the Southern League Premier Division.

Rolls brought Hutchinson back as manager, then with the club bottom of the SLPD sacked him again in January 2011. Martyn Rogers came in and a third straight relegation was just avoided on the final day of the season.

Finally in February 2012  director and lifelong fan Nigel Biddlecombe completed a takeover that got Rolls out. One of the first things Biddlecombe did was to establish a Trust into which a majority of shares were transferred to ensure no one individual could have total control of the club again.

In 2011-12 they again just kept their place in the SLPD, this time with two matches to go; but over the next six campaigns stabilised with 9th, 12th, 7th, 7th, 10th and 5th finishes.

The Southern League was restructured for the 2018-19 season, W*ymouth finishing in first place in the new Southern League Premier Division South, and thus securing promotion to National League South. Mark Molesley was the manager who finally got them rising up the table.

In the following incomplete 2019-20 campaign W*ymouth was awarded 3rd place on PPG and in the delayed play-offs they were promoted to the National League Premier after a Final victory over Dartford. Two successive promotions meant they couldn’t hold on to Molesley who was lured away by Southend United (though it didn’t work out for him there – does it for anybody these days?). He was replaced at the Bob Lucas by Brian Stock.

In 2020-21, played with no relegation, the Terras finished 18th. Things could only get better? Nope, worse. Struggling towards the foot of the table from the outset in the 2021-22 campaign Stock was sacked in January, with Sean O’Driscoll, who only been brought in in December to give him ‘advice’, banished at the same time. The replacement brought in was David Oldfield on a two and half year deal, but one can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear and matters didn’t improved. Only complete basket case Dover Athletic, who finished the season on just one point after a twelve point deduction, were below them in the table as Our-Friends-by-the Sea joined them back in National League South.

The following season continued in similar vein and Oldfield was sacked in September. Bobby Wilkinson was next up in the hot seat but as the 2022-23 campaign reached the run-in the Terras appeared odds on for a double relegation. Needing to win their last three games and other results to go for them… both happened. The final day saw survival on goal difference, an imploding Dulwich Hamlet taking the drop in their stead.

This season they bumped along just above the relegation line until the turn of the year but since then, in fits and starts without much consistency, have slowly clawed their way towards what looks likely to end up as a mid-table finish. On 27th March the club and Wilkinson parted company by “mutual consent”.

Mark Molesley has returned for a second spell as manager at W*ymouth, introduced to the crowd ahead of the Bank Holiday fixture versus Yeovil Town though not in charge for that game.

W*ymouth: We’ve Met Before

Previous Results for Yeovil Town First Team vs W*ymouth

02/01/1989 Away CONF W 2-0 2480 Grimshaw, Whittingham
28/11/1999 Away FAT2 D 0-0 4053
30/11/1999 Home FAT2r W 2-1 3196 Patmore 76, Tisdale 84
05/01/2021 Away NLP W 3-0 0 Neufville 14, Skendi 19, Quigley 88 (pen)
23/02/2021 Home NLP W 3-1 0 Murphy 2, 52,82
16/10/2021 Home FAC4Q D 1-1 3354 Wakefield 11
19/10/2021 Away FAC4Qr W 1-1 aet (2-1 pens) 2911 Worthington 21
01/02/2022 Home NLP D 1-1 3936 Yussuf 52
18/04/2022 Away NLP D 0-0 2609
24/10/2023 Home NLS W 2-0 6289 Young 8, Hyde 90
01/04/2024 Away NLS 4712 ABANDONED (75 mins) with home team leading 1-0 *

For the full head-to-head results vs W*ymouth dating back to 1908 – click here.

Results Summary For Yeovil Town First Team vs W*ymouth FC

Home Away Overall
W D L F A W D L F A W D L F A
53 20 28 197 138 31 20 52 116 187 82 40 80 313 325

(* National League ruled match would not be replayed, that the home team would be gifted 3 points but recorded as a 0-0 in terms of goals in the table. Given this mess it has not been added to the results summary.)

W*ymouth: Club Statistics

RECENT LEAGUE RESULTS SEQUENCE

10/02/2024 Chelmsford City Away NLS L 0-1 812
17/02/2024 Worthing Home NLS L 1-4 1028 Linton 80
20/02/2024 Hampton & Richmond Borough Home NLS L 2-4 689 Linton 25, Bearwish 39
27/02/2024 St Albans City Home NLS D 3-3 637 Goodship 18, Bakrin 85, Rowan 89
02/03/2024 Torquay United  Home NLS D 1-1 2008 Touray 44
09/03/2024 Aveley Away NLS W 2-0 458 Linton 52, 75
12/03/2024 Truro City Away NLS POSTPONED
16/03/2024 Braintree Town Home NLS L 0-1 845
19/03/2024 Braintree Town Away NLS D 0-0 846
23/03/2024 Havant & Waterlooville Home NLS W 4-1 979 Bearwish 9, Goodship 72 (pen), O’Connell 79, Touray 89
29/03/2024 Bath City Away NLS D 1-1 1945 Touray 79
01/04/2024 Yeovil Town Home NLS 4712 ABANDONED (77 mins)
06/04/2024 Eastbourne Borough Away NLS L 0-1 1451

 

ATTENDANCE STATISTICS

Highest League Attendance: 2,008 v Torquay United, 02/03/2024
Lowest League Attendance: 637 v St Albans City, 27/03/2024
Average League Attendance: 982

CURRENT LEAGUE SEQUENCE STATISTICS

Games Without A Win: 1 Games Without A Home Win: 0
Games Without An Away Win: 2 Games Without Defeat: 3
Games Without A Home Defeat: 1 Games Without An Away Defeat: 3
Games Without A Draw: 0 Games Without A Score Draw: 0
Games Without A No-Score Draw: 2 Games Without Scoring: 0
Games Without Conceding: 0 Home Results Sequence: LLDDLW
Away Results Sequence: LWDD Overall Results Sequence: LLLDDWLDWD

 

W*ymouth: Club Information

Bob Lucas Stadium, Radipole Lane, Weymouth, Dorset, DT4 9XJ

(Click for map)

Telephone Number: 01305 785558
Email: office@weymouthfootballclub.co.uk

Chairman: Paul Maitland
Manager: Jason Matthews (interim)

Capacity: 6,600 (nominal capacity, closer to certification for 5,000 these days)
Seated: 900
Covered Terrace: most but not all of the rest of the stadium.

Record Attendance : 6,500 vs Nottingham Forest, FA Cup First Round Proper 14/11/2005. (At former Recreation Ground 12,512 vs Yeovil Town, FA Cup First Round Proper 11/12/1948.)
Colours: For anyone who might care, there is debate (even among the Portland North faithful themselves) whether it’s Terracotta or Claret & Blue. For what it’s worth the current kit looks more claret to me with light blue trim on shirt and shorts and hooped socks: “Chim chim-in-ey, chim chim-in-ey chim chim cher-oo…”
Nickname: The Terras.
Programme: £3.00

Ticketing

Kick-off has been brought forward to 1.00 p.m. At time of writing (Tuesday evening 26/03) there would appear to still be a few – terrace only – of our 2,000 allocation remaining: CLICK HERE. There will be NO ticket sales on the day at the stadium.

For away fans entry is through turnstiles 9 & 10 or 11 & 12. We have the Windowman Terrace (southern end of the stadium) which is covered for most of its length but open at both ends; and a southern section of the Main Stand which is on the West side of the ground. Check what is printed on the ticket as the host club claims tickets that do not match the turnstile will not be accepted.

Disabled:

Registered disabled supporters (middle or higher rate of Disability) pay the relevant ticket price above but may be accompanied by a carer for whom entry is FREE. For wheelchair users spaces are in front of the Main Stand at pitch side.

Sixteen bays are available for disabled drivers (so probably ring the club if needing to try for these, though its website doesn’t appear to specify whether they are bookable of not).

Official Away Travel

The Green & White Supporters’ Club is running away travel to Weymouth on 1st April with a 1.00 p.m. kick-off.

Details are as follows:

Members: Adult £12; Concession £12
Non-Members: Adult £15; Concession £15
Coach departs Huish Park: 10.00 a.m.

To book, call Paul Hadlow on 07736 044570 (after 6.00 p.m. please) or email him on paulhadlow@outlook.com.

If you are getting in touch by email, please make it clear which match you are booking for and that you give your full name, the names of people that are travelling and a contact telephone number.

You may be asked to pay a £5 deposit to reserve your seat.

W*ymouth: Directions To The Ground

By Road

Door to door, Huish Park to Bob Lucas Stadium is 30.2 miles by road. Called the A37 Derby by no one except desperate journalists, that will be the route those Glovers based in Yeovil will mostly take, becoming the A35 at Poundbury and then the A354 on the run from the south side of Dorchester down towards the sea. The stadium is out on the north-west side of town. Leave Weymouth Way (A354) at Chafeys Roundabout, taking the third exit onto Granby Way (B3157). Follow Granby Way for just under a mile until the next Wessex Roundabout, where the third exit leads to the stadium and carpark (on the left).

Although the ground name was changed to Bob Lucas Stadium in 2010 you may still see route signs using its former name, The Wessex Stadium. Things don’t move fast in Darzet.

Parking

Parking at the ground is limited and on a first-come-first-served basis. Home fans will be directed  to park in the Top Car Park, away fans will be directed to park in the Lower Car Park. With a single exit serving both carpark areas post match exit can be slow.

Once the car park is full  be aware that the local Dorset Police Station is yards away, so don’t take the mick where you dump the car! Some sections of road immediately around the stadium will be coned. Given it’s a Bank Holiday fixture, with most firms likely to be closed, on-street in Granby Industrial Estate may be the best bet. Depending exactly where on the estate this will then be  around a half mile (ten minute) walk to the ground. There’s also on-street (and a moderate sized free public car park) in the Southill housing estate half a mile north-east of the stadium, though maybe not if your vehicle can be identified as belonging to a Yeovil supporter.

By Rail

Weymouth Railway Station is 1.8 miles (so around 35 minutes walk) from the Bob Lucas Stadium. Services out of Pen Mill are run by Great Western Railway with a journey times between 46 and 58 minutes. There’s only one train every two hours on Bank Holiday Monday morning: 07.33, 09.34, 11.33. The last doesn’t get in until 12.27 which would be tight for getting up to and into the ground for kick-off. The only post-match return options are at 17.28 or (in the unlikely event of wanting to remain longer in W*ymouth than have to) the 20.14 or 21.28.

By Bus

The local bus that runs closest to the ground is the No. 3 but this service appears not to be running at all on the Bank Holiday. The next nearest route is the No. 8 but the closest stops are along the Chickerell Road (B3517) a mile from the ground. It’s operating a much reduced service of one bus an hour and from mid-morning to late afternoon only.

By Taxi

Given the woeful public transport (see above) those without their own transport wanting to do anything pre- or post-match around Weymouth will find some taxi numbers here.

 

Web Sites

The club’s Official Website, ambiguously named Up The Terras, can be found here.

The long running TerrasTalk where they can engage in what loosely passes for conversation amongst themselves changed address at some point and tweaked its name to Terras Talking Ground.

 

Local Press

W*ymouth FC is covered by the Dorset Echo. Well someone has to do this distasteful job.

 

W*ymouth : Food & Drink

General

Have taken the step of redacting (rather than loads of black blocks it’s still there, you just can’t see it) all the information on different pubs except one (below). The reason for this is because I simply don’t know which ones are intending to exclude anyone that can be identified as a Yeovil fan (have reasons to believe a number are); which ones intend to exclude anyone who can be identified as a fan of either side (am aware of one but suspect there may be others); and which will be retaining a bit of professional calm and making individual rather than blanket judgements. As it’s a 1.00 p.m. kick-off only a minority would be usefully open early enough pre-match anyway.

Personal opinion: hate the Away Fan Designated Pub concept. No one pressures me as to where can and can’t drink and, being bloody-minded, always go out of way to find somewhere else… even if would have been quite happy drinking in a particular venue until the authorities tried to insist I had to, just to make the point.  However, if you have a particular favoured hostelry in the area that you know opens early enough – there’s a number in the centre that do so from 10.00 or 11.00 a.m. rather than noon – would suggest you are not obviously a Glover or may get turned away unless they know you well.

Club Bar

The club house, called 1890 Bar, at Bob Lucas Stadium are not available to away fans when matches are segregated. Our match is segregated. The away area will have access to a bar, burger van and refreshment kiosk. The club states it operates the Challenge 25 Policy (it’s actually written 24 but that’s because it’s Tin Pot). If you don’t know what Challenge 25 is it’ll be because you’re years over the threshold… and there’s no need to find out cuz it won’t effect you. If it’s relevant to you have some (convincing) ID… though with 2,000 Yeovil fans in doubt very much there’ll be much actual checking going on.

Local Pubs

William Henry: Town centre Spoons . You know what Spoons are like so no need for detail. This one opens from 7.00 a.m., children allowed until 10.00 p.m., and closes midnight Sunday to Thursday and 1.00 p.m. Friday and Saturday. This has been designated the AWAY FANS pub and has been made exclusive to YTFC supporters from opening until (presumably) some time around 12.30 to 1.00 p.m. given it’s 1.8 miles from the ground. Other customers during this period will be directed to the second Wetherspoon in town, The Swan, at 41-43 St Thomas Street, DT4 8EH, that opens an hour later, same closing times. If you can be identified as Glover don’t show up there, you will not be let in.
William Henry, 1 Frederick Place, Weymouth, Dorset, DT4 8HQ. Tel: 01305 763730. Map: William Henry.

Likelihood the Natives Will Understand You:
A possibility they speak the same language, but they won’t like you so probably not worth finding out.

Top-Tip:
Best not to mention you’re there to support Yeovil.

Weymouth: Local Amenities
It’s by the sea so expect there’s some sort of beach. Probably has donkeys on it – two and four legged.

Other Points Of Interest:
None at all, except the road out.

[No responsibility is taken for any inaccuracies. This page is entirely the product of bias and prejudice.]