‘Pennygillam’ writes (named on the basis of passing close to Launceston’s ground when news arrived of this site):

 

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On that sign Cray Wanderers are claiming to be the second oldest club in the world. Presumably that’s behind Sheffield and, given the 1860 claim, on a par with Hallam? How much of that is continuous is another matter of course. As for a nomadic existence, there is a case - as you imply - for renaming Sheffield FC as Sheffield (and Derbyshire) Wanderers. Indeed they’re an odd one. When I lived in Sheffield a while back, the club came over as rather ‘attention-seeking’ which I thought to be a great shame.   

 

Wormley Rovers and Brimsdown play in different leagues because one is non-league step 5 and the other is non-league step 6 with the cake being sliced independently at each tier of the game. That makes perfect sense after due consideration but requires rather too much explanation for its own good. And ‘having to explain’ is a problem in English non-league football together with certain league names making less and less geographical sense as lines are redrawn each May with teams also regularly succumbing to the dreaded ‘lateral movement’. Look, I understand it but….

 

Perhaps there’s a lesson too for Scottish football in trying to present the idea of Lowland West and Lowland East. Watching a team win the (English) Southern League Premier South title a few years back never felt like winning the ‘entire’ Southern League. Furthermore, whenever a championship play-off is contested, it’s of little relevance because - with respect to promotion - it’s ‘job done’ already. England would superficially benefit from having a fourth governing body at that level, Scotland by having the West of Scotland League run one fifth- level competition and the East of Scotland League the other. But nobody’s going to concede ground  - are they? - and the ‘system’ working might be the thing even if it often completely baffles people.

 

I’d half-forgotten about Wakefield FC but do remember a conversation returning from Featherstone one Sunday afternoon about how there isn’t a sporting rivalry between Barnsley and Wakefield which are two sizable towns a dozen miles apart. Not in rugby league nor soccer. I see Wakefield FC are playing at Featherstone on Saturday against Leeds UCFA which suggests the ambitious talk of a few years back hasn’t amounted to much so far. When I discovered that New College, the sixth form college in Pontefract, isn’t so much ‘new’ as North East Wakefield, it made me wonder if Post Office Road might be the best the club ever manages before it either quietly fades away or settles for a the reality of non-league step 5 or 6 at a modest venue of its own. Even accepting the dominance of rugby league in the area, that really shouldn’t be too much to anticipate. I mean, if Brixham can make step 4 of their own volition what does it really take? A rugby union town too of course!

 

As for the fragile relationship between football and geographical locality in the London area, I suspect the ship sailed on that long ago. I’ve just been reading a history of Birmingham which reminded me that it’s fifty years ago since I started an urban history module at university (indeed the tutor for that course is mentioned in the book). Towns and cities in the second-half of the 19th century fascinate me to this day and football clubs appear to have been adept at staking claim to land not too far from town centres. I can see this twenty minutes walk from home where Exeter City developed St James’ Park on the old parish field during the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. Near the periphery it may have been but the town grew around it and it’s pretty close to the centre anyhow. One hundred and twenty years later it represents the club’s only chance to play within the existing built-up area. Try something new now and it will be beyond the motorway in East Devon. London is even more problematic for new and seemingly appropriate places to play which merits full marks to Brentford and Wimbledon for their relocations. Everybody else is on a sticky wicket and it’s hardly a new issue when you consider when Clapton last played in Clapton and Millwall in Millwall. Wealdstone heading to Ruislip sounded a ‘poor do’ to me but they’ve made the most of it and - if Harrow Borough are to survive - they may end up there too.

 

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And, given my interest in urban history, Middlesex is one of my pet themes partly because my mother’s forebears - a gang of Devon Boy builders from the South Hams - built a fair few of those 1930s houses which mushroomed all over north west London. In the main they housed two groups of people: those who had moved out of inner London and those from all over Britain and Ireland who were attracted by the ‘new industries’. Hanwell Town may have recently acquired a history of being founded by Geordies working in London but I reckon that wasn’t far from the truth at many of those other inter-war Middlesex clubs where the early supporters, players and volunteers may have spoken with Lancastrian, Scottish or Welsh accents.

 

But places and populations change and those people’s descendants may no longer live nearby to the extent that clubs such as Wealdstone probably attract something of a ‘diaspora’ from a wider area. Having once briefly lived near Harrow’s ground, I finally watched a game there seven or eight years ago and couldn’t help notice that an area - in existence for just forty-odd years when I perched there - was quite different forty years further on. A further reminder of this came last year when I visited the marvellous Gants Hill underground station in East London. Whereas that had been built for a newly-arrived growing population. I was delighted to take a photograph of some of today’s users which subtly emphasised they are the suburban Londoners of today. I can quite understand if they’re not motivated to form a Gants Hill Wanderers team to play in the Essex Senior League - but who knows? There’s already a Sporting Bengal United playing not so far away and that could be non league football’s way of redefining notions such as locality and community.        

 

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