WINSHAM UNITED FOOTBALL CLUB

 

The club's Facebook page will used for publishing all the latest news of the club' announcements, fixtures and other events. Activities are generally fast moving, and fixtures arranged at relatively short notice, making Facebook the obvious choice to be the main media platform, The role of the Parish Web site and the Joint Parish Magazine will be to provide information extracted from Facebook where there is benefit for all concerned in having a less fast moving vehicle for distributing news. Contact can be made with the club using the following e-mail address: wufc1895@outlook.com

  COVID-19 LOCKDOWN- MATCHES restart 5th December-Click here for details


Winsham United FC-New Strip-October 2020

 

100 years ago-1920/21 Season
Richard White, the Player/Chairman of the club has been delving into the history of the club:
Minor League Play 0ff final30th April 1921.


BIT OF WINSHAM UNITED FC HISTORY... 100 years ago... the 1920/21 Season... By the 1920’s football had overtaken cricket as the national sport, especially amongst the working classes. Crowds at professional matches increased significantly and football became a main talking point for the male population. The local football league, The Perry Street & District League formed in 1903, expanded to include 2 “Minor” leagues (in addition to its 1 junior league) in 1920. Winsham United FC having been formed in 1895 and apart from a brief foray into the league in 1907 had concentrated on playing friendly matches with other local teams and reserve teams from the football clubs and works and church teams based in the larger towns in the area, joined the new PSDL Minor league in the Somerset Section (Section 1). In that first season they won the division and went on to beat Axminster Town Reserves (winners of the Devon and 30th April 1921 at the old Holyrood Mill Ground, Chard. (The Holyrood Mill ground Dorset Section) 4-1 in a final played on was in Union Lane. Most of the early PSDL finals were played there as it was the best pitch around. It was near to where the shops close to Avishayes school are now.)The report in the Chard & Ilminster News said “Winsham was from noon to seven o’clock (in the evening) empty of all inhabitant” they were all at the match showing just how important the team was for the village. A crowd of over 1000 watched the final. This clearly shows the enthusiasm that the village had for the team and the interest in the game from the residents of Chard and the surrounding area. The win would have been bitter sweet with mates lost in the Great War at the forefront of the many in attendance whether playing or watching.
The Chard and Ilminster News (7th May 1921) ended their extended 2 column report of the match with the following:
“On Saturday 30th (April), Winsham experienced a novel sensation. From noon till 7pm, the village was denuded of all its able inhabitants, who travelled by best means possible, many being compelled to walk, on account of lack of vehicles to Chard, to witness their football team win the final League match. The club colours were in great demand and everyone sanguine of success. The spectators hurried back home after the match in order to welcome the victorious team, and on the latter arriving within a quarter of a mile of the village, the Winsham Band in full strength, was there to greet them, and to the stirring strains of the “Waverley March” played them triumphantly home. It was a memorable scene; the immense crowd composed of young and old heartily cheering and waving the colours, surpassed any previous experiences; it was good to be alive in Winsham that evening! The Band played a selection at the clubs headquarters, winding up with the National Anthem, and at 10pm Winsham was itself again. Well done Winsham!”
The Winsham United team that day were: A Good, F Good, Spurdle, March, Butcher, Robbins, Churchill, Butler, O’Connell, W Churchill and White. The goalscorers for Winsham were: O’Connell, White, Butcher and O’Connell (in that order). The reporter gave special praise for the performance of A Good (in the Winsham Goal) and F Good in “fine form at left back”. Butcher at centre half “got through an enormous amount of work and fits the position like a glove”. O’Connell was noted as the “shining star” and with his 2 goals was the man of the match.
The 1920/21 season was very successful the total league and friendly games played was 29, 22 were won, 5 drawn and only 2 lost with 110 goals for and 37 against.

 

As more of the Winsham United Football Club is uncovered, items will appear on this page, and will be permanently recorded in its own section of the Winsham Web Museum.

 
Fixtures, results and Match Reports-Autumn 2020-Click HERE

 

Football Predictor - 60 people participating-see details below, although last entry date has now been passed.

 

NEW-Football League Predictor-Last Entry 11th September
Entry Form and rules-Click HERE
As part of our fundraising efforts this year, WUFC will be running a Football League Predictor.
The cost for this is £10 per entry for the whole Season. The main prizes will be for the final positions, with a monthly prize for the best performing selection.
2/3 of any funds raised will be given out in prize money and the remaining 1/3 will be split between club funds and two local charities (details of the charities will be announced this weekend).
There are prizes for the top 6 entries overall, as well as prizes for the best performing team each month.
If you are interested in taking part please message this page and we will forward you an entry form.
Payments can be made in cash or by bank transfer (please state how you would like to pay on your form).
Last entry 11th September.
The rules are listed on the bottom of the entry form but if you require any assistance please drop us a message.
wufc1895@outlook.com

Chairman's Update 24th August 2020

 We are very grateful to the committee and clubs of the Perry Street and District League for allowing us to take part in the 2020/21 season.

The club are fortunate to have appointed a joint management team of Tom Stead and Jay Stewart for the coming season. Debbie Harvey has been elected as Club Secretary, Brendon Hodder Club Treasurer, Steve Weller Parish Council/WRT Liaison officer, Ella White Communication and Social media Co-ordinator.

The club have been fortunate enough to secure kit and tracksuit sponsors for the 125th Anniversary season. The club has chosen to be run as part of the village community of Winsham; we will look to support the village, its organisations and businesses and in return we hope to gain the support of the local population for its team.

We will celebrate our long and successful history in a number of ways and as part of this we will be raising funds for two charities in memory of our two recently departed and much loved football club stalwarts. Lots more information on this to follow over the coming weeks.

All I ask is if you want to be part of that journey (and this journey is open to EVERYONE), even if you only want to jump on the team bus for a couple of stops during this adventure, you will always be kind and considerate to others. This is going to be a positive experience for all - I am sure many shandys will be drunk, lots of money will be raised for good causes and we will make many friends on the way and who knows we might win a few games as well. Good luck to everyone.

Richard White

 Winsham United FC Chairman

 

 

14th August,2020

A message from Richard White, Chairman to the residents of Winsham

 

Winsham United Football Club held an EGM on Saturday 1st August at The Bell. The meeting was very positive and very much looking to the future with the number 1 aim of getting Winsham United FC playing in the 2021/22 season in the Perry Street League as part of a thriving village community. A new, fresh, committee is now in place to make this happen.

The journey the committee have chosen the football club to take over the next 12 months is going to be a very exciting, unique and challenging but most of all fun.

All I ask is if you want to be part of that journey (and this journey is open to EVERYONE), even if you only want to jump on the team bus for a couple stops during this adventure, you are always kind and considerate to others. This is going to be a positive experience for all - I am sure many a shandy  will be drunk, lots of money will be raised for good causes and we will make many friends on the way and who knows we might play a bit of football as well.

We will be freshening our social media presence over the coming weeks with new page, twitter, Instagram, we will also contribute to the various village publications regularly. At the end of the day, the Football Club is going to celebrate 125 years of its existence whether we are playing football or not. Please look out for messages on the weekly social and fund raising events over the coming weeks and months.

 

As part of the Celebrations for the Football Clubs 125th Anniversary we want to celebrate the past achievement of the club and the benefits the club has provided to the village over the past 125 years, memories that past players have, the families that have been involved, etc. We plan to do this in a number of ways one of which is "written and photographic memories" and stories from the past. We want to collect these and be able to publish them sometime over the next 12 months. Initially if you have any contributions you wish to make then please email me at wufc1895@outlook.com . If you are unable to email please feel free to grab me in or around the village. Also if there is an individual in the village who has an interest in village history who may wish to volunteer their time to this project please email me also.

Kindest regards,

 

Kindest regards,

Richard White (Chairman, Winsham United Football Club).