Bournemouth Gasworks Athletic F.C. were an English

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team from

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

, Hampshire, who were successful in both county and national competitions, reaching the final of the

FA Amateur Cup The FA Amateur Cup was an English football competition for amateur clubs. It commenced in 1893 and ended in 1974 when the Football Association abolished official amateur status. History Following the legalisation of professionalism within footba ...

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be ...

. They became defunct in

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

History

Founded in

1899 Events January 1899 * January 1 ** Spanish rule ends in Cuba, concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. ** Queens and Staten Island become administratively part of New York City. * January 2 – **Bolivia sets up a c ...

as the Bournemouth Gas & Water Co works side and joined the Hampshire League West Division in

1904 Events January * January 7 – The distress signal ''CQD'' is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by ''SOS''. * January 8 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system. * ...

. In 1921 Bournemouth Gasworks were placed in the County Division (later to become Division One) and this marked the start of a very successful period for 'the Lights' as they were crowned champions in 1922–23. The club added the Athletic suffix to their name at this time. The late Twenties saw the side record some fine runs in the

, most notably in 1929–30 when they reached the final, which was played at West Ham United's Upton Park stadium where a crowd of 21,800 saw them hold Ilford 1–1 at the break before they eventually lost by a 1–5 scoreline. In 1932–33 they reached the Semi-Finals but were narrowly beaten 1–2 by Stockton. The Gasworks remained a strong force in county football and were Hampshire League Division One champions a further four times during the Thirties with the reserve side also winning the Division Two title.

Post war

The post war era saw Bournemouth Gasworks remain a prominent force in the Hampshire League and the cups. During this time they were regular entrants in the FA Cup qualifying rounds and they won the Hampshire Senior Cup in 1952–53 and 1953–54. In 1956–57 the Gasworks were relegated after finishing bottom and after a mid-table finish in Division Two the club left the Hampshire League to play in local Dorset football. They would go on to win the Dorset League nine times, as well as winning the

Dorset Senior Cup The Dorset Senior Cup is a knockout cup competition involving association football teams from the county of Dorset, England, affiliated with the Dorset County Football Association. The current holders of the Dorset Senior Cup are Poole Town who ...

ten times and the Dorset Amateur Cup nine times.

Demise

Through circumstances beyond their control, the loss of their magnificent Alder Road home ground in 1972 prompted the club's decision to call it a day after a decline in fortunes.Listed as defunct
: ''Yore.Demon.co.uk'' personal website (

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

file). The final curtain came down in March 1973 the Club staged a formal Farewell Dinner to commemorate the end of an illustrious history. The event was well attended with a number of legends from the 1930 FA Amateur Cup final team in attendance.

Honours

* Hampshire League Champions (5) – 1922–23, 1931–32, 1934–35, 1935–36, 1937–38 * Hampshire Senior Cup Winners (2) – 1952–53, 1953–54 *

Winners (10) – 1908–09, 1909–10, 1910–11, 1911–12, 1913–14, 1920–21, 1921–22, 1924–25, 1930–31, 1938–39 *

Runner-up – 1929–30 (semi-finalists 1932–33) * FA Cup – Best performance – 3rd Qualifying Round 1946–47, 1952–53, 1953–54

League Records

References

Print

*Gone But Not Forgotten (Part 5), by Dave Twydell,

Internet

External links

Football Club History Database profile of Bournemouth Gasworks Athletic F.C.

2009 Reunion Article
{{Bournemouth Sport in Bournemouth Defunct football clubs in England Association football clubs established in 1899 Association football clubs disestablished in 1973 Defunct football clubs in Hampshire 1899 establishments in England 1973 disestablishments in England Works association football teams in England