Bridport Football Club is a

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 ...

club based in Bridport,

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Affiliated to the

Dorset County Football Association The Dorset County Football Association is the County Football Association for Dorset. The Dorset County FA traces its root back to the South Hants and Dorset Football Association which was founded in 1884. Three years later in 1887, due to the gro ...

, they are currently members of the and play at St Mary's Field.

History

The club was established on 7 October 1885.History
Bridport F.C. In 1896 they became founder members of the Dorset League.Dorset Senior League 1896–1931
Non-League Matters However, after finishing bottom of the league in 1897–98 the club left the league. They subsequently returned in 1906–07, but left after finishing bottom again. The club went on to play in the South Dorset and West Dorset leagues, before joining the Perry Street & District League. They were league champions in 1912–13, 1922–23 and 1931–32. In 1957 Bridport were founder members of the Dorset Combination. They won the League Cup in the league's inaugural season, beating 15th RASC in the final, and retained the trophy the following season, defeating the same opponents.League & League Cup History
Dorset Premier League The club were league runners-up in 1959–60, and after finishing as runners-up the following season (also losing in the League Cup final to

Dorchester Town Dorchester Town Football Club are a semi-professional football club, based in Dorchester, Dorset, England. They currently play in the . The club is affiliated to the Dorset County Football Association and is a FA chartered Standard club. They ...

reserves), they moved up to the Western League. The club won the league's Challenge Cup in 1970–71 and again in 1972–73.Award Winners
Western League When the Western League gained a second division in 1976, Bridport were placed in the Premier Division. They won the Challenge Cup for a third time in 1977–78, and 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 ...

in 1980–81. Midway through the 1983–84 season Bridport resigned from the Western League, with the reserves (playing in the Dorset Combination) becoming the first team. They were Dorset Combination champions in 1985–86, and after retaining the league title and winning the League Cup for the next two seasons, as well as winning the Dorset Senior Cup in 1987–88,Dorset Senior Cup
Football Club History Database the club were promoted to Division One of the Western League. In 1993–94 they were Division One runners-up, earning promotion to the Premier Division. The club were relegated back to Division One at the end of the 2004–05 season, although they did win the Dorset Senior Cup again. They were promoted to the Premier Division in

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

after finishing third in Division One. In 2021–22 the club were relegated to the

South West Peninsula League The South West Peninsula League (SWPL) is a football competition in England, which was formed in 2007 from the merger of the Devon County League and the South Western League. The league is restricted to clubs based in Cornwall, Devon and West D ...

, picking up just four points by early April.

Ground

After playing at several different grounds, in 1930 the club moved to Crown Field on West Bay Road.Bridport
Pyramid Passion They remained at Crown Field until 1953, when the club relocated to St Mary's Field, bringing with them a 200-seat wooden stand which was placed on one side of the pitch. A covered stand was erected on the other side of the pitch during the 1960s. The wooden stand was later replaced with a new 180-seat stand, with the covered stand also replaced with a more modern structure. A clubhouse known as 'the Beehive' is situated behind one goal. Floodlights were installed in 1990 and inaugurated with a match against

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

on 8 August, with Bridport winning 4–3.

Honours

*Western League **League Cup winners 1970–71, 1972–73, 1977–78 *Dorset Combination **Champions 1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88 **League Cup winners 1957–58, 1958–59, 1986–87, 1987–88 *Perry Street & District League **Champions 1912–13, 1922–23, 1931–32 *Dorset Senior Cup **Winners 1980–81, 1987–88, 2004–05

Records

*Best

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

performance: Third qualifying round, 1957–58, 2017–18 *Best

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

performance: Third qualifying round, 1971–72 *Best

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footbal ...

performance: Fifth round, 1988–89 *Record attendance: 1,150 vs Exeter City, 1981Mike Williams & Tony Williams (2016) ''Non-League Club Directory 2017'', Tony Williams Publications, p568

References

External links