Great Wakering Rovers Football Club is a football club located in

Great Wakering Great Wakering is a village in the Rochford District in Essex, England. It is approximately four miles east of Southend. The village is well served with several historic public houses, a primary school, a Co-operative supermarket, post office, ...

, near

Southend on Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

in Essex, England. The club are members of the and play at Burroughs Park.

History

The club was formed in 1919 by soldiers demobbed after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and finding employment in the local brickfields. They joined the Southend & District League, dominating it during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1982 they switched to the newly-formed Southend & District Alliance Football League, but this league folded in 1989. At this point the club decided to make the step up to intermediate level and were founder members of the new Division Three of Essex Intermediate League.Essex Intermediate League 1986–2001
Non-League Matters In 1990–91 Great Wakering were Division Three champions, earning promotion to Division Two. After winning Division Two the following season, the club successfully applied to join the

Essex Senior League The Essex Senior Football League is an English men's football league. It contains clubs from the Essex FA, Hertfordshire FA, London FA, Middlesex FA and the Amateur Football Alliance. It is a feeder league to Division One North of the Isthm ...

. They went on to win the league in 1994–95 and finished as runners-up three times in the next two seasons. They were as runners-up again in 1998–99, but as champions Saffron Walden Town failed to meet the ground grading requirements for a place in Division Three of the Isthmian League, Great Wakering were promoted in their place. The 1999–2000 season saw Great Wakering finish as runners-up in Division Three, earning promotion to Division Two. League restructuring resulted in them being moved to Division One North in 2002, and in 2004 they were transferred to the Eastern Division of the Southern League, where they remained for two seasons before being transferred back to Division One North of the Isthmian League. In 2011–12 the club finished bottom of the division, and were relegated back to the Essex Senior League. In 2013–14 the club were Essex Senior League champions and were promoted back to the Isthmian League. After finishing bottom of the division in 2016–17, the club were relegated to the Essex Senior League. However, they went on to win the league at the first attempt, earning promotion back to the renamed North Division of the Isthmian League.

Ground

In 1985 the club obtained a lease from the parish council on a disused allotment site. A football ground was built by volunteers with the help of local farmer and supporter Roger Burroughs, who it was named after.Burroughs Park
Great Wakering Rovers F.C. The ground opened in 1989, with work starting on the main stand (the North Stand) in 1992, at which time a small covered area was built on the other side of the pitch.Jon Weaver (2005) ''The Football Grounds of Rural Essex'', p24 A roof was put on the main stand in 1996 and 175 seats later installed. A new covered terrace was installed in 2000. The North Stand was also expanded and currently seats 250. A record attendance of 1,150 was set in 2006 for a pre-season friendly against

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

.Mike Williams & Tony Williams (2012) ''Non-League Club Directory 2013'', p658 The record was broken in July 2021 when a crowd of 1,500 watched another pre-season friendly against the same opponents.A record for Rovers but it’s Blues who start with a win
Yellow Advertiser, 20 July 2021

Honours

*Essex Senior League **Champions 1994–95, 2013–14, 2017–18 *Essex Intermediate League **Division Two champions 1991–92 **Division Three champions 1990–91

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: Second qualifying round, 1998–99, 2006–07 *Best FA Trophy performance: First round, 2002–03, 2004–05 *Best FA Vase performance: Fifth round, 1997–98, 2001–02 *Record attendance: 1,500 vs

, friendly match, 20 July 2021 *Most appearances: John Heffer 511 *Biggest win: 9–0 vs

Eton Manor Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre is a sports and leisure venue located in Leyton, London Borough of Waltham Forest, to the north of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. It is regularly used for international field hockey fixtures by both the Great ...

, 27 December 1931Mike Williams & Tony Williams (2016) ''Non-League Club Directory 2017'', Tony Williams Publications, p361 *Heaviest defeat: 1–7 vs Bowers United, Essex Senior League, 1 April 1998

References

External links