Great Yarmouth Town Football Club is a football club based in Great Yarmouth,

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

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 ...

. They are currently members of the and play at the Wellesley Recreation Ground, whose grandstand is believed to be the world's oldest football stand still in regular use, having been opened on 11 June 1892. The club is affiliated to the Norfolk County FA.

History

The club was established on 20 July 1897, taking most of their players from two local clubs, Yarmouth Fearnoughts and Yarmouth Royal Artillery, which between them, had won the

Norfolk Senior Cup The Norfolk Senior Cup (currently known as the Ashtons Legal Senior Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football cup competition for clubs in the county of Norfolk, England, who compete between steps three and seven of the non-League pyramid. The fi ...

for the previous four years running.Club History
Great Yarmouth Town F.C. The new club were founder members of the

Norfolk & Suffolk League The Norfolk & Suffolk League was a football league covering the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk in England. History The league was established in 1897, starting with six clubs, Beccles Caxton, Great Yarmouth Town, Kirkley, Lowestoft Town, Lynn ...

in 1897,Norfolk & Suffolk League 1897–1939
Non-League Matters and in their first season in existence, they won the Norfolk Senior Cup, beating Lynn Town 4–3 in a replay after a 0–0 draw in the first match. They won the cup again in 1901–02 and retained it in each of the next four seasons, each time defeating Lynn Town in the final. They finished bottom of the Norfolk & Suffolk League in 1903–04, and in 1908–09 the club also entered a team into the

East Anglian League The East Anglian League was a football league in the East Anglia region of England. History The league was established in 1903 as the South East Anglian League. The founder member clubs were Chelmsford City, Colchester Crown, Colchester Town, ...

, finishing bottom of the table. They finished bottom of the East Anglian League again the following season, but were runners-up in 1911–12 and 1912–13.East Anglian League 1908–1964
Non-League Matters Great Yarmouth were expelled from the Norfolk & Suffolk League during the 1912–13 season, but after being reinstated during the close season, the club were league champions in 1913–14. They withdrew from the East Anglian League in 1920. The club won back-to-back Norfolk & Suffolk League titles in 1926–27 and 1927–28, and were runners-up in 1929–30 and 1933–34. In 1935 they were founder members of the Eastern Counties League, and won the League Cup in 1938. In the 1947–48 season the club reached the first round of the

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 ...

for the first time, but lost 4–1 at home to

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

in front of a crowd of 4,160. In 1951–52 they won the East Anglian Cup, and the following season saw them reach the FA Cup first round again, beating

Guildford City Guildford City Football Club (formerly Guildford United and AFC Guildford) is a football club based in Guildford, Surrey, England. The club was established in 1921, folded in 1974 and was reformed in 1996. Guildford City play in the . Histo ...

1–0 in a replay after a 2–2 draw, before losing 4–1 at home to

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

in front of a new record attendance of 6,963. They reached the second round again the following season, beating

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

1–0 before another record crowd of 8,944, before losing 5–2 at Barrow. After finishing as league runners-up in 1956–57 and 1967–68, Great Yarmouth won the Eastern Counties League for the first, and to date only time in 1968–69 under the management of Jimmy Moran. Former

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

player Bill Punton took over as manager, and in a 21-year spell in charge (making him the club's longest serving manager), they won the League Cup again in 1974–75 and 1980–81, the Norfolk Senior Cup four times, as well as finishing as league runners-up twice and FA Vase semi-finalists in 1982–83, losing in extra-time to VS Rugby in front of a crowd of 4,552. In 1988 the Eastern Counties League gained a second division, with Great Yarmouth placed in the Premier Division. They won the league's Millennium Trophy in 2002–03,Honours
Great Yarmouth Town F.C. and remained in the Premier Division until being relegated to Division One at the end of the 2004–05 season. They won Division One in 2009–10, earning promotion back to the Premier Division. However, they were relegated again two seasons later. A third-place finish in Division One in 2015–16 saw the club promoted back to the Premier Division. In 2018–19 they finished second-from-bottom of the Premier Division and were relegated to Division One North.

Ground

The Wellesey Recreation Ground was opened on 6 August 1888, with the first event, cycle races on a cinder track, watched by a crowd of around 3,000.Great Yarmouth Town
Pyramid Passion Cricket pitches and a tennis court were also created in the ground, with the first football match at the ground thought to have been on 11 April 1890 when a County Captain's team played a Yarmouth XI. After fundraising started in 1891, a new grandstand was erected the following year and opened on 11 June 1892 for a joint athletics and cycling meeting watched by around 4,200 spectators. The stand was given Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

status in 2002. Great Yarmouth Town initially played at the Beaconsfield Recreation Ground before moving to the Wellesey Recreation Ground at the start of the 1901–02 season. Concrete terracing and cover was installed on the western side of the pitch in 1931. The record attendance of 8,944 was set on 21 November 1953 for an FA Cup first round match against Crystal Palace. Floodlights were installed in 1983 and inaugurated in a friendly match against

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

on 7 October.

Honours

*Eastern Counties League **Champions 1968–69 **Division One champions 2009–10 **League Cup winners 1937–38, 1974–75, 1980–81 **Millennium Trophy winners 2002–03 * Norfolk & Suffolk League **Champions 1913–14, 1926–27, 1927–28 *Norfolk Senior Cup **Winners 1897–98, 1902–03, 1903–04, 1904–05, 1905–06, 1928–29, 1929–30, 1961–62, 1964–65, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1984–85, 1989–90 *East Anglian Cup **Winners 1951–52

Records

*Best

performance: Second round, 1952–53, 1953–54 *Best FA Trophy performance: Third qualifying round, 1969–70 *Best FA Vase performance: Semi-finals, 1982–83 *Record attendance: 8,944 vs

, FA Cup first round, 21 November 1953Mike Williams & Tony Williams (2016) ''Non-League Club Directory 2017'', Tony Williams Publications, p402 *Most appearances: Mark Vincent, 700 (1984–2005) *Most goals: Gordon South, 298 (1927–1947)

References

External links