Ilfracombe Town Association 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 Ilfracombe, Devon, England. They are currently members of the and play at Marlborough Park, situated high on a hill overlooking the

Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel ( cy, Môr Hafren, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Seve ...

History

The club was established in 1902 as Ilfracombe Football Club.History
Ilfracombe Town F.C. They were founder members of the North Devon League in 1904 and played in the league's first match, a 4–2 win at Pilton Yeo Vale. However, the club left the league at the end of the 1905–06 season. A team under the name Ilfracombe Devonia joined the league in 1908–09 and was replaced by Ilfracombe Town in the following season. Ilfracombe Town finished bottom of the Senior Division in 1919–20. Although they were Senior Division runners-up in 1921–22, the club finished bottom of the Senior Division again in 1922–23, and left to join the East Devon League. Ilfracombe returned to the North Devon League in the mid-1920s, but left before the end of the decade. Returning to the league in 1931, they were runners-up in 1931–32. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Ilfracombe played in the Premier Division of the Exeter & District League.Exeter & District League 1948–1972
Non-League Matters Despite only finishing twelfth in the division in 1948–49, the club moved up to the Western League, becoming a founder member of its new Division Three. They were runners-up in their first season in the division, earning promotion to Division Two. The club were Division Two runners-up in 1952–53 and were promoted to Division One. However, after finishing bottom of Division One in 1954–55, they were relegated back to Division Two. In 1959, the club left the Western League, returning to the North Devon League in 1960. They were Senior Division champions in 1966–67. The division was renamed the Premier Division in 1969 and the club were champions again in 1970–71, 1981–82 (winning all 26 league matches) and 1982–83.Honours
North Devon League After finishing as Premier Division runners-up in 1983–84,Ilfracombe Town
North Devon League Ilfracombe rejoined the Western League, entering Division One. The club finished bottom of the division in their first season back in the league, and again in 1995–96. However, after finishing third in Division One in 2006–07, the club were promoted to the Premier Division. In 2014, they resigned from the Western League, with the first team replacing the reserves in the Premier Division of the North Devon League.Ilfracombe Town FC to leave Western League
''North Devon Gazette'', 30 July 2014 The club won the Premier Division title in 2016–17, and were promoted to Division One East of 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 ...

. Following league reorganisation at the end of the 2018–19 season, the club were elevated to the Premier Division East. In 2021 they were promoted to the Premier Division of the Western League based on their results in the abandoned 2019–20 and

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

seasons.

Ground

The club play at Marlborough Park. The site was bought in 1923 and the ground developed during the 1924–25 season. The ground currently has a capacity of 2,000, of which 60 is seated and 450 covered.

Honours

*North Devon League **Premier Division champions 1966–67, 1970–71, 1981–82, 1982–83 **Brayford Cup winners 1980–81, 1981–82, 1983–84 **Combe Martin Cup winners 1963–64 **Challenge Cup winners 1960–61, 1962–63

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 ...

best performance: Fourth qualifying round, 1952–53 *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 ...

best performance: Third round, 2011–12 *Record attendance: 3,000 vs

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

*Most appearances: Bob Hancock, 459 *Most goals: Kevin Squire

References

External links