Saturday 13th July 2024 ko 15:00

Heritage Cup

CRAY WANDERERS 0

SHEFFIELD FC 4 (A Smith 45 Watson 54 62 Aldrich 58)

Att 466 at Flamingo Park, Sidcup

Entry £10

Programme £2

I know why I’d been attracted to this one, and it wasn’t the quasi-competive fixture. Without ever trying since returning from Sweden I’d watched my football at a steady succession of 3G cages and I was getting heartily bored of them. I chose to ignore Flamingo Park having a 3G pitch…

Cray are London’s oldest football club being formed in 1860 from migrant workers employed at St Mary Cray building the London, Chatham & Dover Railway. The suffix “Wanderers” was rather apt, the club led a nomadic existance until moving to Grassmeade staying from 1954 to 1973. They then moved to Oxford Road, Sidcup until 1998 when Kent (now SCEFL) League rules requiring floodlights, impossible at Oxford Road, forcing them into a groundshare at Bromley FC. They were to stay there until the end of last season, at 26 years one of the longest groundshares in English football history.

Salvation came in the form of Flamingo Park, on the A20 Sidcup bypass, and once the National Dock Labour Board ground was purchased, and after a legal battle, developed as Wanderers first home they can call their own. The ground was first used by Cray’s women at the end of last season before the stand was erected, and before you ask the Flamingo name was coined by the Dock Labour Board, and no-one seems to know why?

The new ground is, understandably a work in progress. Do pay attention to the clubhouse – a relic of the Dock Labour Board. It actually faces away from the new pitch, the refit has allowed access and a pitchside bar (serving their own branded beer!), and makes use of the ecclesiastical-feeling top storey and balcony. That balcony was amply made use of by Sheffield FC’s officials!

And if you’re going to have a Heritage Cup, having London’s oldest club playing the world’s oldest (1857) made a lot of sense, and its fair to say the visitors enjoyed their day out in the sun! Sheffield won too, and won well albeit with the caveat of not reading too much into pre-season games.

None of which in the fullness of time will matter. What does is that Cray Wanderers finally have home to call their own. Well done to them, and all the best for the future.