Page 2 - WS Anniversary of Wokingham Town Football Club in the Cup (Amended)

Acknowledgements

This publication has been produced by Kevin Lenton who would like to acknowledge
the following people and organisations:-

Mark Ashwell, at the time of producing this, President of Wokingham & Emmbrook
Football Club, who gave permission for me to extract details from the Wokingham
Town programme for the cup tie against Cardiff City.

Jim Bell’s Wokingham in the News, an eBook available on the Wokingham Society’s
website.

The Football Club History Directory (FCHD)

Huw at the Reference Desk at Bracknell Library who sent me the scanned copies of
the Bracknell & Wokingham Times with the match reports. How lucky was I to speak
to a Cardiff City supporter?

Introduction

th
2017 represented the 35 anniversary of Wokingham Town’s appearance for the first
st
and last time in the 1 Round of the FA Cup.
This might seem not much of achievement but needs to be taken into account within
Wokingham Town’s history. The following is based on an article in the Wokingham
Times [

Wokingham Town Football Club was founded in 1875, which makes it the fourth
oldest club in Berkshire, with only Reading, Abingdon and Maidenhead having been
formed just a few years earlier. The club’s original ground was in Oxford Road, but
after a few years a pitch was laid out on the cricket ground in Wellington Road. In
1896 a further switch was made to Langborough Road and some ten years later the
club moved to its final ground in Finchampstead Road.

Town entered the Ascot & District League and quickly consolidated its position in
local football, so much so, that in the 1909-10 season tickets were selling well at 2s.
6d. each. In 1910-11 Wokingham Athletic’s second eleven joined forces with Town
and there is little doubt that this paved the way to the club’s first championship the
following season.

By 1911-12 Wokingham was the unchallenged leader of local football and the
following year it enjoyed its most successful season when it won the Ascot League
and the Camberley Hospital Cup.

After the First World War a dispute broke out between Wokingham and the league,
which led to the Club’s withdrawal and in 1921 it entered two teams in the Reading
Temperance League.

In this first season Wokingham reached the semi-finals of the Reading Town Cup
and the Berks & Bucks Junior Cup, both for the first time.

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SOUVENIR PROGRAMME – 35 YEARS – FA CUP 1 ROUND Page 2