Football

Like so many other Fovant organisations, the Football Club seems to have been formed after the Second World War. Once the male youth of the village reached official working age, they were eligible to join the team. Members continued playing for as long as their age, fitness, level of skill and home commitments allowed. In the early 1950s the main organisers behind Fovant Football Club were Mr. Tom Burton, who was chairman, Mr. Fred James, who owned the shop and the Rev. Homer Hill, who was incumbent at St. George’s church from 1951 until 1958.

The team played in the Nadder Valley League, whose matches took place on a Saturday afternoon and they travelled to venues such as Wylye, Tisbury and Hindon for away fixtures. Home games were played at East Farm, thanks once again to the generous spirit of the Combes family. Pitches were provided in three different locations over the years, presumably moving according to the need to rotate crops. Training sessions took place on a Sunday morning, which with hindsight seems surprising given the support of the Rev. Hill, since this time-tabling inevitably meant that members were unable to attend church services. The team does not seem to have been very successful, but maybe they were true exponents of the old adage that ‘it is not the winning but the taking part that counts.’

In the mid-1960s Mr. Tom Burton had a fleet of lorries which was used to deliver watercress from the local beds to various markets. The seven drivers employed decided to make up a football team called Burton’s Sports, whose numbers were incremented by friends and relations of the drivers, so not all the players were Fovant based. This team played in the Sunday league which was more of a ‘friendly’ environment, playing against pub teams and the like, from 1965–68.

M.K.K.
2005

Content last updated
30 October 2006

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