Fine (Part 1)

 Wroxham  0  Gorleston  1

Isthmian League – First Division North

Admission / Programme - £10 / £1.50

So, I’ve been back from Devon for one night, and I have to break the news, gently, to Mrs H that I’m off on my travels again, not far though this time, just the mere 180 or so miles and three and a half hours to the Norfolk Broads!

I’m nervous, but after a deep breath and a couple of bravery pills, I throw it in, the moments silence felt like a lifetime before I got a response…

“Fine!”

That’s it then, the all clear, well, what else does the word “Fine” mean, irrespective of the tone used?

I’ve had my eye on Wroxham all season, in fact I’ve had my eye on both Wroxham and Gorleston, the two Norfolk clubs that are very much out on a limb when it comes to the Isthmian League Division One North. I worked this out, a good number of clubs in the division are in Essex and in some cases inside the M25, so for a club like Wroxham a fair few of the away trips are two hours or more away. But, the alternative is probably not a lot better, the Northern Premier League East Division, or, the Southern League Midland Division, the travelling is probably not much different.

So, they are where they are, and if they want Step 4 and above, this is what they have to contend with, so I’m not going to moan one little bit about a voluntary journey I was making that was going to take the best part of three and a half hours!

Sat nav bingo took me down the M1 to the A14, along to beyond Newmarket and then up through the Thetford Forest to the Norwich Ring Road. Wroxham sits to the North East of Norwich so once I was comfortably into Partridge Country it didn’t take long to work my way round to the village that does indeed sit within the Norfolk Broad, and is in fact often referred to as the ‘Capital of the Broads’.

It was Easter Monday, I’d made good time and I did wonder whether it might be a good idea to head into the village and have a look at the waterways, but, I decided against it, the sun was shining and the football club had already announced that the bar was open!

The football ground is set down on a narrow road to the very South of the village, and is flanked to the right by the railway line, and slightly further to the left by the River Bure. It’s a very rural, and indeed a lovely setting for a football ground, and having chatted to the very friendly chap on the gate, he told me that they had even considered watering the pitch that morning because the surface was so hard. Weird isn’t it, we’ve had record levels of rain, ridiculous numbers of games called off and then a football ground set in the middle of an area that is surrounded by water is considering having to water it’s pitch!

The ground is very nice, on one side you have the dressing rooms and a homely clubhouse facility, while opposite on the River Bure side of the ground you have an old fashioned but well cared for seated stand. Behind the North goal it’s open standing while at the South end of the ground you have a section of modern terracing behind the goal. It ticks the boxes from a grading perspective, but it’s also, more importantly a nice place to watch football.

Wroxham Football Club were formed in 1892, playing in the local leagues before joining the newly formed Anglian Combination in 1964. They proved to be a successful club, winning the Premier Division title five times, and with the last one in 1987-88, it gave them promotion to the newly formed First Division of the Eastern Counties League.

The title was won in their first campaign and with it came promotion to the Premier Division, a league they joined in in 1988 and remained in until 2012. During that period they won the championship eight times, and twice they won it three times in a row, with the halcyon days being the Nineties and early Noughties.

It was inevitable then that they would make the move up, which they did in 2012 by joining the First Division North of the Isthmian League, but that move lasted five years before they were relegated back to the Eastern Counties League. A runners up spot in 2021-22 saw them promoted back again, where of course they remain.

For a club that dominated the Eastern Counties League for such a period, you might be forgiven for thinking that they made a few waves in the FA Vase, well if you did you would be correct. They made the quarter finals in 2001-02, losing to Durham City, then in 2009-10 they beat a highly rated Whitehawk in the semi-final, only to succumb to a dominant Whitley Bay side at Wembley, the North Eastern powerhouse running out 6-1 winners. The quarter finals were again reached in 2019-20 but they were well beaten at home by Bristol based outfit Bitton.

It's a lovely sunny day, a good crowd of 319 has rocked up to Skinner Lane to watch the local derby against Great Yarmouth based visitors Gorleston, but what happened?

Not a massive amount to be honest, it wasn’t the greatest game you are ever going to see, and as it went on you felt it was going to be decided by the solitary goal, and that goal came on the hour mark for the visitors courtesy of Lewis Johnson. It was goal that was met with delight from the noisy following from Gorleston, who to be fair never stopped singing throughout the game.

Wroxham are going to finish mid-table, never in danger of going down, but at the same time, never likely to trouble the play-off spots. Maybe for a club like Wroxham, considering where they are located, and considering the pool of players they can realistically pick from, maybe going any higher is simply not a reality right now. But you don’t have to always be aspiring to progress, consolidation and sustainability are not a bad thing, especially when you look at what goes on elsewhere.  

I decided to head back via Kings Lynn, Holbeach and Sleaford, it was a pleasant albeit long and somewhat tiring journey, but you know what, I’m glad Mrs H was “Fine” about me going to Wroxham, what a great club, and what a lovely place to watch football.

When are they building that motorway that goes to Norwich…….