Formed in 1874 by a settlement of travellers in the town we now know of as Aldershot, the very foundations of Aldershot Wanderers were laid down bored of digging for coal every Sunday and beating up their 4 wives the men of the town decided to do something else with their time on a Sunday morning and they created their own club “Whiskey Town” named after the favourite tipple. Of course back then there was no-one else to play so most Sundays they just lazed around the Ale houses while their wives thought they were out playing football, it only came to light in 1895 on the 21^st Anniversary of the club when Nobby Stokes was apparently still playing on his 77^th birthday.

This caused friction between the wives and husbands and so every Sunday they arranged for the lads of Whiskey Town to play outsiders from Farm Burg to the north and FearnHam to the south, with only three teams competing for local pride it was fiercely competitive but with the aid of Billy Tyler the Whiskeys won many trophies over the initial 10 year start up period. Playing at the hallowed Polo Fields they often had to clear the field of horse muck before a game. The first world war disrupted the juggernaut of Whiskey town as many of the players went off to serve never to return.

It was 1930 before a league formed again in the area, with a few more teams to play against the first generation of Dowling entered the fray Arthur Dowling or “papa” as he was affectionately known took the helm and guided the team to 14 league titles in a 15 year spell before and after the second world war, his time with us was tragically cut short though after he was struck down by lightening, legend has it he was holding aloft our last league title as it hit him but this has so far not been proven.

Whiskey Town then went into a dramatic meltdown, the fearsome centre back and captain William “Ruffles” Jones had an affair with another players wife and ended up on the receiving end of an 8 inch knife, John Dallaway was the man on the other end and he ended up serving out the rest of his life at the tip of a hangmans noose, Ruffles can still be seen at Aldershot Crem, high up on the wall of fame.

To get away from the controversy Whiskey Town changed their name for the first time in their history and in 1964 became “Running Wheel” the team decided on this name as they thought it represented a great stage in history with the team running away with everything and then the wheels coming off, joining them together would hopefully restore a bit of pride into the local team.

Still playing at the polo fields the team was to finally win the Hampshire cup in the 64 season, a young lad called Green was captain on the day and as he proudly tore off his shirt and threw it into the gathered throng of at least 46 people they cheered his name, with no knowledge that would be the last they saw of him as Green seemed to vanish without trace.

1966 and all that produced a fantastic Running Wheel team as they tore apart everything that was put in front of them and the season ended in spectacular style after winning the Sunday League FA Cup the whole team invited as guests of honour to the world cup final and each and everyone of the squad got to kiss the Jules Rimet trophy before Bobby Moore lifted it for the world to see.

Moving into 1970 there was a takeover of the team after a player revolt saw 19 ex-servicemen leave due to the running (or lack of) of the team a new regime came in, changed the name of the side once more to “The Miners Arms” after the local pub and taking the club right back to the roots. Conrad Wilson was now in charge and he oversaw another three league titles in a 10 year spell at the club. The Sunday league was gradually taking shape with more and more teams entering each year and therefore league titles were becoming harder and harder to come by, the 1980s saw a dark period in the clubs history with no trophies whatsoever, not even a cup final and by the end of the decade Conrad was gone, in his place came Pat Mitchell a man of vast experience and someone who would shape the team into the present one we know today, in 1989 he introduced a brand new drinking regime at the club, a great social life and friendship. It was renamed to the Red Lion and it was almost back to the heady first 21 years when the team just spent all Sunday in the pub, occasionally the team played football, very occasionally they won but most importantly they were all mates. Winning titles just wasn’t the done thing anymore and they didn’t care, finishing second bottom was an achievement! Sometimes conceding less than 3 was an achievement. Within that team of 1989 there stood a special someone many, many years after Papa Dowling was taken away from us we had a new breed “fluff” Dowling, stupid nicknames ran in their family and after the initall merriment and jokiness of the Red Lion some of the team realised they actually wouldn’t mind winning every now and then and come 1996 another name surfaced, they were renamed “Albion”.

Green, having vanished in 1964 returned looking as fresh as a daisy and as young as the day he left, many believed he was kidnapped by aliens. Others that he lie in a cryogenic state, however most just believed that he was some sort of ageless mini elf and there the rumours shall stop, for Fluff and Green became the catalyst to drive the club forward. Albion were still languishing in the lower reaches of the Sunday leagues but the core spirit of the team remained the same, players came and players went but Fluff and Green remained true to the cause, there they were joined by the Rumbles and in 2001 Spiller came on board, in 2002 Morgan joined the team and in 2003 after a rival team formed in the very same pub as Albion, a breakaway group was formed and the team changed name yet again and hopefully for the last time. Striding into the 21^st century was

Aldershot Wanderers

Bilson, Aspey-Jones, Gokool, took to the stage as new names in the quest to go forward, better signings than had ever previously been banded about, the Wanderers were marching forward and in the first season finished fourth in the league and runners up in the cup. Not bad but there was so much better to come.

A league and cup double in the second season, a cup in the third and playing at Sunday Leagues mecca, Aldershot Town, albeit finishing runners up but it was the first time in the clubs 135 year history that they have staged a game there in the fourth season a further promotion and in the fifth another league title was won this time under the guidance of John Morgan in his first season as manager and in the sixth season yet another promotion, so the club has gone from division six to division one in 6 short seasons. The team is getting older, Fluff and Green are only seen fleetingly now down the polo fields possibly to never again grace the hallowed turf as their bodies take their toll but the players that are still there wear the shirts with pride as AWFC comes out of liquidation ready to do battle once more.

Basic Stats - Compiled by Optrex. Stats are fuzzy as many were lost in the Aldershot riots and subsequent fires of 1994