fromNoel Clark:
In 1967/68, before emigrating to Australia, I played with the then Wivenhoe Rangers Football Club. Not with any great distinction I should add! So I have read with interest your "history" of the club.
I must say that it was with a tinge of disappointment that I saw that the now Wivenhoe Town has the nickname "The Dragons", because, as your "Noteworthy People of Wivenhoe" page recalls, there was a daffodil named after the old Wivenhoe Rangers, and the daffodil was the emblem of the club at the time I played. Our claret and blue shirts, with the yellow daffodil badge, were very distinctive.
I have sometimes wondered whether the club has a list of former players or anything similar. Being out of a job at the time I was a player I also took on the task of marking out the pitch ready for Saturday games on the old Recreation Ground. The committee met in the bar at one of the pubs – The Rose and Crown on the Quay – where we played darts and the first and reserve teams were decided and announced. Johnny Sills was the captain of the club that year. Other players associated with the fledgling University of Essex, as I was, were Keith Dalton, who at one stage played for Nantes Juniors in France, and Roger Hall.
My cousin Ray Watsham also played for the club at some stage. I see that the Wivenhoe Watshams and Ray get a mention elsewhere. My mother was a Watsham from Elmstead; all the Watshams and Watchams of Essex are related, and I have a pretty comprehensive family tree of the family back to the early 1700s.
Noel Clark
Australia
31st March, 2003
Click here for the Broad Lane Sports Ground home page where Wivenhoe Town play