An Introduction to Bath City FC

Bath City is the greatest football club in the whole world. I think so, anyway. This article is to help people who have been disadvantaged by never having come in contact with Bath City before. It will explain just what the club is first, and then afterwards, why it is so great to be a Bath City supporter.

First of all, it is possible some of the international readers of this blog might not know where Bath is. It is a city in the west of England, not something to relax in before bedtime. It is, I believe, one of the nicest places to live in the UK (as long as you don't want to drive anywhere). Bath is a 'World Heritage Site' too which means that lots of tourists come here. If you have not been to Bath yourself you probably know someone else who has. Although the tourist trail in Bath takes in most of the prominent sites, including the Royal Crescent, Bath Abbey, the Theatre Royal, etc, it does not yet, unfortunately, take in Twerton Park. We are trying to change this.

Bath City FC is a 'non-league' football club (for a fuller explanation of the term 'non-league' click here) that can trace its history as far back as 1889. 'Trace' is perhaps too strong a word here because really the club started in 1900. There was a club called Bath AFC formed in 1889 but they gave up football and went back to playing rugby after three chaotic seasons. Eight years after Bath AFC folded a totally different group of people set up 'Bath City AFC.' Still, it sounds better to claim City began in 1889, so that is often the date you often see.

The early years of the club were spent in the Western League (currently known as the 'Toolstation League' for sponsorship reasons). In the 1920s it moved up to the Southern League (currently known as the 'Zamaretto League' for really daft sponsorship reasons) and in the 1970s into the forerunner of the National Conference. In the mid-90s the club was relegated back into the Southern League until it finally escaped back into the new 'Conference South' after the championship season of 2007 (if you are not interested in the intricacies of the non-league pyramid hopefully you skipped this paragraph). In a nutshell, City are historically a very important non-league side but have never made it, even briefly, into the Football League. Give us a couple more years.

Bath City have played their home matches at Twerton Park since 1930. It originally consisted of 'two houses and an orchard with a field at the rear' Twerton Park is considered by today's standard an 'old-fashioned' ground because it has large covered terraces (places with no seats where everyone stands) and because it is not bland and boring like most modern non-league grounds today (e.g. Eastleigh's Silverlake Stadium). Although it can appear a bit battered around the edges in places, and some of the concrete is a bit wonky, Twerton Park is a lovely place to spend your Saturday afternoons. It has, perhaps, one of the most spectacular views in football. Current capacity is listed as 8,840 (including 1,026 seats), but the highest attendance ever was 18,020 for a FA Cup fixture in 1959.

Even though Bath City has never played at the top level of English football, it has produced plenty of heroes, past and present. Here are some of the most well known:

Charlie Fleming was a Scottish international who came to Bath City in 1958 after three years at Sunderland. He scored 208 goals for City in only seven seasons, including an amazing 57 goals in the 1958-1959 campaign. He led City to its first Southern League title in his second year with the club. The main club bar is named 'Charlie's' in his honour.

A credit to bearded men everywhere, Paul Randall joined City from rivals Yeoville Town in 1989. After helping them earn promotion back to the National Conference the following year, Randall went on to score an 112 goals in only four campaigns. Another club bar has been named 'Randall's' in his honour.

There aren't any more bars to name after anyone else.

In 1986 a young Jason Dodd joined the City youth program, working his way onto the senior team within two years. He played his last match in December 1988, leaving City for a long career at Southampton. There he made an astonishing 454 first team appearances in all competitions. He finished his career back in non-league playing for City rivals Eastleigh. So far as I can find out nobody has named a bar after him yet.

In 2000 City took a player on loan from Bristol Rovers named Bobby Zamora. This was the turning point in young Bobby's career (at least we think so anyway), because after scoring eight goals for City in only six games he was snapped up by Brighton & Hove Albion. His stint at City gave him enough confidence to break into the Premier League by 2003 (where he now plays for Fulham) and the Trinidad & Tobago national team. If you just imagine black stripes on his kit here this is what he looked like at Twerton Park. If he ever comes back to Bath City we will definately find another bar to name after him.

Eric Cantona never played for Bath City, but I'm hoping there are people out there who skip the text and only look at the pictures.

There are plenty of heroes in the current squad as well. If you want to learn about them you will need to read my posts as each game is played. I do mean heroes, though, because you will be hard pressed to find a group of players in any sport that play with as much passion, determination and grit as Bath City (and I really mean that!). This leads me on to the topic of why it is so great to be a Bath City supporter.

During my years growing up in America I became accustomed to watching sport played at the highest level by superstars who were completely inaccessible. Later, when I discovered minor league baseball, I was taken by how close you could get to the game and how much more human the players seemed. There is a flaw with minor league sports in America, though, and that is that ultimately no one really cares about them. These leagues exist only to provide a training environment for future major league players. The players do not care if their team wins or loses as long as their individual performance is good enough to get them to the next level. Once the 'parent' club who pays a player's wages loses faith in him, he is shown the exit. No one plays for the love of the game in the minors.

Non-league football is not, by this definition, minor league. Bath City play to win. Individual performances are important only inasmuch as they contribute to the good of the team. There is no parent club feeding players to City; the club fends for itself. Because of the opportunity for promotion to higher leagues there is no theoretical obstacle to City making it to the Premiership one day (several other non-league clubs have). Every win is a very small step towards this goal, and as a result every defeat is felt painfully.

When you come to a City match you can stand within a few feet of the pitch. You will be able to see the expressions on the players' faces and hear them curse when they mistime a pass. You can throw them the ball when it goes out of play and you can almost feel the impact of boot to ball on corner kicks if you stand in the right place.

You will also meet supporters who live and die with each result. You will meet people who have not missed a City match, home or away, for years. You will meet people who came to their first City match over forty years ago, and you will meet people whose grandfathers helped dig the pitch at Twerton Park over seventy-five years ago. You will meet people who toil and sweat in their own free time to keep the club running day to day and have nothing to gain from it at all except the joy of shared experience and the bittersweet hope for a victory next Saturday. What's more, if you care to don a City scarf you will meet people who will greet you as a long lost friend, even if you are only a recent arrival. I know because this has happened to me.

If you ever find yourself within driving distance of Twerton Park on a match day do not miss the opportunity to come and say hello. You will not regret it.