Much talk of late about a new “Wembley Of The North” stadium for Manchester United, but how about reviving that vision from way back when of Bickland Park as “the Wembley of the West??”
It’s not just their outstanding run in the FA Vase competition that has won so much praise for Falmouth Town this season.
For any fans returning to the fold after a long-ish absence, the club’s Bickland Park ground itself has been a revelation. It’s had nothing short of a massive facelift, both in overall appearance and in all-round maintenance and development.
Admittedly, it would be a bit of a stretch, but I’m half-expecting the resurrection of a one-time popular description of a future Bickland as “the Wembley of the West.”
That was the vision of the club’s figurehead half a century ago, when, with the aid of more than a few new brooms, Town were embarking on a record-breaking decade of success.
For local businessman Warren Newell, who became chairman in 1969, it was the chance to demonstrate his status as a born optimist.
Three years into his chairmanship, I interviewed him at length – and listened to his blueprint for the club’s future.
Here’s what he saw in his crystal ball:--
Relegation of the grandstand to no more than subsidiary accommodation, with the dressing rooms and corridor space expanded into new social club premises. (The latter, then, were still in Arwenack Avenue.)
New dressing rooms to be built on the opposite side, on land that was “currently a purposeless valley behind the standing accommodation, but nevertheless owned by the club.”
On top of the new dressing rooms, there would be a new grandstand “bigger than anything Cornwall has ever seen.” In between, a tunnel would provide the way onto and off the field for the players and officials “in true League club style.”
Indoor training facilities would add the finishing touch to a revitalised ground that was “already considered the best in the west.”
At the time, Town were still in the South Western League, but Mr Newell saw Town as top of a seven-counties regional league ten years on.
Some, of course, regarded this as all a pipe dream, to which he countered: “Ten years ago – before we had even entered the FA Cup, remember (think Oxford United – MT) – I don’t suppose many would have prophesied the success that was to come. Yet look what the club has done in that time.”
And he supported his vision with hard reason: “I think they will regionalise football. As the years, roll by, people, with more leisure hours, will be able to travel further than we can now.”
Sadly, Mr Newell died in 1973 and so never saw the club make its original entry into the Western League, in 1974.
Now the club is back in that league once more, and in with a realistic chance of even higher things come the end of this season - something even the great Town teams of old never achieved, league-wise.
A few miles up the road, of course, one-time deadly rivals Truro City did precisely that in the early 2000s. Under the ownership of property developer Kevin Heaney, they followed in Town’s footsteps into the Western League and then climbed much higher again.
In 2008 Truro were in the Western League premier division and their average home attendance had quickly risen to around 400.
Heaney, admittedly with tongue in cheek, I suspect, told me: “I hope this club maintains its momentum. Hopefully, if we see a 60% increase year on year, we will be getting over 20,000 in the Premier League by 2016!”
Alas, most of the Truro home attendances, despite promotions into the Southern and then Conference league, remained stubbornly around the 400 to 500 mark.
But dreams have their uses. As the legendary Sir Matt Busby once said: “Aim for the sky and you can reach the ceiling; aim for the ceiling and you’ll never get off the ground!”
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