Club News

Parkway Welcome Buckland To Bolitho

Plymouth Parkway FC at home this Friday 19th April against Buckland Athletic
Kick Off – 13:00
Adults – £6
Concessions – £4

Hot and cold snacks available

THE HISTORY OF BUCKLAND ATHLETIC FOOTBALL CLUB.

The club was formed in 1977, and it was purely a junior club. It started life in the Torbay Pioneer League and Sandringham Road was our home pitch. During this time it was one of the biggest junior clubs in the area, and it won many titles and cups over its early years, including the Devon Youth Cup.
It’s a senior club now…….Devon & Exeter League

The first big decision the club made was to take a team into senior football, which happened for the start of the 1987-88, and saw us take a place in the Devon & Exeter League, and were placed in Senior Division Three, playing at Coach Road. Roy Holmes took his Under 18 side up into that division, and they were rewarded when they won the league title that season. We moved grounds once more in the 1990-91 season to Decoy Park, which was the season we also won the Wheaton Trophy. Promotions saw us climb into the Premier Division for the 1992-93 season, having again moved, this time to Homers Lane, Kingsteignton.

We spent eight seasons in the Premier Division, winning our first league title in the 1994-95 season, under manager’s Nigel Holmes and Roger Madge, who had taken over the reins from Roy Holmes at the start of that season. They remained in charge until the 1998-99 season, with Shaun Bartlett taking over, and the following season Shaun was joined by Phil Bayliss. The second league title was won in the 1999-00 season allowing us to take promotion to the Devon League. We won a number of cup competitions during this time in the Premier Division, including D & E Premier Division Cup, East Devon Senior Cup.

Next step….The Devon League

2000-01 was our first season in the Devon league, with manager Phil Bayliss being joined by Gary Taylor as his assistant. We finished this season as runners-up to title winners Willand Rovers, also we made it through to the semi-finals of the Devon Premier Cup. We spent seven seasons in the Devon League, with our lowest finish being 13th in 2005-06, up until that season we hadn’t been outside the top eight. Also in our time in this league we were runners-up in the Throgmorton Cup in the 2001-02 season. In the final ever season of the Devon league (2006-07), we did just enough to gain promotion to the newly formed South West Peninsula League, finishing that season in 12th place.

The South West Peninsula League….

We started life in this newly formed league (which incorporated teams from the South Western League and Devon League’s) in the 2007-08 season. Under manager Phil Bayliss we finished that season in 14th place, but Phil was building a squad that he felt was good enough to contest for the league title. In the next season we finished in 3rd place, and then our dreams were realised when we won two consecutive titles, as well as winning the Thogmorton Cup (2009-10). After that first title win, Phil stepped down and was replaced by Steve Massey, but the club parted company with Steve a few months into the 2010-11 season, and he was replaced by player-manager Antony Lynch, who carried on the good work that Phil had put in place and we managed to retain the league title. Then in the 2011-12 season, we applied to the Western league, knowing that a top two finish was needed to take promotion, well it was achieved, but we did relinquish our title, with Bodmin Town coming out on top, but promotion was won. We did become the lowest ranked side to win the Devon St Lukes Bowl in the 2010-11 season, and we retained it last season, after beating Tiverton Town in both final wins.

Pastures new….The Western League Premier Division

So for the 2012-13 season, we will be playing football in the Western League Premier Division (Step 5 in the non-league pyramid), which is a great achievement for the club, which is still relatively young in age. Everyone at the club is looking forward to this new challenge, with Gaffer Antony Lynch once again leading the 1st Team. In our first season we finished in tenth place in the final table, but we did win the hospitality Award and the Programme Award. The 2013-14season, the 1st Team will be managed by our very successful 2nd Team manager Adam Castle who took over from Antony Lynch towards the end of the 2012-13 season, with the team finishing the season in 11th place. It was another great season in the history of this great club when the 1st team finished in runners-up spot in the Western League Premier Division, the highest finish in the clubs history in the non-league pyramid. We also won the Premier Division best programme award for the third consecutive season, making it eight consecutive league wins in the last eight seasons. The 1st Team managed by Adam Castle finished in 4th Place in the Western League Premier Division, but not good enough to reach our goal of promotion. The team made it through to the 6th Round of the FA Vase, whilst finishing in 4th place in the league table, but once again just missed out on promotion, in the 2016-17, we also won the hospitality award and best programme awards. It was a fifth place finish in the 2017-18, but we did win the Les Phillips Cup for the first time, but it will be the fixture congestion at the end of the campaign which will be remembered with the number of games our lads had to play including four games in four days and three games in three days, and having played fifteen games in twenty-four days. We also won the best programme award for a fifth time in six seasons.

Grounds…..

As said previously we have had a number of grounds over our lifetime, starting with council owned pitches at Sandringham Park (During our time as a junior team), Coach Road and then Decoy Park. In 1992-93 we secured the use of Homers Lane in Kingsteignton (owned by local clay company WBB), and we built that ground up to Devon league standard, which included a small stand, enclosed playing surface and hard standing on three sides. But our big break came in 2003 when we were given the option by WBB to take on South Quarry, on the Torquay side of Newton Abbot, and after a lot of hard work and sweat by a huge number of volunteers, we started life at the newly named Homers Heath for the start of the 2005-06 season, with work on the ground and fabulous clubhouse on-going every season since then. On to the 2015-16 season, firstly there was substantial drainage work done to the playing surface during the summer, and we must thank Viridor Credits for their help in funding these works. Also during the season a lot of work was carried out at Homers Heath, including a new covered standing area, which incorporates two new turn-stiles. The ground was fenced in, and an impressive outside toilet block was built. This work al-lowed the club to achieve a ‘D’ Ground Grade which is good enough for Southern League football.

The 2nds and 3rds….

The 2nd Team started life in the Devon and Exeter League spending many seasons in this league, gaining promotion right through to the Premier Division. But, the club took the decision for the 2007-08 season to move the 2nds from the D & E League to the South Devon League. The 2nds have enjoyed a lot of success over the seasons, with league titles, Devon Senior (three) and Intermediate Cups, all being won by them, with last season winning the prestigious Herald Cup. The 3rd Team started life in the South Devon league in 2003-04 season, and they had managed to win promotion every season, although they couldn’t achieve it last season (2011-12), and again the have also won many league titles, and cups over this period. Our 2nd Team won the South Devon League Premier Division for the first time, and the 3rd Team won promotion to SDL Division One as well as winning the Fred Hewings for a third time. It was another great season for both our 21nd and 3rd Team’s, the 2nds were crowned champions of the South Devon League Premier Division in the 2014-15 season and the 3rd Team won the Division One title as well as retaining the Fred Hewings Cup. The 2nd Team in 2015-16 managed again by Neil Snell retained the South Devon League Premier Division title, and were beaten finalists in the Herald Cup. Our 3rd Team finished the season in the South Devon League Division One as runners-up, in what was manager Nigel Holmes last season in charge. The 2nd Team won third consecutive SDL Premier title, while the 3rd Team won the Fred Hewings Cup for a sixth time, in the 2016-17 season. There was no silverware for our 2nds and 3rds in the 2017-18, but both had young squads with quality players who will only get better, looking like a bright future for the club.

Another new era……..

2015-16 – The club fielded its first Ladies team managed by Grant Fisher, in the Devon Women’s League Division One, and they didn’t drop a point when winning the league title, and they then added the League Cup, in what was a fantastic season for them. The Ladies 1st Team in the 2016-17 season won the treble, the South West Women’s League Western Division title, the Soccerworld League Cup and the Devon FA Senior Ladies Cup, whilst the new Ladies 2nd Team were beaten finalists in the Devon FA Supplementary Cup. Our Ladies 1st Team again were South West Women’s League Premier Division champions in the 2017-18 season, without a dropping a point, and this now means they will be p[laying in the FA Womens National League Division One South West Division. Our Ladies 2nd Team also won their first ever silverware, when they won the Devon FA Supplementary Cup.

Off the field of play…

Our new ground at Homers Heath won the SWPL Premier Division best ground award in both 2007-08 and 2008-09, and then finished runners-up in both 2009-10 and 2010-11. The clubs match-day programme ‘The Bucks Review’ has also enjoyed success, winning the best programme award in the Devon League on four occasions, and in the SWPL Premier Division, they won that accolade in each of the five seasons we were in that league, and it also finished in sixth place in the final season (2004-05) of the renowned Wirral Programme Club awards, which had over 1100 entries that season. We have also with the help of Viridor Credits invested in a fantastic drainage system at Homers Heath over the Summer of 2015.

Finally…

The club continues to thrive both on and off the field of the play and this is due to the hard working ethics of all the volunteers within the club.

Buckland Athletic Squad 2018-2019

Manager: Richard Pears
Assistant Manager: Steve Giles
Coach: Ben Robinson
Physio: Paige Burrows

Kenny Griffiths
James Richards
Dan Harrison
Richard Groves
Ryan Bush
Connor Clifford
Lloyd Gardner
Chris McPhee
Charlie Johansen
Jordan Ewing
Chris Todd
Matt Roberts
Tony Radford
Louie Slough
Cameron Kelly
Sol Barclay

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