Page 24 - Cribbs FC v Portand United FA Vase 221022

The History of Portland United F.C.

Nigel Biddlecombe’s ‘A History of Weymouth FC’ mentions ‘The Blues’ as early as
1902/03 when the club was referred to as Portland and Grove and they were also
called that in 1905/06. (In 1904/05 we were just mentioned as Portland.) 1906/07
we were then Portland Prison Officers. In 1910/11 there was reference to Portland
Prison Officers and Utd. In 1907/08 a combined team entered the FA Cup under
the name 'Portland Prison Officers and Portland United'. They were exempt from
the preliminary and 1st qualifying round and were drawn in the 2nd QR to Longfleet
St Marys. The game was played on 19 October 1907 in Poole (probably at Eastlake)
and the score was 2 - 2. The replay resulted in a 3 - 1 win for Portland. In the 3rd
QR they were drawn at home to Whiteheads losing 0 - 2 (2nd November 1907).

They entered again the following year and also in 1909/10. There were then two
more seasons when the Prison Officers part of the team did not play. After that, the
next entry was after the war when the club reformed in 1921 playing at Grove
Corner and in 1925 joined the Western League Div. Although winning this division
twice before World War II, the club never achieved promotion to Div one. They
regularly played in front of crowds of two and three thousand – a period when they
were virtually unbeatable at their Grove Corner ground. During this period, the club
won the Dorset Senior Cup on four occasions and the Dorset Amateur Cup three
times. Following World War II, the club turned semi-professional and re-joined Div
One of the Western League, where they remained for the next 24 seasons. During
this time the ‘Blues’ lifted the Dorset Senior Cup a further six times.
The record attendance at Grove Corner was set in January 1949 when 4,127
watched the League match against neighbours Weymouth - which Portland won 4
- 1. One of the most successful seasons in the club’s history came in 1965/66 when
they finished as runners-up in the Western League Div One and progressed to the
4th Qualifying Round of the FA Cup where they held Yeovil Town to a 1 - 1 draw at
Grove Corner in front of a crowd of 3,069. In the replay at Huish, in front of 6,005
spectators, The Blues were beaten 3 - 1. In 1994 the Crown decided it needed the
original ground for mineral extraction and the club was provided with a new home
a couple of hundred yards along the road – hence the name at the time of . . . ‘New
Grove Corner’! The last game at the ground took place on 9 May 1994, when
neighbours Weymouth were the visitors in front of a 500 plus crowd. It was,
however, a far cry from the record attendance, on 27 January 1949 when 4,127
saw Portland defeat Weymouth 4 - 1 in a Western League Division One match.

During the winter of their first season at the new ground, the entire island of
Portland had to be evacuated whilst an unexploded wartime bomb - found
underneath the penalty area of their old ground - had to be defused! (To read
more, visit: