Page 24 - Brislington FC v Buckland Athletic 301021

Bu c k l a n d A t h l e c F C - A h i s t o r
Playing with the Coronavirus y
Buckland Athle c FC - A history
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 s ll rela vely young
in age. Everyone at the club is looking forward to this new challenge, with Gaffer Antony Lynch once
again leading the 1 Team. In our first season we finished in tenth place in the final table, but we did
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win the hospitality Award and the Programme Award. The 2013-14season, the 1 Team will be
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managed by our very successful 2 Team manager Adam Castle who took over from Antony Lynch
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towards the end of the 2012-13 season, with the team finishing the season in 11 place. It was
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another great season in the history of this great club when the 1 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 consecu ve season,
making it eight consecu ve 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 promo on. The team made it through to the 6 Round of the FA Vase, whilst finishing in
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4 place in the league table, but once again just missed out on promo on, in the 2016-17, we also
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won the hospitality award and best programme awards. It was a fi h place finish in the 2017-18, but
we did win the Les Phillips Cup for the first me, but it will be the fixture conges on 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 fi een games in twenty-four
days. We also won the best programme award for a fi h me in six seasons.. It was a turbulent
season 2018-19, as three managers were used, star ng with Craig Duff, then interim boss Adam
Castle, and finally Richard Pears (who will con nue in the job for the 2019-20 season). We finished
in ninth place in the Premier table, and again won the best programme award.

Grounds…..
As said previously we have had a number of grounds over our life me, star ng with council owned
pitches at Sandringham Park (During our me 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 op on by WBB to take on South Quarry, on the Torquay side of Newton Abbot, and a er 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 substan al 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-s les. 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 2 Team started life in the Devon and Exeter League spending many seasons in this league,
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gaining promo on 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 tles, Devon Senior (three) and Intermediate
Cups, all being won by them, with last season winning the pres gious Herald Cup. The 3 Team
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