When Weymouth won the quintuple (From Dorset Echo)

When Weymouth won the quintuple

9:38am Tuesday 16th June 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

MICHAEL Muncaster has sent us some fascinating details of the exploits of two of his relatives when they played for Weymouth Football Club in the early days of the last century.

Frederick William Wilson, or ‘Bibby’, Mr Muncaster’s grandfather, and his great uncle George ‘Nutty’ Runyeard were both heroes on the pitch for the Terras.

Now Michael has charted their successes in a family file dating from 1907 until 1925.

Mr Muncaster said: “In the season of 1922/23, Weymouth won five trophies. Now Alex Ferguson was going on about Manchester United winning five cups, but Weymouth got there first.”

Bibby, who was born in Weymouth in 1891, was signed to the Terras from Chapelhay United, although he also played for Radipole from the age of 14.

He made his senior debut in February 1908, shortly before he turned 17, and made 304 appearances for Weymouth before moving on to Portland United. He finished his career playing for the Blues and then became a trainer. Before the First World War, he was approached by Millwall – but opted to stay with the Terras!

Nutty joined Weymouth in the 1906/07 season and put in 19 appearances, scoring three goals.

In the 1908 season, he took to the pitch on 35 occasions and got the ball in the net a creditable 17 times. It was in this year that Bibby also joined the team in a back role.

By 1913, Nutty had replaced Alf Marshall as club captain and that year he was top scorer, with 35 goals in 42 appearances, just two matches behind Bibby’s tally. This year, Weymouth brought silverware to the town after coming top in the Dorset League Championship. They also came fourth in the 12-team Western League, which attracted healthy crowds and improved the club’s financial position.

The Terras were mothballed during the First World War due to the call to arms and the fact that the war department requisitioned the Recreation Ground.

With the cessation of hostilities, the club reformed for the 1919/20 season as an amateur outfit in the Dorset League, with performances and goals from both Bibby and Nutty. The team won the Dorset Senior Cup in a game against Bournemouth gasworks that contemporary newspaper reports described as ‘epic’.

They retained the title two years later, despite finishing one place off the bottom of the Western League, and on January 27, 1923 the team played a benefit match in honour of Bibby.

The 1922/23 season was a successful one for the team and held a mix of professional and friendly matches, with clashes against Belfast United and Tottenham Hotspur. The latter match was watched by a crowd of 3,400 and finished 0-0, with Bibby’s penalty kick failing to foil the keeper.

The Terras bagged the Dorset Senior Cup, Western League, Dorset League, Hospital Cup and the Gerrish Cup and there is a picture of them sitting triumphantly and proudly with their five trophies – and Mr Muncaster’s two-year-old uncle Albert Wilson as mascot!

He has also sent us photographs of the Upwey and Broadwey FC in the 1950/51 season when they won the Dorset League Division One South and West Section B and the South and West Chamiopnships and the Puddletown Easter Monday six-a-side tournament.

Mr Muncaster said: “There is a gentleman called Mr Restorick in one of the photographs. He used to be a coal merchant and I remember, when I was a lad, we all used to cling onto the back of his coal vans for a ride. One time, there wasn’t enough room for me and I was trying to hold onto the side of the van and he ran over my feet!”

He added: “Upwey and Broadwey were a very good amateur side and did very well in the 1950 season.”

For several years Mr Muncaster, who is now 65, used to play pubs league football with some well-known Weymouth sporting names including Dicky Borthwick and Weymouth’s former player-manager Stan Charlton.

“It was fun then, but it has all changed now, with the lads swearing at the ref and like,” he said. “There is no need for it.”

n Mr Muncaster is Weymouth born and bred and has a fascination with the town’s history.

He would like to know if anyone knows anything about the row of graves along the Pottery Lane end of the town cemetery.

“There is a line of headstones there which all have the Weymouth crest on them,” he said.

“I think they are the people who were killed when Chapelhay was bombed. They are all ages, young, old, and I would like to know more. People don’t realise they are there and it is part of the town’s history that we should celebrate.”

If anyone has details about the graves, please call Ruth Meech on 01305 830973.