Great Wakering Rovers Football Club is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club located in

Great Wakering Great Wakering is a village in the Rochford District in Essex, England. It is approximately four miles east of Southend. Great Wakering consists mainly of two roads: the High Street, which runs from the junction of Star Lane, and New Road, whic ...

, near

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south-eastern Essex, England. It lies on the nor ...

in Essex, England. The club are members of the and play at Burroughs Park.

History

The club was formed in 1919 by soldiers demobbed after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

who found employment in the local brickfields. They joined the Southend & District League, dominating it during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1982 they switched to the newly-formed Southend & District Alliance Football League, but this league folded in 1989. At this point the club decided to make the step up to intermediate level and were founder members of the new Division Three of Essex Intermediate League.Essex Intermediate League 1986–2001
Non-League Matters In 1990–91 Great Wakering were Division Three champions, earning promotion to Division Two. After winning Division Two the following season, the club successfully applied to join the

Essex Senior League The Essex Senior Football League is an English men's football league. It contains clubs from the Essex FA, Hertfordshire FA, London FA, Middlesex FA and the Amateur Football Alliance. It is a feeder league to Division One North of the Isthmia ...

. They went on to win the league in 1994–95 and finished as runners-up three times in the next two seasons. They were as runners-up again in 1998–99, but as champions Saffron Walden Town failed to meet the ground grading requirements for a place in Division Three of the

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional Association football, football league covering Greater London, East of England, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, th ...

, Great Wakering were promoted in their place. The 1999–2000 season saw Great Wakering finish as runners-up in Division Three, earning promotion to Division Two. League restructuring resulted in them being moved to Division One North in 2002, and in 2004 they were transferred to the Eastern Division of the Southern League, where they remained for two seasons before being transferred back to Division One North of the Isthmian League. In 2011–12 the club finished bottom of the division, and were relegated back to the Essex Senior League. In 2013–14 the club were Essex Senior League champions and were promoted back to the Isthmian League. After finishing bottom of the division in 2016–17, the club were relegated to the Essex Senior League. However, they went on to win the league at the first attempt, earning promotion back to the renamed North Division of the Isthmian League. In

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Great Wakering finished third-from-bottom of the North Division, resulting in them facing an inter-step play-off with a club from the division below. After being beaten 5–0 by

Quorn Quorn is a brand of meat substitute products. Quorn originated in the UK and is sold primarily in Europe, but is available in 11 countries. The brand is owned by parent company Monde Nissin. Quorn is sold as both a cooking ingredient and as ...

they were relegated to the Essex Senior League. In 2023–24 the club reached the final of the

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, also known as the Isuzu FA Vase for sponsorship reasons, is an annual football competition run by and named after The Football Association (The FA), for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English Nation ...

, where they lost 3–0 to

Romford Romford is a large List of places in London, town in east London, east London, England, located northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Havering, the town is one of the major Metropolitan centres of London, metropolitan centr ...

Ground

In 1985 the club obtained a lease from the parish council on a disused allotment site. A football ground was built by volunteers with the help of local farmer and supporter Roger Burroughs, who it was named after.Burroughs Park
Great Wakering Rovers F.C. The ground opened in 1989, with work starting on the main stand (the North Stand) in 1992, at which time a small covered area was built on the other side of the pitch.Jon Weaver (2005) ''The Football Grounds of Rural Essex'', p24 A roof was put on the main stand in 1996 and 175 seats later installed. A new covered terrace was installed in 2000. The North Stand was also expanded and currently seats 250. A record attendance of 1,150 was set in 2006 for a pre-season friendly against

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth level of English football. The team are known as "The Shrimpers", a reference ...

.Mike Williams & Tony Williams (2012) ''Non-League Club Directory 2013'', p658 The record was broken in July 2021 when a crowd of 1,500 watched another pre-season friendly against the same opponents.A record for Rovers but it’s Blues who start with a win
Yellow Advertiser, 20 July 2021

Honours

*Essex Senior League **Champions 1994–95, 2013–14, 2017–18 *Essex Intermediate League **Division Two champions 1991–92 **Division Three champions 1990–91

Records

*Best

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

performance: Second qualifying round, 1998–99, 2006–07 *Best

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, also known as the Isuzu FA Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after The Football Association (the FA) and competed by mainly National League ...

performance: First round, 2002–03, 2004–05 *Best

performance: Runners-up, 2023–24 *Record attendance: 1,500 vs

, friendly match, 20 July 2021 *Most appearances: John Heffer 511 *Biggest win: 9–0 vs

Eton Manor Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre is a sports and leisure venue located in Leyton, London Borough of Waltham Forest, to the north of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. It is regularly used for international field hockey fixtures by both the Great ...

, 27 December 1931Mike Williams & Tony Williams (2016) ''Non-League Club Directory 2017'', Tony Williams Publications, p361 *Heaviest defeat: 1–7 vs Bowers United, Essex Senior League, 1 April 1998

References

External links