On The Move

Moving grounds and stadia has, since organised football commenced in the 1870s, been a regular occurence - with some clubs having to 'up sticks' more frequently than others.

We should all know by now Cray Wanderers' path to Flamingo Park has been littered with ground moves. Flamingo Park, by my reckoning, is the ninth such ground they have played at since the club formed in 1860. There has been (in no particular order) Star Lane, St Mary Cray Rec (at least twice), Fordcroft, Tothills, Twysden's Meadow, Grassmeade, Oxford Road, (groundsharing at) Hayes Lane and now Flamingo Park. Coincidentally, there are nine letters in the name 'Wanderers', so perhaps Cray were always destined to find their forever home at the ninth attempt.

But, apart from the Wands, other clubs over the years have faced a nomadic experience although probably none as severe as Cray Wanderers. One of the furthest moves must be that of Wimbledon FC. Before their controversial move to Milton Keynes to eventually become MK Dons, they left their Plough Lane ground and moved in 'temporarily' with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park for twelve seasons. While they were tenants in SE25, there was talk of the club relocating to Ireland while still expecting to play in the English Premier League! 

After the controversial move to Milton Keynes, however, a phoenix club arose in the shape of supporters-led AFC Wimbledon, who set up camp sharing with Kingstonian at their Kingsmeadow ground, before eventually moving back to a new stadium in... Plough Lane, Wimbledon, on the site of the old Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium, just some 250 yards down the road from their old Plough Lane ground. Kingstonian, meanwhile, moved out of Kingsmeadow before AFC Wimbledon shifted and the Ks are currently groundsharing with Raynes Park Vale at their Prince George's Playing Field abode in South West London.

Then there's the famous move by Woolwich Arsenal from South London to North London, dropping the Woolwich prefix as they went. They eventually moved again, from Highbury to the Emirates. Staying in London, West Ham moved from the Boleyn Ground in Upton Park and are now resident at the London Stadium, which was built for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Out of the capital, Bolton Wanderers shifted from Burnden Park (their home since 1895) to the currently named Toughsheet Community Stadium in 1997. It was called the Reebok Stadium when Bolton first moved there. Coventry City have announced plans to move to a new ground yet to be built near Warwick University. They've not had a very nice time of it in recent years, having moved from Highfield Road to the Ricoh Arena, getting evicted and groundsharing elsewhere, before returning to the Ricoh, which is currently called the Coventry Building Society (CBS) Arena.

And so, to Dartford. Their Watling Street ground was always worth a midweek visit to watch Southern League games under the floodlights. A compact and cosy place, everything seemed okay until the original Maidstone United moved in with them after the latter had sold off their Athletic Ground in London Road, Maidstone. Within a short period of time, Maidstone had been promoted to the Football League and had promptly folded mid-season, while Dartford had to sell off Watling Street to pay their creditors as an indirect result of Maidstone going down the tubes. Dartford then found they had nowhere to go... except to become bed fellows with Cray Wanderers at Oxford Road in Sidcup. That episode ended happily for Dartford when they moved into their current Princes Park stadium.

There's been plenty of other clubs who have moved grounds in a merry-go-round kind of way down the years and, no doubt, there will be many more in the future. Hopefully, none of them will involve Cray Wanderers any more.