Plum Lane duffed up

Printed in the Cray Wanderers matchday programme on Saturday 3 March 2012 v Hastings United

The day a team of unknowns came and pitted themselves against Cray Wanderers.

In the previous home matchday programme for the Cray Wanderers -v- Metropolitan Police game a few weeks previously, Jerry Dowlen mentioned lower-placed teams that had defied the odds and beaten the much higher-ranked Wands in a variety of cup competitions - usually the Kent Amateur Cup (later rebadged as the Kent Senior Trophy). 

One particular club that Jerry spoke about had my memory bank sending flashes back to me as I read his article in the programme proof on my computer screen.

Little ol' Plum Lane of the Nether Regions League. I can still recall their visit to a rain-soaked (wasn't it always?!) Oxford Road one Saturday afternoon in October 1976. Not with total recall, mind, but enough to know that I got a friendly berating from then Wands manager Jimmy Wakeling for daring to put 'Plum Lane? Who are they?' in a previous week's programme club notes.

Mumblings of 'potential banana skin' and 'hiding to nothing' also filled the air before the actual game, from long-time supporters who had borne witness to toe-curlingly cringing games against teams such as Eccles, Dockland Settlement and Brett Sports (later to become Brett Waverley).

But, whilst many of us knew the backgrounds to Eccles and Dockland Settlement (Kent Amateur League - later to become the Kent County League) and Brett Sports (Kent League), not one person involved with Cray Wanderers at that time had a clue as to the whereabouts or league status of Plum Lane. They really were an unknown quantity, which didn't help those Wands supporters of a nervous disposition.

A healthy 7-1 win, against what just had to be a lower standard of opposition, put to rest any fears we may have had that the Cray team of 1976 were going to follow in the footsteps of previous Wands team incarnates. I think also from memory that, Plum Lane may have scored first, but I can't be certain of that now.

As I originally typed this article out in 2012, I stopped in mid-flow to check the internet. I typed 'Plum Lane' into Google and I got the response 'Plum Lane? Who are they?'.

But, joking aside, I did find out that Plum Lane were the Kent County League Western Section Senior Division runners-up to Sutton Athletic in 1976-77, the very same season that Cray Wanderers hosted the Kent Senior Trophy tie against them at Oxford Road. So, Plum Lane obviously had a pretty good league season but, the wheels well and truly fell off their cherrypicker the day they came to Oxford Road.

Plum Lane FC no longer appears to be in existence, so if anyone still has one of my home-grown matchday programmes from that Kent Senior Trophy tie from 1976, please consider a collectors' item because I doubt very much that the Wanderers will ever play them again.

Trevor Mulligan