The Athenian League Part 2 (1945-46 to 1963-64)

With competitive football resuming following the 2nd World War, Wealdstone kicked off the 1945/46 season in the Athenian League with a home match against Southall. It ended as a 2-2 draw.

The team fielded for that match contained just 1 player from that which played Walthamstow Avenue in the final match of the 1938/39 season, goalkeeper Reg Lewis. Tragically, star players Charlie Bunce and Ken Baldwin perished in the war, while others simply failed to return to post war football with the club.

As the weeks and months moved on, however, pre-war players Gilbert Gaze, Bert Dyke, Charlie Barker, Tom Kay, Tom Morris, Dave Scott and Jackie Wilson arrived back following their demobilisation from the forces.

The club then spent a further 19 seasons in the Athenian League during which they played 530 matches, winning 249, drawing 96 and losing 185. 1,151 goals were scored and 948 conceded.

In the early post war years the club established itself as a competitive force in the league without challenging for the title but gained national prominence with runs in both the FA Cup and FA Amateur Cup.

In the 1948/49 season the team held the holders of the Amateur Cup, Leytonstone, to an away draw in the Quarter Finals. A crowd of 13,504 attended the replay (a home record crowd that still stands) to see the team defeated 4-0.

The next season the team fought through to the FA Cup 1st Round Proper by famously defeating Southern League side Colchester United 1-0 in an early televised game and in front of 9,207 people at Lower Mead. The team went down 1-0 at Third Division South side, Port Vale, in which the Stones keeper, Danny Wiltshire, pulled off a series of heroic saves. It was the only goal Wiltshire conceded in 630 minutes of FA Cup football that season.

For the 1948/49 season Chelsea and Wealdstone entered an arrangement that allowed the latter to field one or two of the promising professional club youngsters in senior amateur football. One such player was Eddie Smith who in the next 2 seasons made 70 appearances and scored 49 goals.

The club won the Athenian League title for the one and only time in 1952. An outstanding team of the day, it included the imperious Danny Wiltshire in goal, full back Tommy McGhee, who went on to play professionally for Portsmouth, Phil White, who similarly went on to play as a professional for Leyton Orient, and 2 sharp-shooting Polish players, Henryk Mikrut and Henryk Wegrzyk, who scored 53 goals between them that season.

The team finished runner-up the following season but then experienced a total collapse in form so severe that they were wooden-spoonists for the 1954/55 season.

The team did not recover until the 1958/59 season when they lost out on winning the title on goal average to champions, Barnet. By this time a new team was taking shape including future England Amateur international, Charlie Townsend, at right half, left winger, Viv Evans, who made 434 appearance between 1954 and 1965 scoring 200 goals, and centre forward, Matt Farrell, who broke Charlie Bunce’s goal scoring record when finding the net 46 times in the 1960/61 season.

Between 1958 and 1961 the Middlesex and England cricketer, Peter Parfitt, made 37 appearances, scoring 9 goals.

Following the 1962/63 season the Athenian, Corinthian and Delphian Leagues agreed to link up to form a mini-pyramid allowing direct promotion and relegation. The 1963/64 season saw Wealdstone form a part of the new Athenian League First Division. They finished 5th in what proved to be the club’s last season in the Athenian League before being accepted into the top amateur league in the south of England, the Isthmian League.

During the 19 seasons Wealdstone competed in the Athenian League between 1945 and 1964

• Charlie Edmonds joined the club in 1939 but did not make any first team appearances until wartime football in 1941.
• Both Charlie Townsend and Hugh Lindsay represented Wealdstone in both the Athenian and Isthmian Leagues. Between 1957 and 1964, Charlie played 248 games and scored 33 goals. Hughie, in just over two seasons, played 97 games and scored 57 goals. Charlie went on to play a further 265 matches for the club in the Isthmian League during which he scored 30 goals. Hughie played 228 games for the club in the Isthmian League scoring 115 goals.

Author: Mick Fishman

[22/06/2022]

Results and Match Reports (season by season) can be viewed by clicking on the link (s) below:-