The Isle of Wight Pompey Supporters Club History
The Isle of Wight Branch of the Portsmouth F.C.
Supporters Club was founded in 1956, and existed as a sub branch
until 1978 when it was set up in its own right as the “Isle of Wight
Pompey Supporters Club”.
The history of the club can be broken down into
the following categories which are basically the activities that the
club has been involved in: -
-
Annual Dinners
-
Organised travel to Portsmouth F.C. away matches
-
Travel to games at Fratton Park
-
Supply of match tickets for Isle of Wight supporters
-
Sponsorship of Portsmouth F.C.
-
SOS Pompey
-
Sunday Morning Football
-
Issue of Journals/Fanzines/Newsletters to club member
-
Charity Fundraising
Annual Dinners
The end of season dinner/dance was always the big event of the
season for the Supporters Club. Dinners were held every year up
until 2002. Gradually it became more difficult to get players and
members of the coaching staff to attend and this culminated in 2003
when we were told that the club would not be attending on the day of
the event.
Bearing in mind all the time, effort and expense that goes into
organising a dinner, the committee decided to scrap the idea of
having a dinner, deciding to organise other events for members
instead. (See below for a list of Annual Dinners).
1983 Solent Court, Ryde (Cancelled)
1984 Solent Court, Ryde
1985 Solent Court, Ryde
1986 Solent Court, Ryde
1987 Westridge Leisure Centre, Ryde
1988 Westridge Leisure Centre, Ryde (Cancelled)1989 Dean House, Ryde
1990 Trevallyn Hotel, Sandown
1991 Royal York Hotel, Ryde
1992 Royal York Hotel, Ryde
1993 Ponda Rosa, Ryde
1994 Ponda Rosa, Ryde
1995 Hotel Ryde Castle, Ryde
1996 Yelfs Hotel, Ryde
1997 Yelfs Hotel, Ryde
1998 / 1999 / 2000 / 2001 Yelfs Hotel, Ryde
2002 Hotel Ryde Castle, Ryde
2003 Hotel Ryde Castle, Ryde (Cancelled)
2014 Yelfs Hotel
Away Travel
Our UEFA Cup campaign saw us run our first
overseas trip to Wolfsburg. The ever increasing cost of match
tickets and the fact that virtually every match is now all ticket,
means that we now generally offer an all in package of travel and
match ticket and we will continue to run trips where there is a
demand for it. (See below for list of away trips).
Travel to games at Fratton Park
One of the initial reasons for setting up the
Isle of Wight Branch was to make it easier for members to get to
home games. In the 1950’s when Pompey were regularly getting crowds
of 35,000, queues would form at Ryde Pier to board the ferry, and so
supporters club members were offered coach or bus transport from
Portsmouth Harbour to Fratton Park. Over the years the Supporters
Club has arranged with Wightlink/Sealink/British Rail for extra
sailings of the passenger ferry or catamaran from Portsmouth
Harbour, especially for evening games, and also arranged for late
evening sailings to be delayed to suit kick off times. In 1987 the
club supported a new venture set up by Wight Line Cruises, which
offered a ferry and coach transfer to Fratton Park. This service ran
until 1998 as an alternative to the Wightlink catamaran and had the
benefit of supporters all travelling together. This period also saw
the introduction of the score prediction competition where
supporters could predict Pompey’s first goal scorer and the match
result, with the winner taking a percentage of the total kitty.
Supply of match tickets
The Supporters Club have always acted as a
focal point for the selling of tickets to Isle of Wight Supporters
for popular all ticket games. The biggest and most memorable
occasion was for the F.A. Cup tie against Southampton in 1984 when
we sold 500 tickets at the Marine Hotel in Ryde in less than an
hour.
The F.A. Cup semi final against Liverpool in
1992 and the subsequent replay saw us sell 150 tickets for each
game. On that occasion the tickets were sold as part of a package
that also included ferry and coach travel. The 2008 and 2010 F.A.
Cup campaigns created huge headaches as demand far outstripped
supply, especially for the semi finals on each occasion. Again a
package including ferry and coach travel was offered, although it
was optional on those occasions.
Sponsorship of Portsmouth F.C.
The Supporters Club have regularly supported
Pompey with donations, usually made at our annual dinners. Over the
years we have bought specific items for the club, including medical
equipment, playing kit and items for the disabled supporters
section, as well as sponsoring players kit.
SOS Pompey
In the Autumn of 1976 we became actively
involved in the SOS Pompey campaign, when PFC appealed for
supporters to help raise funds to keep the club going. While Pompey
sold squares of the Fratton turf, and made collections at each
match, on the Isle of Wight the Supporters Club sprang into action.
Meetings were held on a weekly basis and newspapers were collected,
stored, and then sold to raise funds.
It seems ridiculous now to think of selling old
newspapers to help keep the club alive, but back in 1976 our efforts
were very much a part of the SOS campaign. Committee members Bob
Jacobs, Rex Haines and Tony Best were very much at the forefront of
this at a critical time for the club.
Other fundraising events held at the time
included two strip shows at the Ponda Rosa and a fashion show at the
Grantham Hotel in Cowes, where some of the Pompey team of the time
acted as the models.
Sunday Morning Football
In the 1970’s under the guidance of Tony Best,
Graham Dubber and Bob Jacobs, we formed a Sunday morning football
side to play friendly matches. We played a handful of games each
season but this increased in the early 1980’s when an influx of
younger players prompted us to play up to 25 games a season.
In 1986 we applied to join the Isle of Wight
Sunday League and competed in the league for 9 seasons, gaining one
promotion during that period. Interest waned during our last season
and the decision was taken to resign from the league at the end of
the 1994/5 season.
Issue of
Journals/Newsletters to members
Initially correspondence to members was limited
to the occasional letter that would notify them of an upcoming
event, i.e. dinner, A.G.M. etc. This began to change in 1985 when
first issued a Supporters Club journal called “The Blue and Wight”.
This was issued in a simple A5 book format and informed members of
club news, with other articles related to Pompey or football in
general. Members were also invited to contribute their own thoughts
and “The Blue and Wight” was issued quarterly in that format for
seven years. The design was changed to more of a fanzine in a glossy
A4 format for five years before the final issue at the end of the 20th
century. In 2000 a new newsletter format was
produced and this exists to this day, although the style has
constantly changed, keeping members informed of latest events.
Charity Fundraising
In recent years we have focussed more on
fundraising with regular events such as Race Nights, Quiz Nights
etc, with the aim of making a large donation to a local charity at
the end of each season.
List of trips to away games organised by IWPSC
include :
1977/8
Birmingham (F.A. Cup) - Train
1980/1
Liverpool (League Cup) - Coach
Colchester (F.A. Cup) - Coach
1981/2
Doncaster - Train
1982/3
Bournemouth – Coach
Brentford – Coach
Plymouth – Coach
1983/4
Brighton – Coach
Aston Villa – Mini Bus
1984/5
Brighton – Boat & Coach
Fulham – Coach
1985/6
Tottenham (League Cup) – Coach
Wimbledon – Coach
Oxford (League Cup) – Mini Bus
Charlton – Coach
Brighton – Coach
1986/7
Wimbledon (F.A. Cup) – Coach
Ipswich – Mini Bus
Derby – Coach
Birmingham – Mini Bus
Bradford – Mini Bus
Reading – Coach
West Brom – Mini Bus
Crystal Palace – Coach
1987/8
Watford – Mini Bus
Liverpool – Coach
Luton (F.A. Cup) – Mini Bus
Coventry – Mini Bus
Manchester United – Coach
1989/90
Port Vale – Mini Bus
1990/1
Leicester – Mini Bus
1991/2
Derby – Mini Bus
Manchester United (League Cup) – Coach
Exeter (F.A. Cup) – Mini Bus
Liverpool (F.A. Cup) – Boat & Coach
Liverpool (F.A. Cup) – Boat & Coach
1992/3
Peterborough – Mini Bus
Notts County – Mini Bus
1993/4
Manchester United (League Cup) – Coach
1999/2000
Ipswich – Coach
Walsall – Coach
2000/1
Nottingham Forest – Coach
West Brom – Coach
2001/2
Coventry – Coach
West Brom – Coach
2002/3
Gillingham – Coach
Derby – Coach
Reading – Coach
Manchester United (F.A.Cup) – Coach
Walsall – Coach
Bradford – Coach
2003/4
Leicester – Coach
2004/5
West Brom – Coach
2007/8
West Brom (F.A.Cup) – Coach
Cardiff (F.A.Cup) – Coach
2008/9
Manchester United (C/Shield) – Coach
Wolfsburg (UEFA Cup) – Coach
2009/10
Wolves – Coach
Tottenham (F.A.Cup) – Coach
Chelsea (F.A.Cup) - Coach