The 50 year landmark got me thinking...thinking more in terms of the fans than the club.....
1) Who is the 'oldest' fan, not in age terms, but in terms of when they started suppporting the club, not in age terms. I was thinking is there anyone who has been there from the start as a fan? If not who has been supporting the club for the longest?
2) Who has seen the most games in those 50 years? Has anyone kept a list of games and can give an accurate figure? I think lots of people do this kind of list..don't be shy.
To start the ball rolling my first game was in 1986 I think, don't have an exact figure of matches but I think it must be approx around 200-250 at a rough guess.
Won't be very high up the charts with either of those I don't think!
I started supporting Welling United in 1986 (the famous 85-86 season), first match was a 3-1 victory against Alvechurch. Watched hundreds of matches, I was a ball boy for several seasons in the late 80s early 90s
So I have been watching and supporting Welling for over half its existance :)
I started in 1985, but I know a lot of Welling fans who started attending well before that.
I've had some seasons where I've been to every single match home and away, but I don't get to nearly as many these days. I must be on over 1000 matches by now, but I'm sure there are people who've been to double that.
It depends on whether you count Welling United FC, or Park View Road as a football ground. I began supporting Bexley United in about 1968. I don't remember my first home game, but my first away trip was Hastings United where we got a draw in outrageously lucky circumstances. I used to type up match reports and the league table on my Dad's typewriter for my class's notice board (Chislehurst & Sidcup Grammar), where to my knowledge nobody ever read them. On two occasions I was the only away supporter (that was Chelmsford and Cambridge City in the Eastern Professional Floodlight Cup).
We used to have some pretty handy players, such as Vic Akers (boss of the Arsenal Women throughout their glory years), Johnny Hudson (brother to Alan Hudson) and Phil O'Connor, who subsequently emigrated to New Zealand, played for the national team and was man-of-the-match in their 0-0 draw with England.
I was aware of Welling United as an under-15 side who played on Danson Park, but I never saw them in those days. I moved back to Leicester (my home town) in 1974, was vaguely aware of Bexley United going insolvent in 1976, and assumed the ground had been turned into flats. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Welling United had moved there.
I think that most early Welling supporters would have been Bexley supporters in the first instance, after all, we used to get broadly similar crowds (between 400-500 people, and we both used to hate Dartford). I've probably watched Bexley more times than I've watched Welling, but I've seen the majority of the big games prior to 2004 when I had my stroke, which finished me as a going-to-the-match supporter. I'd like to thank Moo and others for the match updates, but I think of you all as friends.
I had been watching Charlton for a good number of years before moving to Bexleyheath in 1977. Although I used to go to the nearer CAFC away games I started watching Welling in 1978 when Charlton were playing away in the north or midlands. Between 1978 and 1985 I probably saw on average around 8 - 10 Welling games per season.
In October 1985 Charlton began playing "home" games at Selhurst Park which is a ground I have always hated. After a horrendous journey back from the first "home" game there I made a decision that this was no longer for me. Although I still love to see Charlton do well, I have never regretted my decision to switch then to becoming a fully committed Wings supporter.
Since that day I estimate that I have only missed a total of around 30 home league games (almost entirely due to holidays or illness) and have probably averaged around 12 away league games each season. If I add on an average of 5 FA Cup and FA Trophy games per season and roughly the same number of pre-season friendlies (I never do KSC or LSC games) I estimate that I have seen between 1100 and 1200 Welling games. I wish now that I had kept records of the games I've attended as it would be nice to be able to give a definitive total but I'm sure that whatever the correct figure is there are others who would be able to beat it.
First Welling game was 1977/78 season in the Athenian League.
Became a regular in around 1983/84 and have had a season ticket soon after that to the present day.
Used to go regularly away from home but thas has reduced considerably after moving away temporarily and having a family as well.
Currently I probably miss 2 or 3 home games a season and I do probably around half/two thirds of away games. I do most FA Cup and FAT games and am sad enough to do most KSC and LSC games as well!
No idea how many games that would be in total but it is a lot!!
My first game was 1978 and got the bug immediately not missing a home game for the rest of the season. In December 79 went to my first away game and got hooked.
Stopped regular away trips around 1990 but have calculated I have seen around 1000 first team games. Also used to watch reserves if I could'nt travel and get up Sunday to watch youth team including local away games.
Scary amount of time really but still love the involvement, and have been lucky and privileged to be so closely involved. Would encourage anyone not good enough to play the game but still enjoys it to get involved with a club.
