by Kevin Bishop
As Mousehole AFC prepare for their first season in the Pitching In Southern League, the Seagulls will be taking on a football club from East London with a remarkable history. Following on from matches against Exeter City (July 11th) and Dorking Wanderers (July 15th), Mousehole will welcome Upton Park FC to Trungle Parc on July 18th for a 19.45 kickoff.
Upton Park is an area of West Ham and played in West Ham Park, which is located next to West Ham’s former home, the Boleyn Ground in East London. They have been recently re-formed with the name and history of the original Upton Park FC who played in the very early days of football competition in England.
The original team were one of four teams who played in the first-ever FA Cup fixtures, losing3-0 to Clapham Rovers on 11th November 1871. In 1900, Upton Park were chosen to represent Great Britain in the inaugural Olympic soccer competition which took place as part of the Olympic Games in Paris. They won the gold medal beating a representative French team in the final 4-0.
Recently, Upton Park FC faced the Royal Engineers in the last-ever game at the Boleyn Ground, before the Hammers moved to the London Stadium.
The club’s manager Billy Jenkins has a long association with West Ham. His father and grandfather were both physios at the club. His father worked at the club from 1966 to 1990, during which time he treated the England World Cup captain Bobby Moore.
As a newly reformed club, Upton Park are not in any league system but look to keep the name of the original club alive. They aim to give good experiences for young players from the area to play alongside good amateur players – a bit of a Corinthian-Casuals of East London & Essex. Longer term they hope to build the team into one that can compete in a league system and eventually find a ground of their own to keep the Upton Park name alive.
The fixture came about as a result of a holiday Jon Hunter, who helps run the club, made to Mousehole shortly after lockdown. Hunter struck up a conversation with Mousehole groundsman (and West Ham fan) Billy Jacka while staying at the campsite that is part of the set-up at Trungle Parc. He thought at the time that it would be a great place to bring his team for a friendly and three years later that is about to happen.
