Nantwich Town F.C.
Nantwich Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. The club was founded in 1884 and is nicknamed The Dabbers, a reference to the town’s tanning industry.[1] They currently compete in the Northern Premier League Premier Division, the seventh tier of English football, and play their home matches at the Weaver Stadium – for sponsorship reasons, also known as the ‘Optimum Pay Stadium’.
In 1995, in an FA Cup preliminary round tie against Droylsden, Andy Locke scored the fastest ever FA Cup hat-trick, in 2 minutes 20 seconds. This record still stands for a hat-trick in any round of the FA Cup, including the preliminary rounds before the First Round. Nantwich have qualified for the FA Cup First Round Proper three times, in 2011, 2017 and 2019.
Nantwich Town won the FA Vase on 6 May 2006. Two goals from Andy Kinsey and one from Stuart Scheuber produced a 3–1 win over Hillingdon Borough at St Andrew’s.
Nantwich followed up their FA Vase winning season with a successful promotion campaign in 2006–07. Finishing third in the North West Counties League Division One, they were promoted to the Northern Premier League Division One South for the 2007–08 season and then gained a second consecutive promotion, to the Northern Premier League Premier Division.
Nantwich also progressed to the semi-final stage of the FA Trophy in 2015–16, losing 6–4 over two legs to Halifax Town.
Founded in 1884, Nantwich has a long and proud football tradition. Early years were spent playing friendly and cup matches but in 1891 the club joined the Shropshire & District League, finishing as runners-up in the first season.
Nantwich moved into the stronger Combination the following season and on 15 October 1892 hosted Liverpool in the Merseysiders’ first ever FA Cup match (Liverpool won the first qualifying round tie 4–0).[2]
Before World War I, Nantwich also had spells in a variety of leagues including the North Staffs & District, the Crewe & District, Manchester and Lancashire Combination leagues.[2] After the war, the club became founder members of the Cheshire County League in which they were perennial strugglers, though they did finish 6th in 1921–22. The season before, a record home attendance of 5,121 watched the Dabbers play Winsford United in the Cheshire Senior Cup at their temporary home at Kingsley Fields (now the location of the club’s current ground). In 1933 the Dabbers won the Cheshire Senior Cup after beating ICI (Alkali) at the Drill Field, Northwich in front of 8,000 fans
In those early years, the club had A. N. Hornby as President. Hornby captained England at rugby and cricket and, as well as being President, turned out for the club on several occasions.
After World War II, the Dabbers joined the newly founded Mid Cheshire League in 1948 and in 1952, the club entered the inaugural FA Youth Cup competition. Drawn against Manchester United in the second round, the young Dabbers crashed 23–0 on a November evening at the Cliff training ground to a United youth line up including Duncan Edwards, David Pegg, Albert Scanlon and Ron Cope (who joined Nantwich in the twilight of his career).
