History of the Wanderers

- by Bob "the cat/the egg" Palin

The Wanderers were the third team formed as part of Clayton Soccer Club when a number of former first team players realised that they still wanted to play but were too old and codgery to be competitive. So one day in 1994 a group of them got together with a few other layabouts from the old Royal Oak pub in Clayton (RIP) and decided to play a pickup game against a team of women restaurant workers from Walnut Creek; the exact motivation for this game is highly suspect. Despite being soundly thrashed by the women, a permanent team was formed with the brightest orange shirts that could be found, and the Wanderers were under way. A logo was made up consisting of a shield containing images of the unifying factors behind the team: soccer balls and beer mugs.

The first season was rather trying as we lost our first 7 games but things improved after that, and we won 7 of 9 for the rest of the season, finishing somewhere in the middle of the C division. The season finished with a glorious cup defeat against very good opposition who were taken into extra time on a beautiful rainy, muddy day. Player of the year was Andrew Swain, the midfield dynamo.

The first manager of the Wanderers, Des Docherty, then made some shrewd moves in the transfer market and the second season was extremely successful. We went w13 d1 l2 to win the C division championship. Player of the year was Bobby "the cat" Palin who used his ever increasing rotundness to block a few shots in the goal.

During the off-season, Des decided he couldn't better his achievements and took over Clayton's fourth team which was struggling from a lack of leadership. This left the above mentioned "cat" in charge for the third season which featured some somewhat mediocre results with an eventual record of w6 d3 l9 and 7th place in Div B. The season finished with a glorious cup defeat against very good opposition, this time on a beautiful sunny day entirely unsuited to footy. Player of the year was Phil Quinlan who ran himself crazy all over the field and is the only player I know of to have received a yellow card while unconscious.

- Bob Palin,
aka "Egg"