Ardrossan Winton Rovers F.C.

Football club infobox
clubname = Ardrossan Winton Rovers
fullname = Ardrossan Winton Rovers Footbal Club
nickname = "The Winton"
founded = 1902
ground = Winton Park Ardrossan Scotland
capacity = 3000 (Approx)
manager = flagicon|Scotland Derek Frye
league = Scottish Junior Football Association(West Region )
shirtsupplier= Unknown
pattern_la1=_blackshoulders|pattern_b1=_blackstripes|pattern_ra1=_blackshoulders|leftarm1=FFFFFF|body1=FFFFFF|rightarm1=FFFFFF|shorts1=000000|socks1=000000
pattern_la2=_white_hoops|pattern_b2=_whitehoops|pattern_ra2=_white_hoops
leftarm2=FFFFFF|body2=FF0000|rightarm2=FFFFFF|shorts2=FF0000|socks2=FFFFFF

Ardrossan Winton Rovers Football Club are a Scottish football (soccer) club from Ardrossan in North Ayrshire. Formed in 1902, they are based at Winton Park and are nicknamed "the Winton". They compete in the West Region of the Scottish Junior Football Association

Winton Park

Winton Park has been the home of [http://www.wintonrovers.org.uk Winton Rovers] for most of their existence and was bought from Lord Eglinton in 1923 for £160. The park originally ran in an East West direction and after Bell's Nursery shut up shop after the Second World War, the park was turned to its current North South direction. The grandstand (currently disused) was built around 1956.The club colours are Black and White - currently stripes although hoops have often been used. Away Jerseys are red and white hoops.The pitch is approx 110 yards long by 66 wide and the ground capacity is approx 3000. There is some cover near the main entrance to the park and on match days there is the opportunites to get sustenance and a regular match programme is also produced.

Admission to the ground on matchdays (2006/07) is normally £4 for adults and £1.50 for OAP's and U16's

Two of the clubs best players post-war were Bobby 'The Rocket' Stephenson and George 'Deadly' Headly, between them scoring 95 goals in season 1981/82, Headly scored 73 and the other 22 were scored by The Rocket, although he did supply many balls for 'Deadly' to score he was never a player with the same flair for goals as Headly and many considered him to be living on George's feared reputation.

Anecdotal evidence exists to suggest that Deadly Headly was actually called up for the Scotland squad for the FIFA World Cup in Spain 1982 but, due to his political opposition to the still ruling military government, he declined the offer, this was never made public as a player bhoycott could never be allowed to happen by FIFA and could have destabilised the very foundation of world football and its policy of separation from politics.

This story has never been made public but was reportedly the basis for a storyline in 'Hot Shot Hamish', a cartoon strip in 'Roy of the Rovers'

'Deadly' is shown front left and 'The Rocket' at front right. This was them in their prime as Scottish Junior Football pin-ups and both secured modelling contracts with Duncans of Saltcoats to model cardigans and slacks every second Wednesday afternoon,as long as there was no mid-week game. The Rocket used his looks to advertise Grubb the Butcher with the slogan 'The Finest Mince You'll Ever See...'

http://www.blake7.f2s.com/winton/images/winton37.jpg

Happier news for the club was the lifting of the North Ayrshire Cup on 13th June 2007 when they defeated Kilwinning Rangers 3 - 1 at Meadow Park, Irvine

[http://www.wintonrovers.org.uk www.wintonrovers.org.uk]

Honours