We're situated about a twenty minute walk from Dean Court (now known as The Fitness First Stadium) and about 110 miles from the nearest 'big club' - Arsenal. As a result of which you tend to see more AFC Bournemouth shirts on kids playing football than say: Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal - there are a couple of Inter Milan and Barcelona shirts but no Southampton (which is only 25 miles away) or Portsmouth (a further 20 on - mind you Portsmouth is probably the most parochial club in the world).
Bournemouth has recognised this locational advantage over the years and its players regularly attend schools not just as their role as a community club but also to give up their 'free' time in helping with coaching and fund raising activities. After all if you can see James Hayter at your school but not Cristiano Ronaldo you might take an interest in the local club. Russell Beardsmore the ex Man.Utd player who captained Bournemouth but was forced to retire in his mid twenties actually taught Nathalie some football skills last year and suddenly the red and black home strips were seen everywhere.
It's up against it as a club - the town of Bournemouth has never disguised the fact that it doesn't want a football club and the associated 'riff-raff', to such an extent that the club is actually situated outside of Bournemouth in neighbouring Boscombe. In terms of average gates it's 6,500 in an area with a population of 163,600 is quite pitiful when compared with larger clubs but looked at in the context on town size (it is the 92nd biggest town in the U.K) it is the same size as Colchester, Oxford and Southend (three other well-known football hotbeds!) it doesn't do too badly - this isn't Leeds or Manchester after all.
There was a wonderful touch of irony a few years ago when the club was going through it's seemingly infinite financial problems, a public meeting was arranged and the Council offered the Winter Gardens free for the meeting, the iront being that the Council has decided that the Winter Gardens is not financially viable and is going to be demolished (at some point).
Apart from the infamous visitation by Leeds about sixteen years ago it has also been relatively trouble free, this has been partly due to the clever scheduling of matches against bigger clubs on weekday evenings.
I had two trials as a teenager but wasn't good enough to be offered an apprenticeship, the lad who actually got in ahead of me turned them down, he was then offered a contract by Coventry City but also turned them down on the grounds that they weren't a big enough club! I went through a phase several years ago of alternating between watching Bournemouth and West Ham, if Bournemouth had an attractive fixture I'd watch them, providing it didn't clash with a West Ham home game where I was a season ticket holder.
Some good players have learned their craft or honed their skills over the years at Dean Court: Ted MacDougall, Phil Boyer, Jamie Redknapp, Nigel Spackman, Ian Bishop, Matt Holland, Carl Fletcher, Rio Ferdinand played down here on loan as did Jermain Defoe who came within one goal of equalling the Football League record for goals in consecutive games and some managers who went onto big and better things: John Bond, Mel Machin, Peter Grant was a player and he is now Pards asssitant at West Ham and of course Harry who has donated nearly half a million pounds over the years to keeping the club afloat. There has been a close relationship between West Ham and Bournemouth since the early seventies and the Hammers come down for a friendly most summers.
One of the joys of watching one of the smaller clubs is seeing a player who is obviously too good for the league he is in. I remember when Ian Bishop made his debut, me and my mate looked at each other after about ten minutes of the game, during which time 'Bish' had played three or four defence splitting passes and said, "Well he won't last long," and we were right. He was signed by Manchester City before the season was out and was a key part of the side who beat United 5-1 in September 1989, Howard Kendall then sold him to West Ham where he made over 250 appearances and scored 8 goals. One of those West Ham goals was in the old Second Division on his debut against Bournemouth in a 4-0 win at Upton Park, he curled the ball in from about thirty yards in front of the old South Bank, which was where the Bournemouth supporters were standing, as the ball flew in he just stood there with his arms aloft and then suddenly the West Ham supporters quickly followed by the Bournemouth supporters started singing "One Ian Bishop, there's only one Ian Bishop." I can't remember a game where both the Home and Away supporters have celebrated the same goal!
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