Bournemouth F.C.

Bournemouth Football Club is an English football team currently playing in the, in the ninth tier of the English football league system. Their nickname is "The Poppies", and they are often known as Bournemouth Poppies to avoid confusion with the Premier League club A.F.C. Bournemouth. The club play at Victoria Park, Namu Road, in Bournemouth and are founding members of the Hampshire FA and Bournemouth FA.HistoryThe club was founded as Bournemouth Rovers on 11 September 1875 at a meeting held in Abbotts Auction Mart in Old Christchurch Road. In 1878 on Tuesday 26 November the club participated in one of the first floodlit matches, when they played under experimental electric lights at Dean Park for "a grand exhibition of the new electric light". In 1888 the club moved to Dean Park, and changed their name to Bournemouth Dean Park. The club changed its name again to Bournemouth F.C. in 1889 when the club amalgamated with local side Bournemouth Arabs, and moved grounds a season later to Victoria Park. In 1896–97 the club became founder members of the Hampshire League.The club won the West Division in 1905 and repeated this again in 1910, this time playing at their new home of Namu Road. Namu Road was given to the club in 1908 by Mr. Jack Joy, a local landowner and former member of the club. A year later a grandstand was erected and formally opened by the Mayor. The Poppies had more success in the early years becoming County Division Champions either side of the Great War in 1914 and 1922. However, in 1929 the club was relegated into the newly formed Division Two, but were promoted back to Division One as champions in 1932. After the war, the club entered the FA Cup for the first time in the 1946–47 season. The club achieved some success in other cup competitions in winning the Hampshire Intermediate Cup in 1950 and again in 1970 and 1972. In 1974 the stand that had been erected in 1909 was destroyed by fire.