Taverners F.C.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Taverners Football Club is an English football club. It was formed in 1971 under the name of George Taverners, a name derived from their roots at the George Hotel Nailsworth. The early years were spent lounging in the lower divisions of the Stroud and District League, with little success apart from one brief excursion into Division Three.
The turning point for the club came in October 1982 when player Dale Russell decided to try his hand at management and was elected player manager for the first time. This triggered a golden era for the club. Four championships, three runners-up spots, two Stroud Charity Cups, and two Berkeley Hospital Cups soon follow, together with the disappointment of two County Cup final defeats in 1983 and 1985.
The club also suffered a huge disappointment after their first Stroud League Division One championship in 1990-91 when their application to join the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League was rejected. Despite this, the team went on to retain the title and took a self-imposed exile to Hawkesbury Upton in order to satisfy the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League's facilities requirements. Two years later the team returned to Nailsworth to play at the home of Forest Green Rovers F.C. before finally moving to their present home at Highwood (Nailsworth Recreations Centre) in 1995.
The first five seasons of Senior League football brought no success, but the side was able to establish itself as a mid-table outfit. In 1997-98 fortunes changed with the recruitment from a rich seam of emerging local talent, together with the return of former captain Mike Stratford as Dale Russell's assistant. The Adrian Lees Chairty Cup and promotion to the GNSL Division One soon followed.
In 2001-2002, Taverners F.C. won the G.F.A Challenge Cup, and, after coming a close second in the league, gained promotion to the Gloucestershire County League for the first time. An historic season for everyone at the club. Taverners F.C. crest sports a Latin motto "Superbia Dobunorum" meaning "pride of the cotswolds".
