Saturday 7 August 2010

Tipton Town FC (England)

Tipton Town are a rather onomatopoeic sounding club from the West Midlands. They were founded in 1948 under the name of Ocker Hill United. Despite Tipton's position between Dudley and West Bromwich, they started their footballing life in the Wolverhampton and District Amateur League. In the mid sixties they were taken on in the West Midlands Regional League, and deceided to change their name to their current title so as to attract more people from their home town to come and watch them play.

In their early days they played on the rented the works ground of Lee Howl & Co, but in the early seventies they banded together with some other sports clubs in the region to create the Tipton Sports Academy, a multi-sports facility built on an old landfill site. The stadium is licenced to hold an even 1000 punters for footballing affairs. They currently play in the Midland Football Alliance, the ninth stage on the pyramid.

Their titles have been few, having won both divisions of the West Midlands Regional League once each, and a few local midweek cups here and there. But they are perhaps best known as being the club that spawned an English cult hero. Ex-England and Wolves goal machine Steve Bull started his career here, and soon earned the nickname the Tipton Terror. Indeed, he was born only a few streets away from Town's ground in the nearby Moat Farm Estate. He went on to score over 300 goals for Wolves in all competitions - a feat rare in the modern game - and it all started at this small but homely club.

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