Origins

Celebrating 120 years of the Grecians – The St Sidwell’sUnited Story

18. A reserve team is formed

In September 1901 St Sidwell’s United were warming up for their first season. There was at least one ‘trial match’. But what happened to players who didn’t make the first team?

Unlike some clubs, St David’s and Exeter YMCA for example, St Sidwell’s weren’t running a second eleven.

One of the fringe players was Percy Worner, selected only for several 1st XI friendlies and a Junior League game. This after playing regularly for Exeter Athletic in the previous season.

Percy had played for St Sidwell’s School. Later, after study at St Luke’s, he returned to St Sidwell’s to teach. We remember him today as a Grecian hero, who lost his life at the Somme in 1916.

St Sidwell’s United eventually decided to field two sides for the 1902-03 season. And throughout this, one of the seconds’ regulars, often at centre half, was Worner.

Despite losing 2-1 away to Exmouth Rovers in their opening match on 13th September, the Reserves mirrored the success of the 1st team. By the end of December 1902 their record was: played 13, won 9, drawn 3, lost 1.

The Season 

And there were some big wins too, 9-0 against Excelsior at Pinhoe Road and 12-0 against the YMCA Reserves.

Back in 1901, the emergence of St Sidwell’sUnited coincided with the disappearance of Exeter Athletic and Exeter Wesleyan United. It was essentially players from these two clubs – as well as an older club, St James’ Church Lads’ Brigade – that made up the St Sidwell’s 2nd XI team sheets during the 1902-03 season.

Along with Worner, names such as Stone, Ireland, Peters, Aplin, Fenwick, Russell and West.

At the end of the season, the Reserves’ record was a respectable one. In 23 matches – all friendlies – they’d won 16, drawn 4, and lost just three, scoring 92 goals against 28. At the Pinhoe Road ground they were unbeaten.

But as the Devon Evening Express revealed, they might have done even better: ‘Ill luck has been met with, Clubs failing to keep fixtures. No less than 11 teams have disappointed them.’

Nevertheless, the report on St Sidwell’s United’s ‘splendid season with both 1st and 2nd teams’ ended on a positive note: ‘Next season the Reserves will be a stronger side (as several promising players have asked to join the team), when they will fight for the Junior League Challenge Cup.’

Sid Andrews was one of those ‘promising players’. A 15-year-old, he’d already won a medal in the Exeter Schools competition for St John’s Hospital School, and he’d helped to form Belmont Rovers.

In the 1903-04 season he was a regular in the St Sidwell’s second string forward line. In the Junior League, competing against thirteen clubs, St Sidwell’s Reserves came third.

Sid went on to play for the first team, and for the 1906-07 season he was made captain. He was profiled by the Football Express in one of its first issues in September 1906: ‘Exeter City’s Youthful Skipper.’

Sadly, just three weeks later, his playing days were ended by a severe knee injury at St James’ Park, the place where he’d made his mark for the Reserves.

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