Millwey Rise FC arecelebrating their 65th anniversary. Here, former player Dick Sturch, who has followed the Slopers' fortunes ever since, recalls the reaction to Axminster having a second football club.

'They won't last five minutes let alone seven days.' 'Axminster doesn`t need two teams. ' 'They won`t even finish the Season.' Some of the comments that were made at the time of Millwey Rise AFC`s formation.

The club is now 65 years- old this year but literally, the grass roots of the club were planted much earlier in the days when youngsters played football around the vacant US Army Hospital buildings where many families had moved in as 'squatters' during the the mid 1940s. Henry Trenchard, Perce Downton, Geoff Vicary and yours truly were only a few of the many locals who cut their footballing teeth here.

Axminster Town FC, who played at Sector Lane, were the nearest football team and most of Millwey's youngsters played there until it was decided at the Trout Inn (under the auspices of the Landlord Bernard Hiscox et al) to form their own team in 1958. 

In their first Season the side played in Division Two of the Perry Street League topping the division and winning all the cups that went with it. The foundations were laid on which the success of the current club is built.

The photos show the team in their first season 1958-59 showing the Division Two cup winners. The other picture was taken sometime during that season on Millwey's first pitch at Beavor Lane. The third photo is five of the surviving members of that successful 1958 team - Dave Mitchell, Perce Downton and myself. Front (from the left) - Tony Turner, Dave Hawkins.