That man yesterday would be happy to know that I am giving his local tivals Ramsgate Football Club some air time....The Rams is a football team based in Kent England. They are currently members of the Isthmian League South East Division and play at the Southwood Stadium. The main local rivals of the club are Margate (see yesterday's blog) who are situated just 4 miles away. When the two teams meet, it is known as the Thanet derby.
Ramsgate FC had played as a club since at least 1886 but folded in 1924, with local rivals Ramsgate Glenville taking over their Southwood Stadium. Glenville did not reform after World War II and a new club dubbed Ramsgate Athletic took over Southwood. The club retained the Athletic name until 1972.
Athletic played in the Kent League from their formation until the collapse of the league in 1959. This was the club's best period for nearly 50 years, with two consecutive league titles, several county cups, and a decent run to the first round of the FA Cup. With the collapse of the Kent League the Rams migrated to the Southern League, where they initially did well but were forced to resign and drop down to the re-formed Kent League in 1976. In 1999-2000 they reached the FA Vase Q-final.
For nearly thirty years the club performed well without too much excitement but in 2004, fortunes changed with the return of former manager Jim Ward. He led the club to two consecutive championships in the Kent Premier league and the Isthmian First Division and then the Premier Division in 2006–07, which therefore offered the first derby matches for many years against Isle of Thanet and Margate (the 1955 derby raised a 5,000 crowd).
In the club's first season in the Premier Division the Rams finished in 9th place, and followed this with an even better season in 2007-8 when The Rams came 5th in the division and also won the Isthmian League Cup beating AFC Sudbury. The following season, however, Ramsgate finished bottom of the table and were relegated!!! They presently play in the Isthmian League South-east Division.
Ramsgate FC run a reserves' team, which plays in the Kent Football League Second Division, and a women's team, which plays in the South East Counties Women's League Kent County Division. Ramsgate FC run five youth teams; the under-13 to under-18 teams compete in the Valley Express Kent Youth League, and the club also runs Ramsgate Youth U7 to U16, which play in the Molten East Kent Youth League. Two other youth teams in Ramsgate are Trinity and Hugin Vikings; both play in The Molten East Kent Youth League.
Thanet Galaxy is a Pan Disability Football Club that provides structured coaching for male and female footballers of all ages who qualify within the nationally and internationally recognised Pan Disability categories. The club trains at Chatham House Grammar School and plays in Kent Disability Football League in three age bands: U-11, U-16, and 16+. In their first season (2008/2009), the adult A team won the Kent Disability League Adult Championship.
The Official Illustrated Guide to South-Eastern and North and Mid-Kent Railways (June 1863) by George Measom from describes Ramsgate thus: 'It is impossible to speak too favourably of this first rate town, its glorious sands, its bathing, its hotels, libraries, churches, etc. etc. not forgetting its bracing climate...The streets of Ramsgate are well paved or macadamed and brilliantly lighted with gas.
The artist Vincent van Gogh moved to Ramsgate in April 1876, aged 23. He boarded at 11 Spencer Square, which is identified by a Blue Plaque. He obtained work as a teacher at a local school in Royal Road, where he received his post. Writing to his brother Theo, he described his surroundings: "There’s a harbour full of all kinds of ships, closed in by stone jetties running into the sea on which one can walk. And further out one sees the sea in its natural state, and that’s beautiful."
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