When Wasps stung

YORK may never generate the tribal heat of Glasgow football rivalry or echo to the roar of a Hull rugby league derby. But, despite its small size, this is a city of true sporting passion. Or at least it was. Seventy years ago, York Wasps played regularly in front of 2,000 people. And that was just for their pre-season training games.

When it came to real fixtures, 10,000 people or more would regularly cram into Clarence Street to roar on their boys. The record attendance was an impressive 14,689 in 1934, when they took on Swinton.

And they had plenty to cheer about in those days. In 1931, the Wasps beat Bradford Northern, Huddersfield, Salford and Warrington to reach the Challenge Cup Final.

In front of more than 40,000 at Wembley, Wasps lost to Halifax in what was generally regarded as one of the classic finals. But York's finest made up for this disappointment by taking the Yorkshire Cup twice in that decade, again in front of huge crowds.

The Fifties, too, was a good time to be a Wasps fan. The team made the Yorkshire Cup final again and Bas Watts, their bustling second-row forward, won a World Cup winner's medal with Great Britain.

"People used to say York was a rugby city, which it probably was," says Denzil Webster, who played for Wasps between 1956 and 1959.

In those days he and his team-mates would run out in front of 6,000 fans.

"You took it for granted," he said. "If you played a good side, the ground was probably full. If you played a weaker side, there were not so many, but it was still fairly full.

"Many people used to come down and watch us train."

These memories are now sepia-tinted and curling at the corners. A stark snapshot of modern times was provided by the desperate statistic 280. That is how many turned up to watch Wasps, rooted at the foot of the Northern Ford Premiership, score their first victory for more than a year against Chorley Lynx this month. It was the lowest gate in club history.

The fall-off in York City support has not been so dramatic, but the attendance graph goes the same way: downwards.

City's record attendance at Bootham Crescent came when they played Huddersfield Town in the sixth round of the FA Cup in March 1938. A remarkable 28,123 saw that match.

More recently, in the 1970s when the team spent their only two seasons in the old Second Division (now the first) their average gates were 8,680 and 5,108.

Compare that to the average this season, which stands at 2,600.

So where have York's sports fans gone? In the case of the Wasps, "it's complicated", says Denzil Webster, who is also a past president of Wasps and association secretary.

Many fans point to the club's move from the city centre to Huntington as the beginning of the bad times. He's not so sure it is as simple as that.

"The first game that was played there, the ground was full," he says.

"I think it's what you put on the park that counts. If you get a winning team people are interested, they want to be part of that success.

"Since that time, we've gone down and down and down and lost support. Then it's very, very hard to get them back.

"People have other interests. They start following other clubs such as Leeds or Castleford."

Loyalty is a rarer quality these days. "At one time you always used to support your home town. You didn't have a car so you had to."

Our more flexible society also means many York residents are incomers. They bring with them allegiances to other clubs, rather than having support for local clubs handed down to them through the generations.

One of the Wasps' most loyal fans is Louise Ince. She is chairman of the Supporters' Club and never misses a game, despite their record of regular, recent hammerings.

Why?

"They're my team. They need support. I am one of those supporters who watch through thick and thin."

She does not blame others for abandoning the team, but feels York's sporting culture has changed.

"Many schools now don't play rugby league. You have to push kids back into playing the game."

Nevertheless, she has faith that the support would come back if Wasps could be saved and rebuilt into a successful side.

"Rugby supporters are fickle. They only want to watch a winning team. I like to think we could go back to the old days of three or four thousand at home."

Ironically, York City has enjoyed a resurgence of support since its future came under threat.

More than 6,500 watched the FA Cup third round replay against Grimsby in January. Crowds like these and the popularity of the Supporters' Trust show the fans are still out there, believes former fan Sam Bothamley, from Malton.

He was a regular at City's games ten years ago but then stopped going.

"I went for about four seasons when John Ward first managed York," says Sam, 24. So why did he give up on the Minstermen?

"There was no ambition. All the best players seemed to go and they never replaced them adequately.

"The money didn't go back to getting anyone decent.

"My grandma, she was a season ticket holder. She kept going to see them after I finished. She's stopped going now. She didn't think she was getting what she paid for."

Sam now plays football on a Saturday afternoon. And he thinks many young football fans are too distracted by the glamour and fashion of the Premiership to commit to their lowly local side. "It's all image. When you see Beckham on TV, he's a fashion icon.

"Maybe people are influenced that way and don't want to see Second or Third Division players they wouldn't recognise."

Another former City fan, Cliff Rowley, of Oakland Avenue, thinks York has never been a fully-fledged football city. But fans will return to watch a team of winners.

"We have got to get down to results. A successful team will breed success. Yorkshiremen, being Yorkshiremen, they like value for money."

It is quite straightforward, he says: "If you don't get the support, you don't deserve to exist."

Wasps' existence is now hanging by a thread. For Louise Ince the timing is particularly poignant.

In February, the Supporters' Club looked like it was going down the pan because of lack of support, until she launched a recruitment campaign.

"Now we have got more people than ever on the committee.

"We've got a Supporters' Club and we haven't got a club to support. We are devastated."

Updated: 10:27 Thursday, March 21, 2002