Westridge Football Club will celebrate its 40th anniversary at the Westridge civic centre, on Saturday September 17.
Affiliated to the Mitchell’s PlainLocal Football Association, the club boasts huge numbers across all divisions with more than 300 juniors and 200 seniors, which includes nine junior teams, four senior teams, an over-35 team as well as an over-40 team.
It was during the year 1976 that the first families started moving into Westridge and with only Section 1 (Woodlands) already occupied, there were no soccer clubs or fields in the vicinity.
The Brookes family, who had moved in at 98 Dagbreek Avenue, had then through assistance from some members of the Flowers, Bowers and Amon families, decided to engage with the surrounding community with the aim of getting interested footballers to play friendlies until the first soccer fields become available.
This was also the year that Westridge Football Club was established, with Mike Baker as the club’s first elected chairman.
That same year another club, Yellow Rangers, was also established, and with weekly friendlies taking place between the two clubs, more clubs started emerging.
This led to the establishment of the area’s first football union in 1977 – the Mitchells Plain Football Association (MPFA).
The club has also over the years produced a number of players who plied their trade in the professional and semi-pro arena, including current Wits goalkeeper Moeneeb Josephs, Melly Sinclair, Breslyn Hempe, Jonathan Solomons, Ricardo Katza as well as Carlo and Romano Scott.
* For more information on the club’s anniversary event, call Lynn Niewenhuys on 072 8711 020 or André Page on 083 3457 408.