West London Wildcats History

	The Wildcats were one of the founding clubs of the BARFL back in 1990 along with Earls Court, East Midlands, Lea Valley, London, North London, Thames Valley and Wandsworth. And with eight Grand Final appearances in the last fourteen years the Wildcats have always been one of the BARFL's most successful clubs. Below is a table listing the some of the Cats key people and the positions they have held - certainly without them this great club could not be what it is today.
Year pages: 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

History of the West London Wildcats

You will find that some of the years below are links more detailed pages on that year. These can contain everything from game photos, match reports, ladders, to social function write-ups and photos of all the action!

Grand Final: Wandsworth Demons 11.11 (77) def West London Wildcats 9.8 (62)

Both the Wildcats and the Raiders finished the season as minor premiers without a single loss for the whole year. Both sides proceeded through the finals unscathed however the Wildcats found out the hard way, that there is only one game all year that counts. Three premierships in a row for the Raiders but the Wildcats were once again left with a Grand Final loss - their seventh.

Grand Final: North London Lions 18.11 (119) def West London Wildcats 8.5 (53)

After a finals dash that left the other clubs spinning, the Wildcats were again in the Grand Final. With earlier 2002 success in the Brit Cup, and after watching the Raiders comeback from the dead to reclaim the Conference Cup, the final score did not reflect the pride and passion that had become such a part of the Wildcat's game through the finals.

After a fairly good year the Cats were third on the ladder at the end of the season, but for the first time in years the Cats didn't make it to the Grand Final losing to Wandsworth in a semi final.

The Raiders however were playing in the newly formed 'London Conference' and after finishing the season, second on the conference ladder underneath North London's Regents Park, were going into the finals as the underdogs. But the Raiders were strong and they came away with the first ever Conference Premiership beating Regents Park by 8 points!

It was Corfu again for another fantastic footy trip, and classics such as the boat trip along the coast, scooters, and beach cricket were again among the activites undertaken - not surprisingly most of the locals remembered us from the year before - the stuff of legends!

Grand Final: West London Wildcats 11.12 (78) def Wandsworth Demons 5.2 (32)

Undoubtedly a landmark year for the Cats - The Millennium Premiers!! Led by 'Supercoach' Billsy, the Cats soundly thrashed Wandsworth in the big one and finally took out the Premiership.

Photos of the 2000 Grand Final day can be found here. The footy trip to Corfu was an absolute blinder, and set a benchmark that future footy trips will find very hard to beat.

The Bushraiders were formed and played in the premiership alongside the Cats - and we began playing games at Trailfinders Sports Club in Ealing.

Grand Final: Wandsworth Demons 14.10 (94) def West London Wildcats 14.5 (89)

Plenty of photos on their way including the Grand Final, semi final, gentleman's lunch, B&F presentation and the 10 year reunion at the Pint on Punt.

1998

We ended up on top of the ladder at the end of the home and away season by dint of the BARFL lucid and excellent idea of ranking the ladder by percentage. The games we won, we won very well and the games we lost, we lost by less than two goals. Unfortunately there were two problems. 1. The other clubs (archaic, staid and lost in the pages of history) disagreed with this novel system which was bound to revolutionise AFL as we know it. More importantly 2. We lost a few too many games under esteemed leader "Minibus" - only half a coach!

Oh well - The first year ever we missed the finals so it was straight onto an extended footy trip at Ipsos on Corfu in the Greek Isles - our summer training camp - with a full compliment of players. WHOTT-SOTT

The only other highlight was a marvellous display by a homeless destitute from the Cardboard City at Waterloo Bull ring who managed to disrupt the "Fosters Cup" AFL luncheon in spectacular fashion!

The AGM put in place a committee and coach for season 1999 and the bottom of the J curve had been passed.

More photos to follow, the season ladder is available though.

1996

Grand Final: London Hawks def West London Wildcats

Yet another Grand Final...

Grand Final: Wandsworth Demons def West London Wildcats

Another Grand Final appearance for the Wildcats, and another disappointment, click the link above to see some team photos

1994

Grand Final: London Hawks 15.8 (98) def West London Wildcats 8.11 (59)

A bad start to the year for the Wildcats. Big Northern Territorian Marc Gregson passed away on New years day in a truck accident in South Africa. With that fresh in our minds, club stalwart Laurie Winfield succumbed to the big C during the year. The best finals player now receives the Marc Gregson trophy and Laurie is remembered by the B&F trophy. Another go at the big one in which we failed to beat Wimbledon! BARFL Best First-year EC Mark "Scooter" Mcmanimen running riot. Dennis "Baggio" Radetic came third in the League B&F and was a power in the back line. Liverpool was a very interesting trip for most concerned and the last chance to see why Reidy should never put the boots on! Bristol was heart stopping for the people in Digger Dino's car who careered around a huge roundabout the wrong way and survived!

The end of season trip was to Corfu and was up to expectations. Congrats must go to the player found performing the Horizontal tango with the club footy socks still on!

1993

The Green Bus was still out at Thames Valley and so went to most games courtesy of a very large (and legal) drug company in executive comfort. Sometimes the bus did not come with an attached convenience and the Nurses were surprised about the number of creamy soda bottles we bought but never emptied after especially hard games. This year Wimbledon met Guido the Welsh Phsyc Nurse. On the boundry in front of Rossco, the Captain Cook (and soon to be Redback Publican), Reidy and 50 people. A Wimbledon guy hit poor Guido with the best punch he could give behind play. Guido stares straight into his eyes and asked "Is that the best you could do? Is it, is it" Reidy and Rossco, unaccustomed to shouting as they were - bagged this guy and we don't think he played again. This was the last year of Leona's awesome BBQ which use to bring the club £400 a game.

If the goal umpire had knackered us in the 1992 GF then Earls Court put it into us in 1993. Needing to score something like 422 to nothing to secure a better spot in the finals they managed to do just that even though the game was a technical forfeit! We ended up playing at the biggest ground (10mtrs longer than the MCG) in the League at North London, against North London, without the services of BARFL B&F Darryn Jammieson and two other key players. 1993 was not the year of the Wildcat.

End of Season trip was to Dublin, Ireland where it all foggy all of the time, though vaguely we did spend an enjoyable afternoon in a lock-in - right next to the cop-shop!

1992

Grand Final: Wandsworth Demons 12.5 (77) def West London Wildcats 11.9 (75)

Everywhere the Wildcats went the Green bus spluttered. It finally died on the way to Thames Valley and Esher/Earls Court (for the seconds) This was the Wildcat Dream team. If the Wildcats had a golden year the 1992 was it. The back line the best in the League. With Davin Clarke, Al Dowdall and all running absolutely riot in the back line there was oodles of possession time for the centers (Jammo,Kyle etc) and forwards who converted truly. We played hard footy under the gaze of Supercoach Reidy, Newcastle Brown bottle close at hand and with the Pepsi Clipboard nowhere to be found.

The Grand Final was 'eventful'. Rule number one. Never leave your jumpers in garbage bags! they might be thrown out! Thanks to North and the lovely pink dyed seconds jumpers (thanks to the nurses and a still yet to be identified piece of red lingerie).

The day was the exact opposite of the summer. Wet, windy and a leveller between teams. The Wildcats got away well though down at the start of the final quarter. Just two points up to four points down all quarter. With few minutes to go. Wandsworth came out of the centre and went forward. A kick from 25mtrs out, the ball sailed over the head of our full back. You could here the smack as hand came in contact with 10kg wet sherrin - the result - A goal! We did not recover - along with Dave "hoppa" Harbour nor did the bloke who got hit by our Welsh Physc nurse Guido with seconds to go finally losing be two points.

Our end of season trip was to Falarki, Rhodes. Court - lots of it - was held at Ziggys and Charlies bar and use to get tourists and locals viewing the "court room". It was great to see the Wildcats take an interest in their environment by saving a foreign species of beached whale. Chooka must be congratulated on remembering every Kevin "Bloody" Wilson song along with the Aussie at the night club who kept pouring 300 Drachma (One pound) JD and JD drinks that ripped your head off!

1991

Everywhere the Wildcats went the Green bus went. From our Sponsors the Walkabout the Routemaster double decker bus plied the way. We played at 'the hankerchief' (southfields) which was an ideal size for beach volley ball. Earls Court beat Wandsworth by six goals in the final with the Wildcats losing the Prelimary final.

The end of season trip was our first to Corfu and was extremely 'colourful'. Bing found himself a footing as a sports commentator and did a marvellous job. Super job Bing! Richie is shitting himself. The club logo, the cat, was 'designed' here in respect to events on the trip. The rest was not so much as a hazy but more drunken blur.

1990

The Prelimary final was as far as we got in the initial season with the GF going down to the wire for two teams that should not have been there!

The end of season trip was to delightful Amsterdam where few can remember what went on or if they went on it. Only injury was to an unnamed player who forgot that Melbourne trams trundle on the other side of the road. All the boys agreed it was a good attempt at a hip and shoulder on the hapless 8 ton tram! or they think it was! it was all a bit hazy. There were no arrests as you can't get arrested.