History of Worcester College AFC
Worcester College is fortunate to be the only college to have its own sports pitches within its grounds. It would seem likely therefore that the college should have a strong sports history, however, until recently this has not been the case. Worcester have only won Cuppers once, in 1950, and for most of their history have drifted between being relegated from division 1 and promoted from division 2 in the 2 division format league. All this changed around 15 years ago. The 2nd division title was won in 1994/95 by Worcester and the following year they took the 1st division title. 1997/98 was a case of so near yet so far as the team narrowly finished as league runners-up to Jesus, and then in their first Cuppers final since 1950 lost to the same opposition on sudden death penalties, having led twice and being 3-2 up on penalties with one penalty each left to take. The nucleus of this team remained intact for the following season and the league title seemed to be destined to return to Worcester as they were 3 points clear with a game in hand at Christmas, only to falter and end up finishing a disappointing 3rd.
1999-2000 was the last season under the old 2 division format and the team of previous years was beginning to break up with few quality additions. A difficult Michaelmas term saw the team win its first match in the last game of the term against St. Edmund Hall to climb from the bottom of the table, but with only the top 7 teams out of 14 due to be playing in the new premier division the next year Worcester were still favourites for the drop. The 2nd half of the year was a remarkable turn-around however and a string of fine performances left Worcester with 2 games left knowing that 4 points would secure their premier-league status the following year. However, these 2 games were against Wadham and New, 1st and 2nd in the league resectively. An excellent battling 1-1 draw against Wadham, a result that confirmed them as league champions completed the first leg and then on the last day of term a remarkable 6-2 victory over 2nd placed New college confirmed Worcester as one of the founding teams of the premier division.
The first year in the premier division was difficult. The team of the late 90s had disintegrated with only 1 survivor of the Cuppers final of 97/98 and there had been few players of premier division quality arriving at the college. Relegation was an inevitable consequence. Rebuilding took place at Worcester and, crucially, the college was able to narrowly stave off relegation from division 1 the following year. The quality of intake improved and with the arrival of strikers Craig Wheeler and Mark Jerzkowski in 2002, both of whom would go on to play for the Centaurs, the 2002/03 season saw Worcester crowned as division 1 champions and return to the Premier division after a 2 year absence.
Since the return to the Premier division, Worcester have been consistently amongst the top teams in the university - finishing 3rd, 3rd, 1st and 1st in the last 4 years and losing 3 times in the semis and once in the quarter finals of Cuppers. In the last 2 seasons, Worcester have dominated the league, losing only 2 of 30 games played in that time and going unbeaten for the whole of the 2005/06 season. This has been reflected by the number of players from Worcester representing the university - last season 5 Worcester players played for the Blues in at least one game.
David Robinson is the record holder for number of appearances for the Worcester 1st team with 99.
