Winterton Rangers

Winterton Rangers FC is a non-league football club based between Scunthorpe and the Humber Bridge in North Lincolnshire from the small town of the same name. The club was formed in 1930 and spent many years in local football. 

Initially, the club joined the Scunthorpe & District League in 1935, playing their home games at Watery Lane until 1950 when they moved to a new ground at West Street. Progression to the Lincolnshire County League followed in 1965 before joining the Yorkshire League in 1970-71 as a Division One side.

Success quickly followed with Rangers being crowned as champions in 1971-72 and 1976-77. The latter was backed up with a last-eight match in the FA Vase. A year later the team won the Philips six-a-side floodlight cup and were awarded six floodlights as their prize. 1978-79 saw a third Yorkshire League title being collected with Keith Walwyn banging in the goals.

The members of the Northern Counties East League in 1982-83. They left the league for a couple of years from 1984 before rejoining and going on to claim the Division Two title in 1989-90. Their success was rewarded with an immediate place in the Premier Division. However, the side was relegated to Division One in 1993-94.

With Pete Daniels in charge of the side, Winterton won promotion to the Premier Division in 2006-07 before they were crowned as NCEL champions in 2007-08. The club decided to refuse promotion to the Northern Premier League despite many ground improvements being carried out at West Street.

The duo of Richard Sennett and Mark Turner were given the joint manager job in 2009-10 who took the side to a couple of trophy wins before they were replaced by Lee Danysz in the summer of 2012. The appointment didn’t work out and was followed by a short spell under Steve Adams before joint bosses Leigh Herrick and Mark McDonagh were put in charge. 

Herrick was given sole charge in the summer of 2013 with a reduced playing budget and reliance on young players which saw the side relegated at the end of the 2013-14 campaign after Paul Friskney had been given the manager's job a few months previously.

Darren Waring and Mark Allen were installed to try and win promotion but departed in October 2015, with Lee Hastings succeeding them. February 2017 saw the arrival of Paul Grimes as player-manager before being replaced by his coach Rob Watson in October 2017. His assistant manager, Scott Hellewell, was given the main job in December 2018.

The 2018-19 campaign ended with Rangers in fourth place before the following two seasons were abandoned owing to the worldwide pandemic. Their performance was rewarded with a place in the Premier Division in 2021-22 where they ended fourth.

2022-23 saw a runners-up place and then a win in the Inter-step play-off where Rangers won 2-1 away to Coggeshall Town through a Josh Walker brace to send the side to Division One East of the Northern Premier League. The step up proved to be too steep as Winterton returned to the NCEL a year later.

Joint managers Lee and Steve Ridley were appointed in May 2024.

Winterton Rangers FC will play in the Northern Counties East League Premier Division in the 2024-25 season.

My visit

Saturday 10th July 2010

I was on my way to watch the pre-season friendly between Barton Town Old Boys and Scarborough Athletic. I decided to travel up the day before using the excellent value Megabus Plus deal which took me by train and bus to Scunthorpe. The previous evening I had fitted in the pre-season friendly between Brigg Town and Grimsby Town.

My original plan was to visit Winterton the previous day, but buses or lack of them tested out my resourcefulness. I arrived on Saturday lunchtime at Barton station to await my bus. The Fastcat service took me through the pretty village of Wintringham before the town of Winterton came into view.

I got off a little earlier than I should of so I had to take a brisk walk round to the ground as time was tight. I got a friendly welcome from an old guy measuring out the pitch who was more than happy for me to take some pictures.

West Street was a very smart venue. There were small neat stands facing each other along the touchlines. One contained seats, and the other was for standing spectators. The rest of the ground was neat open grass and concrete flat standing. The West Street End acted as a car park for the large clubhouse.

I went on my way to try and get to the bus stop so I could have a few convivial pints in Barton before the match. I made it with a few minutes to spare as I listened to the One Day Cricket between England and Bangladesh, as a reminder of how ludicrously early the season was starting. The World Cup Final was to be played the following day.