Leatherhead F.C.

Leatherhead
Full name	Leatherhead Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Tanners
Founded	1946 (as Leatherhead Rose, 1907)
Ground	Fetcham Grove; (Capacity: 3,400)
League	Isthmian League Division One South
2008–09	Isthmian League Division One South, 15th
Home colours	Away colours

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Leatherhead F.C. is a football club based in Leatherhead, Surrey, England. The club is nicknamed The Tanners and plays home games at Fetcham Grove.

[edit] History

Football in Leatherhead can be traced back to at least the start of the 1900s but the current Leatherhead Football Club was formed in May 1946 when Leatherhead Rose and Leatherhead United merged. They won the Surrey Senior League four times in a row and were founding members of the Delphian League in 1951.

In the 1974-75 season, The Tanners were drawn against Leicester City at home in the FA Cup Fourth Round, the furthest the club has ever reached in that competition, but the game was switched to Filbert Street. The BBC's Match of the Day cameras and over 32,000 people saw a dramatic match, in which the Tanners went two goals up, and then saw a goalbound shot that would have made it 3-0 cleared off the line. Leicester City's fitness and class eventually told as the top-flight team fought back to win 3-2 in the second half.

The Tanners also reached the FA Cup first round in 1980 but lost 5-1 to Exeter City. In October 2006, they were drawn against Torquay United in the FA Cup first round, the first time in 26 years they had reached this level, but lost 2-1.^[1]

Serious financial problems emerged at Fetcham Grove just before Christmas 1999. The club survived that immediate crisis but it seemed that they were doomed in the summer of 2000 when a last ditch appeal to the local business community for sponsorship failed. It was then that the supporters of the Tanners stepped in to save their club. A group of fans secured a new long-term lease on Fetcham Grove, helping to secure the Tanners' future, under the motto “a club run by its supporters for the benefit of the community”.

Tim Edwards (1954-2009) was a leading figure in that group and went on to become club chairman, having previously served as the club's youngest ever committee member, at age 25, and then as press secretary, programme editor and photographer.^[2]