St Woking Day
First celebrated during the 2005-06 season, the reasons for marking St Woking Day were nothing new, that’s for sure. Up to and including the 2004-05 campaign, Boro’ had finished above fierce rivals Woking for seven straight seasons. All without much challenge, we might add. And for nine out of the ten seasons since 1996, the dominance was set in stone. Yet, it just did not get the attention and appreciation it surely deserves.
So, the 2005-06 season heralded the first celebration of St Woking Day.
THE TRADITION IN ONE LINESt Woking Day is the point when Woking can no longer mathematically finish above Stevenage in the league table.
No fixed date. No official holiday. Just another excuse to celebrate getting one over the Cards.
Who was St Woking?
Supporter folklore: every good football tradition deserves a completely invented patron saint.
St Woking was an unfortunate soul; living at a time when Altrincham were one of the best non-league teams in the land. It was also a time when little clubs had to scrap for the most meagre of resources from their Football League overlords.
His struggle came to represent the toils of the Woking clan; toils that had long been proving fruitless. And, up until that point, there had been no previous association. It needed a new approach.
But the band of inept warriors led by Geoffrard de Chappelle adopted St Woking as their patron saint after the game was up and Woking FC realised they would never be part of the Football League they had so longed to, well, be a part of…
When is St Woking Day?
We’ll all know when St Woking Day is upon us; it’s the point during the season where the Surrey club are (again) mathematically incapable of passing Stevenage in the league table. Even the law of averages doesn’t question Boro’s superiority, despite what we now know to be Woking’s pretty flawed efforts to tip the balance of power.
Two points was the gap between the sides in 2003-04; in 2010-11, that gap was two divisions. That’s one helluva a ROFLcopter taking flight there.
Unprecedented in the history of St Woking Day, the 2008-09 season was a watershed moment in the relations between Stevenage and the bumbling St Woking of the Ryman. Boro’ took their eyes off the ball in the pursuit of promotion and let Woking slip out of the division. The date of that St Woking Day was 21 March.
The Hertfordshire side weren’t even in action on the day it occurred. Failure to get anything from Kidderminster saw the Cards condemned to another season below Boro’; the previous season, it was Boro’s win against Kiddy that did the job. Funny ol’ game.
Needless to say, St Woking Day is a grand day for all the family; festivities often go long into the afternoon. Promotion to the Football League gave the tradition a new problem: with the clubs in different divisions, the old race to finish above Woking no longer worked quite the same way. Our response at the time? Raise our glasses to St Woking in jubilation. Measure of port for the lads, and a dry white wine for ladies. And for that mes amis, we thank you.
St Woking Days: the dates archive
The dates recorded here run from 1996 to 2009, including retrospective entries from before the first named celebration in 2005-06. Another season of Stevenage superiority, mathematically assured.
EXPLORE THE RIVALRY
More than one day in the calendar
Revisit the meetings with Woking and the seasons that gave this Boro’ tradition its meaning.