A LOOK INTO HISTORY 215

A LOOK INTO HISTORY TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN

COLNE DYNAMOES RECORD ATTENDANCE

When a very successful club imploads and shuts up shop it is quite a blow and that was
the case the case of Colne Dynamoes whose owner called it a day in July 1990. This
story is testament to the days when grading of grounds appeared to take second place
to inflated players wages.
Colne Dynamoes were formed in 1963 by Graham White and a few friends and joined
the Nelson & Colne League before moving up to the Burnley Combination in 1967-68.
Having performed the double for two seasons the next move was to the West
Lancashire League and another double so the Lancashire Combination was next in
1975-76. After six years of more success, the North West Counties League was formed
in 1982-83 and Colne were placed in the Third Division due to low ground grading so
they built new dressing rooms and made other improvements but safe to say that their
picturesque Holt House Ground was then improved beyond recognition with Floodlights
in 1985 and a 200 seat stand.
Their best season was 1987-88 when they won the F A Vase beating Emley at Wembley
1-0. This, together with promotion found them in the HFS Loans League in 1988-89,
their Silver Jubilee season and more triumph winning the Division One Championship.
Money then appeared to be no object with players like Liverpool’s Alan Kennedy coming
on board.
Our Match Programme for this story is the F A Trophy semi-final first leg against
Barrow on 7 th April 1990 and is an excellent production for 50p with usual notes, full
visitor information on club and players, all results and scorers, the club history ( which
I used for this article), league tables for first team and Reserves in the West Lancashire
Div 1 showing the club to be Champions at both levels. The game was the record
attendance for the club of 2,150 but one got a sense of foreboding in the Managers
notes saying it “ will probably be the last big game ever played on the playing field
where it all started ? “. The result was a 1-0 win for Barrow who went on to Wembley to
win the F A Trophy.
With so much success under their belt it came a great shock to their millionaire
chairman-manager when denied promotion to the Conference due to ground grading.
He tried to arrange a share with Burnley and even planned a new ground near Nelson
but too little too late. As season 1990-91 came, Colne played a pre season friendly with
Newcastle Blue Star the on the Monday morning the players were informed the club
was folding and that was that.
Six years after the Colne Dynamoes collapse, a new club, Colne were formed, playing at
Holt House joining Division Two of the North West Counties League earning promotion
to the Northern Premier but in 2022/23 were relegated back to the NWC League.