Bourne Town

Shaun Cunnington began his career at Abbey Lawn before moving into league football with Wrexham, Grimsby Town and Sunderland, one of a handful of names Bourne Town can point to when the talk turns to what the club has sent out into the game. Julian Joachim, by contrast, came the other way, turning out for the Wakes in the 2019–20 season long after his time in the top flight had passed. Between those two lies most of what the club is: a place players pass through, not one they stay in.

The nickname itself was not always there. It was settled by a competition in the 1940s, landing on "The Wakes" as a nod to the town's annual wakes week. Founded in 1883, the club took its longest run of success between 1968 and 1972, when manager Terry Bates and chairman Wilf Notley oversaw what is still referred to locally as a golden spell: two United Counties League Premier Division titles either side of a third, a Knock-Out Cup, and the Lincolnshire Senior 'A' Cup in 1971–72. Another title, paired with the Benevolent Cup, followed in 1990–91. Since then the highs have been further apart. The club dropped out of the Premier Division in 2010 and fell as low as 21st in 2014 before rebuilding, and promotion finally returned in 2023–24 after winning Division One. A run to the FA Vase quarter-finals in 2024–25 stands as the furthest the Wakes have gone in that competition.

Abbey Lawn's club house was rebuilt in 2004 on the back of a bequest from Len Pick, a supporter who followed the club all his life.

None of that history carries the same weight as the fixture with Blackstones, over in Stamford. Locally it is simply "the derby," and it is the one result that still gets Bourne Town noticed beyond Lincolnshire.