There is an exclusive group of football fans called the Ninety-Two Club, whose members have watched a competitive first-team match at every one of the present season’s 92 Premier League and EFL (English Football League) home stadiums.
In 2022, Richard Sutcliffe finally realised a 40-year ambition by ticking off his few remaining grounds in a five-part series for The Athletic.
Now, though, he’s back down to 91 of the 92 venues… and ready to hit the road.
As the Bromley FC fans bask in the August sunshine ahead of their club’s first-ever home fixture in the EFL, there’s an unmistakable sense of wonderment in the air.
Hayes Lane before Bromley kick off their first-ever home fixture in the EFL (Richard Sutcliffe/The Athletic)
Supporters have had a little over three months to get used to captain Byron Webster clinching promotion to League Two (the fourth tier) in a nerve-jangling penalty shootout with Solihull Moors in the National League play-off final at Wembley. The presence of the Sky Sports cameras to beam this historic clash with AFC Wimbledon across the UK and beyond may also suggest this is no dream.
Nevertheless, the match this past Saturday still feels like a ‘pinch-me’ moment for a club once described as “perenially under-achieving” by lifelong fan — and renowned author — Dave Roberts in Home And Away, his warm-hearted portrayal of Bromley’s first season in the fifth-tier National League in 2015-16.
I’m feeling more sleepy-eyed than starry-eyed, thanks to the alarm at home in Yorkshire having gone off at 5am to begin my journey south. It doesn’t help that I have no skin in this particular game, even allowing for the fact I once sold programmes for the old Wimbledon at their temporary home of Selhurst Park to supplement my student grant while attending the Polytechnic of Central London.
My reason for joining the 4,102 sell-out crowd in this leafy south-eastern corner of London’s commuter belt is simple: the Ninety-Two Club, an elite group of fans whose members have watched a competitive fixture at every ground in the top four divisions of English football.
I spent nigh on four decades chasing this footballing holy grail until, finally, in October 2022, Cheltenham Town’s home was ticked off as my 92nd and final current Premier League and EFL ground. Membership brought a slew of benefits, including a rather striking club tie that has been a conversation starter at more or less every formal occasion I’ve attended since negotiating that final hurdle.
One person’s genuine interest at the dinner table may well be another’s eyes simply glazing over in boredom. But I don’t care, as the intricacies of the Ninety-Two Club are explained to all-comers along with why keeping up the ’92’ can feel a bit like the never-ending task of painting Scotland’s famous Forth Bridge.
Today’s visitors to Hayes Lane are a prime example.
In total, I’ve watched the two incarnations of Wimbledon, plus their unloved offspring, MK Dons, play home games at half a dozen grounds. But only the two teams’ current abodes count towards club membership.
Corey Whitely of Bromley celebrates with the trophy after winning the National League play-off final in May (Paul Harding/Getty Images)
Everton will be the next to move to new digs at the end of this season, followed by Oxford United in 2026-27.
However, what keeps the 450 or so active club members on their toes is the two-up, two-down promotion and relegation setup at the foot of League Two.
In that respect, my first summer after finally joining was kind. I’d already visited Wrexham and Notts County, the two promoted clubs from the fifth tier in 2023, as Football League venues before their respective relegations. So, my ’92’ remained intact. Likewise, 2023-24 National League champions Chesterfield.
Initially, I hoped play-offs winners Bromley would be the same, having taken in Wrexham’s visit in March of last year. Unfortunately, the 10 qualifying commandments laid out on the Ninety-Two Club website soon dismissed the notion that National League fixtures might count. “Any recognised competition normally entered by Football/Premier League clubs at first-team level may be included,” reads the relevant section.
And so, on my first spare Saturday of the season, I’m halfway through a 480-mile (almost 800km) round trip to re-visit a ground I’d been to just 17 months earlier.
Still, as the sense of anticipation builds ahead of kick-off, it does feel a privilege to be here, sharing in a day 132 years in the making for Bromley.
The Ninety-Two Club was started in 1978.
Founded by a Bristol Rovers supporter named Gordon Pearce to bring together others with a similar passion for what is now known as ground-hopping, it had 39 original members. Over the intervening years, 1,320 fans have qualified, that still relatively small number perhaps a testament to how arduous a task it can be to complete.
Leaving aside for a moment how the roster of eligible grounds changes so regularly, there’s the taking time off work, the bum-numbing miles spent on the road or rails and, sometimes, life’s ability to deliver wholly unexpected curveballs.
Take my August 2022 trip to Forest Green Rovers amid the UK’s hottest heatwave in a generation.
With drought orders in place across the country after week upon week of blazing sunshine, who could have predicted the game would be postponed because of… a waterlogged pitch? Certainly not me. But a freak storm in that part of the world that began a couple of hours before kick-off meant a wasted journey and a dejected drive home from the south-west of England.
I did return a week later to finally tick off the home of the world’s first vegan club. Since then, though, all that effort has been negated by Forest Green’s ground falling off the list of EFL grounds following their relegation to the National League.
With Sutton United, another ground on London’s southern outskirts I’d ticked off during that push for membership two years ago, also falling through the non-League trapdoor last April, it’s perhaps no wonder joining can be such a long, drawn-out process.
The need to top up the 92 has become a way of life for club members.
Even those 39 founders in 1978 lost one ground almost immediately, when Southport failed in their attempts to be re-elected to the old Fourth Division (direct promotion and relegation only started in 1986-87). Wigan Athletic’s Springfield Park was the replacement, the first of so many new arrivals that some long-serving members have 160 or even 170 grounds to their name.
Bromley’s status as EFL rookies means Hayes Lane is likely to welcome a steady procession of Ninety-Two Club members — and wannabe members — this season. Those making the pilgrimage will quickly discover just how busy the club have been in bringing their 86-year-old home up to standard.
First to go was the artificial pitch, EFL regulations deeming it had to be ripped up and replaced. Work began on a new hybrid surface that is 55 per cent grass within 48 hours of that triumph at Wembley on May 5, while the old ‘plastic’ pitch has been relocated on land adjoining the stadium. There, community and youth groups will be able to continue using a facility that last year swelled club funds to the tune of £500,000.
Other necessary upgrades include new anti-crush barriers, security lighting and toilets. Segregation was also an issue that needed addressing, particularly the provision of covered seating for away fans which is required in the EFL.
To bring Hayes Lane into line, a temporary covered stand has been erected at the ground’s north end. Effectively plonked on half of the old terrace behind the goal, it looks a bit awkward tucked under the more permanent structure’s small roof, but it does the job against Wimbledon.
One consequence of the summer’s work is supporters can no longer swap ends of the pitch at half-time. Another is how the planned replacement of the open East Terrace with an all-seater stand has had to be put back until January, as there was only so much time and money available to get the necessary upgrades done.
Once completed, the ground — and Hayes Lane is very much a ground in that it has been developed piecemeal over the years, as opposed to a bowl-like new stadium — will hold around 5,000 people.
Today, Bromley’s updated home looks a picture for its opening League Two assignment. Same goes for manager Andy Woodman’s team on the newly laid pitch, as goals either side of half-time for Michael Cheek and Corey Whitely seal a deserved 2-0 win.
Cheek celebrates scoring the opening goal (Tom Dulat/Getty Images)
It’s also job done for yours truly on the Ninety-Two Club front. Members have two years to tick off any new ground but, having waited so long to join, I didn’t fancy hanging around to do so. A week was long enough.
As the final whistle blows, I can’t help but reflect on the journey that has brought me here, from that very first match at Preston North End’s Deepdale in 1978, as a five-year-old.
Highbury, Roker Park, Maine Road and the Vetch Field are among the many stop-offs along the way that are sadly no longer with us. Others remain, but look nothing like they did for my initial visits after the terrible 1980s disasters at Valley Parade and Hillsborough that brought a long overdue upgrade in facilities for fans.
What has endured, however — be that Old Trafford with its 75,000 capacity or the more functional recent additions to the EFL roster such as Harrogate Town and Salford City — is how these places represent so much more than the 90 minutes.
Sure, the football is why we make the pilgrimage to watch our team. And if the match yields a victory, all the better. But, really, what surely brings us all back, week after week, year on year, is the sense of community, the opportunity to let off steam at the end of a working week and, for this self-confessed football-ground nerd at least, an opportunity to enjoy the architectural idiosyncrasies of each ground.
Roberts captured that sense of community beautifully in his books, which included the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year-nominated 32 Programmes and Bromley Boys, with the latter also turned into a film.
Sadly, he passed away in 2021, so never saw his beloved Bromley reach the EFL. But a tea bar has been named in his honour at Hayes Lane, just to the side of the main stand.
(Richard Sutcliffe/The Athletic)
It seemed the perfect place on Saturday to raise a cuppa, not only to renewed membership of the Ninety-Two Club but also to how football grounds everywhere remain the beating hearts of their communities.
Cheers!
If you want to read more about Richard’s Ninety-Two Club adventures, here’s part one, part two, part three, part four and part five.
(Top photo: Richard Sutcliffe/The Athletic)