ONE name which immediately comes to mind when talking about Watchet Town Football Club is Nick Sully, who has been associated with the club for more years than he cares to remember.

Williton boy Nick first played for Watchet Town Under 16s in the late 1960s. His talents were spotted by Tom Smith, who at that time was trying to get together a Minehead side to play in the newly formed Somerset Combination League.

“Tom came and asked a few of us to play men’s football, which horrified the Watchet manager,” said Nick. “I played for Minehead Reserves in the Combination for six years and was on the fringe of getting into the first team. However, it was at the time when Bob Boyd was player-manager and virtually all of the players came from Bristol, so it never really happened.

“In the mid-1970s, when Mike Clausen moved to Watchet to become player-manager, he took several of the Minehead Reserves team with him. We were in Division One of the county league and got promotion at the end of the first season to the premier division.

“After Mike departed I became player-manager for a while and had a couple of spells playing under other people. I was still playing into my 40s and apart from a few brief spells have remained involved with managing the club ever since.

“Watchet has always been one of best supported teams in the Somerset League - the other places you go to play have nothing like the support we get to watch our home games. A lot of teams who come here to play don’t like the fact we have a crowd to watch us - they find it a bit intimidating.”

Nick was also a very good cricketer and played for Watchet for a number of years as an elegant top order batsman.

“Cricket never had quite the same appeal as football did for me, although in my younger days I was very keen on my cricket,” added Nick. “I played in the same Somerset Under 15 team as Ian Botham and Phil Slocombe, as well as Peter Roebuck, who was a leg spinner in those days.

“I also scored a half-century against Somerset when Brian Close brought a side to Watchet as part of his benefit year.

“I probably finished playing cricket too early and that was mainly because of the increasing length of the football season, which when I was manager seemed to take up so much time.”

Over the years Nick has been involved with local football he has played alongside several who have gone on to play at a higher level.

“Andy Ford was a Minehead boy who played with me at that time and was one who did go on and played for Southend, Swindon Town and Gillingham in the football league,” said Nick. “Tony Clausen was also a stand-out player and people say if he’d had the right breaks he would have played at the top level, as would Keith Graddon. Simon Lyons played for our first team at the age of 15 and went on to join Torquay United. Others may well have progressed if we lived in a different area.”

Nick reflected on some of the high spots during the time he has been involved with Watchet Town.

He said: “2002 is one that sticks out when we won the Somerset Senior Cup, the first time Watchet had done it for 43 years. At that time we were in the first division but on our way to the final we beat the top three premier division sides. The final was at Paulton Rovers against Wells City who we beat 3-1 after extra time.

“In 2011 I was part of the management team when we won the cup again after the only time in the club’s history that we played abroad against a team from Guernsey. We flew there and won the quarter final, and then went onto win the cup.

“Six years later we won the league, which was always a big ambition of mine, having been involved in Somerset County League football all my life.”

Now more than half a century later Nick is still involved with the club that has become part of his life.

He added: “I might not have been involved for so long if it hadn’t been for the help and support of Dave Knight, but now I am part of the assistant management team to Callum Knight at Watchet and still enjoy the involvement, although it hasn’t been an easy time recently with Covid.”