Brutal Era Over For Vics Pete Miles witnesses the end of football at Dam Park
The concrete grandstand at Dam Park Photo : Pete Miles
West of Scotland League club Whitletts Victoria have ended their twelve-year enforced hiatus at Dam Park , Ayr after South Ayrshire Council sold the facility in Content Avenue to Ayr Rugby Club .
The club had been forced to move from their traditional home at Voluntary Park in Whitletts during February 2011 . The site was then also hosting greyhound racing , but the council stepped in and closed the venue following numerous health and safety transgressions that were firmly laid at the door of the greyhound stadium leaseholder .
Whitletts was a mining village before its subsumption into a suburb of Ayr itself . Prior to World War II the town was served by Whitletts Thistle and Whitletts Celtic , but by the end of the hostilities the village was in need of a new club and Whitletts Victoria was born , playing its first match on the Recreation Ground against Ayr Newton Rovers on 12 August 1944 . The second season was spent on the King George V Playing Fields before the committee agreed a £ 15 a year lease on a patch of grazing land at Braehead . The ground was built by the club ’ s supporters so it was entirely fitting that it would be known as Voluntary Park . Whitletts celebrated the inauguration with a derby victory over Annbank United . Over the next 30 years or so banking was constructed around the venue as well as a clubhouse and covered stand .
Whitletts lost its village identity in the immediate post War years as thousands of families moved to Ayr following the mass expansion of council house construction policies . As a result , Ayr United basked in a surge of popularity and support , while Junior football really struggled , even forcing the complete closure of Ayr Newton Rovers in 1957 due to the lack of support .
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