4. Part 4: Diddy You Know?
1. Jamie Heapy was an eleven year old mascot for Didcot’s FA Vase 4th Round clash with Dawlish Town in 1991. At the time it was the furthest the club had gone in the competition, a record that would remain until.2005… when Jamie himself lifted the trophy as skipper for Didcot at White Hart Lane in front of nearly 10,000 fans.
2. Former England striker Michael Owen played competitive football at Didcot Town! In 1989, at 10 years old, Michael Owen broke the goal-scoring record at Deeside Primary School when he scored 79 goals (the previous record was held by another former Liverpool star, Ian Rush). At that time he played representative football for Deeside Schools against Vale of White Horse schoolboys at Diddy's Station Road.
3. The then England manager, Kevin Keegan, was a guest speaker at Didcot Town’s Sportsman’s Evening at the Loop Meadow Stadium in 2000.
4. One of our FA Vase winners, Grant Goodall, was the latest in a long line of ‘Goodall’s to have been associated with the football club in the past 100 years. It is said that no Didcot Town side from 1907 until 1939 were without a ‘Goodall’, and at one time as many as five brothers were playing in the side at the same time.
5. On 22 September 1968 an Entertainers XI played Didcot Town at Station Road in a Didcot Round Table charity football match. Appearing for the Entertainers were Richard O’Sullivan who later played Robin Tripp in the highly successful TV comedy Robin’s Nest in the 1970’s, Jeremy Bulloch (most famous for playing Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi), international singing star Dave King (scored twice) and Tony Selby (scored once) and who went on to play Clive Mitchell in Eastenders in 2002. The final score was Didcot Town 9-4 Entertainers XI.
6. One of the biggest crowds ever seen at the Loop Meadow Stadium wasn’t for a Didcot Town match at all. Sky TV’s Soccer AM show’s Badgers XI played Williams Engineering from Wantage in front of an estimated crowd of over 3000. The game was best remembered for a missed penalty from presenter Tim Lovejoy.
7. The Norway U21 International team trained at Loop Meadow Stadium in February 2006 prior to playing against England at the Madejski Stadium. England won the game 3-1.
8. Since 1978 Didcot Town’s First team have appeared in 12 cup finals...and we have been victorious in every single one!
9. Ex-Diddy player and current supporter Mick Bidmead was part of FA Cup history by playing the competition's longest ever tie. He played in three of the six games for Oxford City in the Fourth Qualifying round tie against Alvechurch in 1971/72. It involved more than eleven hours of football, and with ties now settled by penalties after just one replay, it's an FA Cup record that will never be beaten.