The FA Carlsberg Vase
Sixth Round Proper
Saturday 3 March 2007
£4,000 to each winning club

490 clubs entered this season's FA Carlsberg Vase competition, the 33rd in history, and now only eight remain.

All four Sixth Round ties are being played this coming Saturday and they feature three clubs from the West Country.

Bideford, Truro City and Wimborne Town will fly the flag respectively for Devon, Cornwall and Dorset.

Two of those clubs have an established Vase pedigree. Wimborne won a classic Wembley Final 5-3 against Guiseley in 1992 and Bideford lost in the 2004 Semi-Finals to eventual winners Winchester City.

The FA Vase, with a new trophy donated by FA Life Member Frank Adams, effectively replaced the old FA Amateur Cup in 1974.

The FA Council abolished the official distinction between "amateur" and "professional" players in that year, ending the practice whereby players would receive payment while claiming to be amateur.

The Amateur Cup had been running since 1893 and had enjoyed a Wembley Final since 1949. Five Finals in the 1950s drew capacity 100,000 crowds.

The Vase has been unable to emulate that sort of attendance, with the 26,487 at the 1989 Final still the record, but it has proved to be a much more democratic competition.

The Amateur Cup was dominated by Bishop Auckland and Crook Town from the north and by the likes of Enfield and Hendon from the south. When the best Amateur Cup clubs were moved to The FA Trophy, it allowed smaller clubs like Hoddesdon Town from the Spartan League and Epsom & Ewell from the Surrey Senior League to walk out at Wembley for the first FA Vase Final.

It remains part of The Vase's great attraction. Truro City, ambitious but with no Vase "form", are just two wins from The Final.