St Edmunds FC - Abingdon

St Edmunds FC is based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire and has boys and girls teams playing at ages ranges from Under 7s through to Under 16s.

Club History

Like a number of clubs playing in the Premiership and the Football League, St. Edmunds Boys was started by church parishioners, in this instance those connected with St. Edmunds Church in Abingdon. It was decided to call the team St. Edmunds after one of the town's most famous sons, Edmund Rich, who was born in St. Edmunds Lane, Abingdon in about 1175 and became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1234.

The start of the club in the autumn of 1980 was advertised and the first training session attended by about 40 boys aged between 6 and 16, was held at St. Edmunds School. A committee was formed to run the club and regular training sessions and a few matches against other clubs followed. Because of the wide range of ages, arranging games against other teams was difficult and early in 1982 it was decided to enter a team in the Oxford Boys League. The age group with the most number of boys was U12 and there were only 6 boys eligible to play. Sadly this meant that a number of boys of other ages would not be able to play in the future but it was felt this course had to be taken for the club to progress. Our entry was accepted by the league and the club mounted an intense advertising campaign, including dropping leaflets through doors, to find some more boys. By the time of the first league game exactly 11 boys were signed and a full team was ready to take to the field.


Most newly formed teams find their first season very hard. St. Edmunds was no exception but a few games were won and the team progressed the following season into the U13 section finishing in a very creditable mid table position. In 1984 a second team was started and the U12 and U14 sections were entered. The U14 team had a very difficult season and with little enthusiasm to continue was wound up leaving the club with only one team again to enter the following season in the U13 section. This team continued through to play in the U14 and U15 sections of the Oxford League and the U16 section of the Witney Boys League.


During this period the first major expansion of the Club took place in younger age groups. In 1987 sufficient boys had joined the club to start an U12 team and after some advertising for boys for an U10 side about 40 boys turned up to the first training session and they became the nucleus of U8, U9 and U10 teams. From running one team the previous season the Club now had five teams.


The size of the Club remained steady for three seasons but in 1990 two further teams were formed and difficulties were being experienced finding sufficient pitches. The European School, St. Edmunds School, Our Lady's Convent, R.A.F. Abingdon and Culham Parish Council had all kindly allowed the club to use their pitches, usually for no charge, but it was felt that the Club needed a ground of it's own. It was decided to approach Abingdon Town Council to ask for help and they offered the Club the use of Boxhill Recreation Ground. There were, however, no changing facilities and the Club commenced its first major fund raising project to find the £30,000 needed to build some. Thanks to the generosity of a number of local businesses, Christ's Hospital, The Vale of the White Horse District Council and many others the money was raised in about nine months and the building was ready for use the start of the 93/94 season. This occasion was marked by invitation to two Oxford United favourites, Peter Rhodes-Brown kicked off the first game, an U13 match against Botley and the following summer Mickey Lewis attended the official opening of the building.


Meanwhile improvements were taking place on the playing side with the U10 teams in 1990 and 1994 both reaching the cup finals, which were played at Oxford United's ground, The Manor. In April 1993 the U15 team won the clubs first major honour winning the cup final by an incredible score line of 9-1.


With two pitches on the new ground the Club thought their pitch problem would be over but during the next five years the second major expansion gradually took place and by the autumn of 1998 fifteen teams were playing, with two teams in five of the age groups. Most of the teams were still playing at Boxhill but pitches at Tilsley Park and Dalton Barracks were also being used regularly and a shortage of pitches still remains a problem for the club today.


The same five years saw a steady improvement in the quality of all the teams culminating in1999 when the U13 team won the Oxford Boys League A section. In 1997 the first two girls signed for the Club, Jennie Webb and Christie Akid played very successfully at U8, U9 and U10 levels until F.A. rules meant they had to move to all girl teams. In 1998 the Club entered a team for the first time in the Oxfordshire U17 Youth League and at the other end of the age range in 1999 formed its first U7 team.


The lack of pitches was making it difficult for the Club to provide football when players reached Youth football age at U17. Talks with senior clubs in 1998 however resulted in two of the Club teams moving on to become Abingdon Town Youth teams and one to become Sutton Courtenay Youth team. In 2003 Abingdon United approached the Club to invite St.Edmunds teams to become their youth teams on a regular basis and this arrangement is now in place which will help many of the players into youth and then adult football.


In May 2000 the Club staged its first ever invitation 6-a-side Tournament at Abingdon Town's ground. The one-day event was limited to U7, U8, U9 and U10 age groups and was such a success that the following year the Tournament was expanded into a two-day event held at John Mason School with U11, U12, U13 and U14 age groups added.


The year 2000 saw the club's most successful team enter the U10A section of the Oxford Boys League. The team won the League, the U11A League and Cup and the U12A and Cup losing only one game in each season. The following season they became the first team in the Club's history to win the Berks and Bucks County Cup Competition. A number of their players, together with players from other Club teams, have now moved on with considerable success, to play for professional clubs boys teams. During the same period other Club teams won both Leagues and Cups and the standard of football played by all teams continued to improve.


In December 2002, after many months of hard work, the Club was awarded the Charter Standard Award by the Football Association. This is an award given to clubs that can demonstrate that they have achieved a good standard of procedures, including Codes of Conduct, within their organisations and that their managers and coaches are qualified for the roles they play. In addition a Club Child Protection Officer had to be appointed and all adults involved in supervising the children had to complete Personal Disclosure Forms for vetting by the Police or other recognised authority.


In 2002 Kenny Moore started running a training session for girls at Tilsley Park. This started with a small number of girls aged from 7 to 11, but gradually numbers grew and by March 2003 we were able to play our first all girls friendly matches against another team at both U12 and U10 level, before entering a number of tournaments that summer. The girls section received a massive boost in July 2003 when the Abingdon girls teams joined St Edmunds. In the 2003/4 season St Edmunds entered an U12 and two U14 teams in the Oxford Girls 7-a-side league and an 11-a-side U19 Ladies team in the Berks & Bucks league. It was a really successful year on the pitch: the U12 girls won the Oxfordshire Cup; the U14 girls won the league and cup double (and the girls U14 B team were runners-up in their cup) and in July 2004 the U14s won a national tournament. The U19s Ladies finished 2nd in the Bucks and Counties Ladies League behind the Reading Academy team.


At the Club AGM in May 2004 the name of the Club was changed to St. Edmunds Football Club in recognition of the now permanent membership of the girls and ladies teams that had joined the previous year.


Geoff Young
Club Secretary and co founder (with John Nugent)