Camberley Town Football Club is a semi-professional
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...
based in
Camberley
Camberley is a town in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, approximately south-west of Central London. The town is in the far west of the county, close to the borders of Hampshire and Berkshire. Once part of Windsor Forest, Camb ...
,
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...
, England. They are currently members of the and play at Krooner Park.
History
The club was established in 1895 after a discussion at St Michael's church, and was originally named St Michael's Football Club, although they became known as St Michael's, Camberley.Full club history Camberley Town F.C. The first match, a friendly, was played on 16 October against D Company from the Royal Military College in nearby Sandhurst; St Michael's won 4–2. In January 1896 they joined the Surrey County Football Association, entering and winning the Surrey Junior Cup in 1897–98; the club's first competitive game was played on 16 October 1897, a Junior Cup first round match against Farncombe which St Michael's won 5–2. After winning the cup, the club joined the East & West Surrey League for the 1898–99 season.
In January 1901 a public meeting was held, at which it was decided to establish a new club that would absorb both St Michael's and Camberley Magpies. The name Camberley & Yorktown was adopted and the club took St Michael's place in the East & West Surrey League. However, they dropped into the Aldershot Combination in 1902, before switching to the Ascot & District League in 1903. The club finished as runners-up in their first season and went on to win the league in 1904–05. They were runners-up again in 1905–06, before winning a hat-trick of successive titles in 1907–08, 1908–09 and 1909–10, remaining unbeaten throughout the third of the title-winning seasons. The season also saw them win the Surrey Junior Cup for a second time, beating Sutton United 2–0 in the final. In 1910 Camberley & Yorktown returned to the East & West Surrey League, which had been renamed the
West Surrey League
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...
. In 1912–13 the club also entered the three-club Aldershot Senior Civilian League, which they won. They went on to win the West Surrey League the following season.
In 1922 Camberley & Yorktown were founder members of the Surrey Senior League.Surrey Senior League 1922-1978 Non-League matters They won three successive titles in 1930–31, 1931–32 and 1932–33 and were runners-up in 1938–39. After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
the club was renamed Camberley, and were Surrey Senior League runners-up in 1946–47, before winning the league's Charity Cup in 1951–52 with a 4–3 win over Chertsey Town.Chapter Three : The Post War Years Camberley Town F.C. The club were league runners-up again in 1961–62, and adopted their current name on 2 June 1967 after merging with former
Parthenon League
The Parthenon League was a football league covering Greater London and the surrounding area.
History
The league was formed in 1951 with 11 clubs, nine of which had come from the Middlesex Senior League.Spartan League, but left to join Division Two of the Athenian League in 1975. In 1977 they switched to Division Two of the
Isthmian League
The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs.
Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 t ...
, and were promoted to Division One after finishing as Division Two runners-up in 1978–79. Two seasons later they were relegated, and after a single season back in Division Two, they rejoined the Athenian League, which now had a single division.
In 1983
Rick Wakeman
Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboardist best known as a former member of the progressive rock band Yes across five tenures between 1971 and 2004, and for his solo albums released in the 1970s.
Born and raised ...
became the club's
chairman
The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the group ...
while he was living in Camberley. He remained in this post until 1986 when he was elected Vice-President, and left the club when he moved to the
Isle of Man
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in Europ ...
in 1988. In 1984 the Athenian League disbanded; Camberley rejoined the Isthmian League and were placed in Division Two South, where they remained until being placed in Division Three following league reorganisation in 1991. In 1998–99 the club reached the first round of the
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...
for the first time. Drawn against away to Third Division
Brentford
Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross.
Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings wh ...
, they lost 5–0. Division Three became Division Two in 2002, and Camberley remained members until the end of the 2005–06 season, when they dropped into the Premier Division of the Combined Counties League. They were runners-up in the division in 2013–14 and 2014–15.
Ground
In 1898 the club started playing at the new Recreation Ground on London Road, although they also used a pitch near Southwell Park Road when the Recreation Ground was unavailable and had moved there permanently by 1905. They played there until moving to Martin's Meadow in 1909. However, when the tenancy came to an end, the club returned to the Recreation Ground.
Since 1923 the club have played at Krooner Park on Wilton Road. The ground was paid for with the winnings of a horse named Krooner who won two races at
Haydock Park Racecourse
Haydock Park Racecourse is a racecourse in Merseyside, North West England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, the racecourse is set in an area of parkland bounded by the towns of Haydock to the west, Ashton-in-Makerfie ...
in 1920. It was officially opened on 26 December 1923.Chapter Two: Between The Two World Wars Camberley Town F.C. Due to financial difficulties Krooner Park was sold back to the local council in 1939 with the council guaranteeing that the ground would be retained in perpetuity and that it would be rented to the football club, giving them priority whilst they remained in existence. In the mid-1960s the club asked the council to leave Krooner Park and build a new ground at Southcote Park Farm, but the request was rejected due to the amount of engineering that would be required.
Floodlights were installed at the ground in 1974, with the first floodlit match being a friendly against
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace may refer to:
Places Canada
* Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick
* Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario
* Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...
on 14 October. The attendance at the match, which ended in a 1–1 draw, was around 3,100, a ground record.Chapter Four: Building for Seventies Success Camberley Town F.C. The highest confirmed attendance at Krooner Park was 2,066 when the newly-formed Aldershot Town visited for an Isthmian League Division Three match on 10 November 1992.
Honours
*Combined Counties League
**Premier Challenge Cup winners 2008–09, 2014–15
*Surrey Senior League
**Champions 1930–31, 1931–32, 1932–33
**Charity Cup winners 1937–38, 1951–52
*West Surrey League
**Champions 1913–14
*Aldershot Senior Civilian League
**Champions 1912–13
*Ascot & District League
**Champions 1904–05, 1907–08, 1908–09, 1909–10
*
Surrey Senior Cup
The Surrey Senior Cup is the senior Saturday cup competition of the Surrey FA. It is currently competed for by teams playing in the top nine levels of the English football league system who are affiliated to the Surrey FA. The competition was ...
**Winners 1978–79
*Surrey Junior Cup
**Winners 1897–98, 1909–10
*
Southern Combination Challenge Cup
The Southern Combination Challenge Cup is a football competition contested by non-league clubs. An independent cup, it was directly affiliated to the Football Association until 2015, when a change in FA Rules required such competitions to affili ...
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...
performance: First round, 1998–99
*Best
FA Trophy
The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The com ...
FA Vase
The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footb ...
performance: Quarter finals, 1985–86, 2015–16
*Biggest victory: 25–1 vs Warfield, Ascot & District League, 12 October 1907
*Record attendance: 2,066 vs Aldershot Town, Isthmian League Division Three, 10 November 1992