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Club Records
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DRAYTON F.C. - 100 Years Old (This is an extract from the presentation made at Drayton FC’s centenary dinner 2007)
I am now going to spend a short while detailing some significant events in the history of Drayton Football Club. Although we are celebrating 100 years of Drayton FC the club actually existed before 1907 when it played friendly matches principally against teams from the Swindon area. In 1907 the club was affiliated to the Berks and Bucks (photo). The 1907/08 team is shown in this photo (photo). In the early years of the North Berks league the league was regional Drayton had some success in the Abingdon Section. In 1928/29 Drayton won Division 2 of the league (photo 0138)(Ardington Shield?)
The next photo shows that social events were as important to the players then as they are now. (photo 0012) The interesting thing about this photo is you will notice there are no women present, apparently women were only welcome after the awards, speeches etc were complete, food for thought!!! This next photo (photo 0013) shows a presentation being made to Bryn Jones at such an event, obviously high tech microphones arrived in Drayton early. By the way this is the same Bryn Jones who made headlines in the local paper when he was suspended for 42 days and fined 10s, having seen some footage of the type of tackling that occurred in those days I reckon he must have killed someone for that degree of punishment (photo0022) We now move to the 50’s. In 1952/53 Drayton won the North Berks Cup for the 1st time beating Abingdon United after a replay. (photo 0027) This is a copy of the teams from the program and there are some familiar names some of who are here tonight. The Drayton team on this day was made up entirely of lads who lived in the village and 8 of the 11 had attended Drayton School. In 1956 a significant event happened to Drayton Football club Jim Annells became involved with the club administration (photo 0041) Jim’s involvement taking on almost every role in the club often more than one at a time continued for 30 years until 1986. The club owes a massive debt to Jim – this photo shows a different side of Jim (photo 0054) Into the swinging sixties. The club moved from its pitch on the Sutton Courtenay Road to its current home. We now enter the era of some more familiar names. The committee in those days were responsible for all club matters including picking the team. Individuals such as Tam Buckingham, Barry Davis, Bryn Jones had moved from playing to being involved in the running of the club. In 1961/62 the club won the North Berks League Division 1 trophy for the first time (photo 0141) although in those days it was known as the Premier League. At the end of the 60’s Bryn Jones started an U18 team that won the Langton Cup at Abingdon Utd (photo 0091) a number of these players went on to play for the mens teams. In 1972/73 season a team containing a number of the players from the 1970 minor team plus a sprinkling of experienced heads won the Charity Shield for the first time. (photo, photo)We currently do not have a photograph of this team so if anyone has such a thing we would be grateful to borrow it so we can take a copy. Around this time the committee relinquished responsibility for picking the team and Drayton like most teams introduced the concept of a manager. The first manager was Mel James, War Memorial Cup winners 1977/78 (photo 0108) who introduced a more professional approach to local football including introducing us to the now President of the Berks and Bucks John Christopher’s circuit training torture. Mel was followed by Dave Carter who continued the trend of winning the War Memorial cup in 1980/81 (photo 0143) During the mid 80’s the club had some hard times and ended up with one team for some years. Thanks to the efforts of a number of local people Micky Roberts, Mark Taylor John Spencer the club continued and with the introduction of Ian Gordon began to enjoy success again culminating with winning the Charity Shield in 1989/90 (photo 0140). When Ian decided to call it a day Kevin Jones having managed the very successful Sunday team (photo 0133) went on to manage the Saturday side. In 1996/97 season Drayton enjoyed its most successful season by far. Under the management of Keith Stopps the team went undefeated in all the North Berks competitions and ended up winning the treble of League (photo 0071), North Berks Cup (photo 0074) and Charity Shield (photo 0076). So far I have mainly highlighted the achievements of Drayton 1st team but during most of the recent years Drayton has also had a Reserve team and during the 90’s they enjoyed their most successful times winning cups and leagues. The Reserves most successful manager was Brian Hibbins (photo 0121) and he was ably supported and succeeded by Ian Rogers. Right up to date now in season 2004/05 manager Paul Evans led the 1st team to only their 3rd 1st Division championship (photo) and (photo 0109) Finally in 2005/06 in his first season as manager Robbie McNeill came very close to equalling the 1996/97 result when the 1st team finished Runners Up in all 3 North Berks tournaments.
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Moving on to the years
between 1936 and 1939 Drayton won the Minors War Memorial Cup for 3 consecutive
years. (photo 0152) The picture includes Lionel Huggins who
was captain of this team – we are delighted that Lionel joins us this evening
and is our oldest player present at 87. Interestingly this photo is taken
outside the Red Lion pub showing how long the relationship between the Red Lion
and the Football club has existed. The picture contains the then landlord Dick
Gowney other landlords who have continued this relationship were Merv Taylor and
most recently our current chairman Glenn. You have probably all heard the tale
that the Wales rugby selectors used to stand at the head of a pit and shout down
to discover the next Wales rugby international. Drayton FC used a similar
strategy to get a team together on a Saturday except they used to open the door
to the Lion or Wheatsheaf on the Saturday and call out “anyone fancy a game” to
get a team out for that days game!!!
