Founded in 1980 
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 most recent major
development in the club’s history was the forging of a link in 1998 with the Town’s senior club,
Abingdon Town F.C. It was hoped that the link would benefit both clubs as teams from St. Edmunds
feed into the
Abingdon
Town
Youth teams and at the same time the senior club allows some of their facilities to be used by St.
Edmunds. This led to
St.
Edmunds successfully staging their first ever invitation 7 a side competition in May 2000. For this
first event entry was limited to U7, U8, U9 and U10 age groups but it is hoped that the competition
will become an annual event and be extended to older age groups.
Geoff Young
Club Secretary and co
founder (with John Nugent)
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