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Alderbury football club was formed in 1903 in the village of Alderbury 5 miles south of Salisbury, Wiltshire.

The club originally consisted of one mens team that played on the local recreation field in the Saturday Salisbury & District league. The field was owned by Longford Estate and sub-let to the football club by the parish council.

Originally the changing facilities were a small block building intended for use by the Cricket club as a store. The Cricket club built a new pavilion in approx 1980 which although unfinished and designed around cricket use was a much improved facility.

Sunday football was introduced in approx 1987, again with one team being entered in the Salisbury & District league.

The club started developing its youth football sides in 1989, entering the Burbage league for the first time at U11 age group, encouraging boys and girls from the local primary school to take part.
The addition of an under 8’s team in the 1999/2000 season in the Badger League was the clubs first venture into mini soccer.

As the club continued to form more and more youth’s teams after 1989, the single recreation pitch was no longer enough to cope with demand. The club negotiated the use of a new piece of land at Junction Road, Alderbury in 1990.
This land was levelled and seeded, a car park laid and a small wooden building that was once the old West Grimstead School was dismantled, moved 1½ miles up the road and finally re-erected by volunteers from the football club. This new facility was in use for the first time in the 1993 / 1994 season and gave the club access to two full size pitches and a youth’s pitch. At this point the football club left the recreation field site for exclusive use by the cricket club.

By 2001 the football club had so many teams that following negotiations with the Parish council it was agreed to use the recreation field facility once again. At this point the football club had to undertake a lot of improvement works on the changing rooms because it had fallen into a state of disrepair since the Cricket club disbanded.
Also there was now a need for shower facilities so that the Mens first team could continue their climb through the divisions

Over the last 14 years the building at Junction Road has required constant work in its battle against the elements and overuse by an ever increasing number of teams. This work has included re-wiring, new armoured cable for temporary floodlights and a new roof as well as constant decorating and ongoing improvements, mainly carried out and funded by the football club.

In September 2005 the pavilion at the recreation field was vandalised and repairs at a cost £5095 had to be undertaken. This was partially funded by the council and Longford Estate.


Over the last 18 years, since the introduction of kids football the club has put a large number of managers and coaches through F.A. training and now has xx qualified coaches.
In xxxx the club became a Registered Community amateur sports club and is currently applying for chartered club status with the F.A.

Over the years the club has become an integral part of the village and works closely with the Parish council, Longford Estate, Alderbury and West Grimstead School and many other organisations to help continue its success. It was involved in helping to produce the village plan and was also involved in the consultation for the Salisbury & District local development framework.

The late Lady Radnor became President of the football club in the early 1990’s and continued to support us in this role until her death in 2005. She ensured a continued flow of celebrities as well as national and international players at our fun days and presentation evenings. These include Duncan Goodhew who still supports the club, Kem Monkou, Jimmy Case, Dion Burton and people like the Argentine ambassador.

On the pitch the club has had many successes. The earliest records found show that the mens team were Runners up in Norman Court cup in 1925, beaten by Downton in the final.

Norman Court Cup Winners 2003/04, 2004/05, 2006/07

Heseltine Cup Winners 1950/51

Cook Cup 1982/83, 2000/01, 2003/04

George Chalk Trophy 2004/05

Kimber Cup 1982/83

Saturday Premier League Winners 2005/06, Div 1 Winners 2004/05, Div 2 Winners 2003/04, Div 5 Winners 1982/83, Div 6 Winners 1972/73.

Off the pitch Alderbury football club has raised thousands of pounds for local and national charities. A large amount of this coming from it’s very successful Fun days as well as raffles, sponsored events, firework’s nights, meat draws, jumble sales and entertainment evenings.

Some of the charities we have raised funds for include :

Salisbury District Hospital Accident & Emergency Department - £1000
Odstock special baby care unit - £1000
Joe Osmond memorial fund - £600
Arthritic society - £600
McMillan cancer relief £1500
Radnor Ward Salisbury District Hospital - £1300
Scope – Alderbury Bungalow – Widescreen Television.
Leukemia Research

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Recent History of the Club

In the late 1990s, mini soccer as a sport was just starting up, in response to the desire to get children to begin to play safe, organised football at an earlier age. The focus of mini soccer has always been about inclusion – boys and girls, irrespective of age and ability, and about

In mid 1999, a new league the Badger League, was starting up in South Wiltshire to cater for mini soccer in this area. Alderbury raised an under 8 side to join this league in the season 1999/2000 – thanks to the efforts of Steve Bayford, Chris Bridge and Jeff ???.

This team continued to develop, and was joined by a new under 8 team the following season (???). Over the next couple of year this pattern has repeated itself. Sadly the pioneering team were unable to continue as a unit, since there were not enough players to make the transition to 11 a side from 7 a side. Many of that team were, however, successfully added in to the next age group down – and we keep in touch with other members as they follow their careers elsewhere. Indeed, some of those players are now adding time back into the Club by supporting early season training for our youngest age groups.

From one team in 1999/2000, we had grown to 5 by the season 2003/04 – with the oldest age group now with enough players to make an 11 a side team. Since that time, the growth has been steady, but in the last 2 seasons a little more dramatic, with 6 teams in 2004/05; 7 in 2005/06; 10 in 2006/07 and potentially 14 in 2007/08 with the addition of girls teams in the older age groups.

These teams have enjoyed success on the pitch, with tournament and cup wins, plus a talent for being runners up; throughout this period though our focus as a Club has been on inclusion – building and developing the hidden talents of some of our youngsters to see them blossom into good quality young footballers. We do not seek to compete with the very big Clubs in Salisbury District by “cherry picking” players – but rely instead on our friendly atmosphere and approach. We do of course like to and want to win, but not at all costs.

Pitch use

With the very rapid growth over the last couple of years, there is of course increasing pressure on our pitches – both for matches and for training. The mini soccer and youth teams had traditionally all trained at the same time in Junction Road on a Saturday morning – partly because of convenience, but also to allow the newest age groups to see the older ones at work, and to promote the feeling of being one Club. With the numbers of teams we now have, and with the increase in teams playing in a Saturday league, this is less likely to be possible.
In 2006/07, we have had the use of 2 full size pitches, and 3-4 mini soccer pitches. These have had to cope with 7 teams in total on the full size pitches, and 6 on the mini soccer. For next season, we are hoping to expand to 3 full size pitches and retain 3 mini soccer – but will have 10 team competing for the full size, and 8 for the mini soccer. This is a real challenge, and we are looking at alternative venues for some of these games to be played as the pitches will not survive this level of use.

We are increasing the numbers of temporary floodlights we have available to us, so that we can more easily move some training to evenings (the likelihood of finding any cost effective training facility elsewhere is pretty slim – or prohibitively expensive). For the 2007/08 season we have to urgently find a work around to the Saturday morning problem of (potentially) 4 team playing league matches, with 8 teams in 6 age groups looking to train. On a Sunday morning, we have 10 teams playing across the whole Club.

We are also very mindful of the disturbance we cause to our neighbours in Junction Road. Regrettably, we were a little slow to realise that we had reached car parking capacity in early season 2006/07 – on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. As a result, we had a couple of weekends of quite bad congestion in Junction Road – which understandably upset our neighbours. We were able to resolve this by staggering start times for game more widely than previously – and due to the kind support of Alderbury and West Grimstead School who allowed us to use their car park on occasions. Since October 2006, we feel we have this under control, but are mindful that it could recur if we do not keep it in mind. This is important to us, as we are constantly in need of the goodwill of people within the village – and want the village, in particular those closest to us, to see the Club as an asset to the area, rather than a liability.


Constitution et al
• We have an up to date constitution, based on the FA standards, with some small adjustments to reflect our local position
• We have adopted the FA standard Child Protection Policy, and have a Child Welfare Officer in place
• We provide a clear code of conduct for all parents, players and managers (again FA standard), which we expect them to follow at all times. We have taken action against players, parents and managers who do not follow this code.
• We are committed to all our junior managers going through at least level 1 coaching qualification. All youth/mini soccer managers have this or are seeking it in 2007 – with the new girls section this will follow.
• We are registered as a Community Amateur Sports Club, in order to benefit from the tax advantages that offers during fund raising.


School Links
• We have a good relationship with the local primary school, Alderbury and West Grimstead School. Many of our players come from within the village, and therefore attend the school. We advertise with them, and have provided support both in lending pitches and goals, and in refereeing or coaching sides within the school.
• Over the last few seasons, AWGS has experienced a good deal of success on the football pitch, winning some tournaments and taking part well in many others. The current year 6 team have achieved the notable feat of winning the small schools trophy for their age group for the 4th year running.

Finances
The Club manages within its means quite effectively on an annual basis. The annual subscriptions plus match fees properly cover the day to day operating expenses, and we actively seek sponsors to support our teams in acquiring new kits and equipment.

Our aim is to ensure that each team is self sufficient. At least covering its day to day costs, but also making a contribution to overheads. In 2006/07, this worked successfully, with each team producing a profit of £300-500 before overheads, trophies and kits were taken into account.


Ethos and player recruitment
• Fundamentally, our ethos is about inclusivity. We look to bring children in at whichever age, and give them opportunities to develop and play football.
• We aim to attract players from Alderbury and surrounding villages, plus within Salisbury itself – and indeed are happy to accept players from wherever, provided they are willing to come and work with us (at youth level, we have had players from South Newton, Amesbury, Downton for example).
• We do not go out and “pick” players from other teams. We rely on word of mouth to spread our philosophy and approach, and to date this has been very successful. Many age groups are at or near capacity for the numbers of players their leagues will allow them to sign on.
• We follow the FA codes of conduct at all times, and ask that all our parents and players do the same. This is a vital part of the culture of the Club.



For each of the next few seasons, the youth sides have increased by at least 1 new team at the lowest age group (now under 7)