The early history of Mundford Football Club is somewhat unclear but after many hours of
research through the archives of the Eastern Counties Newspaper Group the photograph
below was uncovered by club secretary John Marston. As can be seen by the date on the
ball this clearly gives a founding date of no later than 1907. After a century since the
photograph was taken it has proved very difficult to put names to these players from a
bygone era. What we do know for certain is that the gentleman in the centre of the back
row was the then vicar of St Leonards church, the Reverend John Tounge who played in
goal until about 1912. During the first half of the 20th century the club played its football
on the Glebe. This piece of land now serves as the village cricket ground.
In the early 1950s the club moved up to the Mundford road pitch. This was situated on
Adeane Meadow but has now long since dissapeared under a housing development.
In the late 1980s the club moved to its current pitch adjacent to the cricket club.
Club records that still exist show that in the 1950s the club played it’s football in the
South Norfolk League. From the early 1960s to the late 1970s the club opted to play it’s
football in the Bury and District League. In 1978 the club again switched leagues, this
time moving to the Anglian Combination League where both adult teams still compete.
Last year the Ist team became Anglian Combination division 2 champions, thus gaining
promotiom to division 1 and playing senior football for the first time in the clubs history.
In 1981 the club formed a youth section. This proved very successful with many of the
former youth players now turning out for the adult teams.
1998 saw the Football Association launch it’s Mini-Soccer initiative. This small sided
version of football with its simplified rules is much better suited to the younger player.
Since the introduction of Mini-Soccer, the youth section of Mundford F.C. has gone from
strength to strength. In 2002 Mundford (Boys) F.C. was awarded the F. A. Charter, at that
time only the fifth club in the county and the first village club to gain the coveted award.
There are now four Boys teams playing on a regular basis and with this, the clubs
Centenary Season already looking like it may be it’s most successful ever, the future
looks very bright for the club. |