Where are they now?
Printed in the Cray Wanderers matchday programme on Sunday 25 March 2012 v Leatherhead
The following article originally appeared in 2012 and is reproduced unabridged below. However, I have recently gone through all the named teams and updated the information where I have found additional or altered accounts on the internet that were not there in 2012. These updates can be found below each entry. I have also added one or two new entries while I was updating this article and they can be found near the foot of the page; they are not Kent clubs but supporters might be interested in the named clubs' fate.
While doing a bit of internet research on my programme article about Plum Lane FC, I couldn't help but notice a list of Kent clubs from 'way back when'. Wondering whatever became of them, I decided to delve a little deeper. This list is by no means exhaustive and, no doubt supporters will have a few other teams in mind besides the ones I've covered. Here are the results of my labour.
BRENTSTONIANS
After playing in lower leagues like the Kent Amateur and the Metropolitan London League Intermediate Divisions, Brentstonians came to prominence in the 1970s when the Met London League decided in its infinite wisdom to combine its top two divisions for the 1974-75 season. Following their sudden meteoric rise in status that season, it was difficult to track their whereabouts after they apparently dropped out of the Met London at the end of that campaign, but they are now playing under the name of Brent Club FC in the North Kent Sunday League.
UPDATE 2025: It appears that nowadays they are playing under the name 'Royal Brentstonians', still in the North Kent Sunday League.
CALLENDERS ATHLETIC
Nicknamed 'The Cablemen', Callenders was a works team that played at Church Manorway in Lower Belvedere. I can trace that they were members of the Metropolitan & District League in the 1950s, but it doesn't appear that they rose any higher up in non-League circles than that. Strangely, they just appeared to slip unnoticed from the Kent County League into oblivion in the 1970s.
WOOLWICH POLY
The Polytechnic team, unsurprisingly from the Woolwich campus, changed its name to Thames Poly when the academy was rebadged in the 1970s. Like Brentstonians, Thames Poly enjoyed the limelight of the 1974-75 season in the elongated Met London League table, although a 9-0 drubbing in their 'home' game against Cray (the game was switched at the last minute to Oxford Road, after heavy overnight rain flooded the Poly ground) brought home to them the reality of playing at senior league football level,. Their last known whereabouts was the Kent League when they finished fifteenth in a table of twenty-one clubs in the 1991-92 season.
UPDATE 2025: Later information suggests that Thames Poly FC finally folded, or was integrated into the University of Greenwich, in around 2003. Where the club played between 1992 and 2003 is not recorded.
SWANLEY TOWN
I watched the 1968-69 Kent Amateur Cup final at Grassmeade between Bromley and Swanley. The first game finished 1-1 after extra time. No penalty shoot-outs in those days, of course, so seven days later the two teams returned to Grassmeade for Swanley to overturn the odds by winning the cup in front of a packed attendance. They later became Swanley Town and were Cray Wanderers' nemesis club for several seasons. Swanley Town withdrew from the London Spartan League at the end of the 1992-93 season and merged with Furness FC (formerly Danson Furness) of the Kent League to become Swanley Furness. Last heard of in the lower regions of the Kent League, after dropping out of the First Division (later renamed the Premier Division) in the 1997-98 season for falling foul of the league's new floodlights ruling, before disappearing into obscurity in the early 2000s.
UPDATE 2025: Swanley Furness is confirmed to have folded in 2005. However, there is a current Swanley FC (founded in 2016) that is considered to be the latest iteration of the original Swanley Town and they play in the Woolwich & Eltham Sunday Football Alliance League.
STANSFELD
Stansfeld Oxford & Bermondsey FC have been in the Kent County League (and its predecessor, the Kent Amateur League) for as long as I can remember. In fact, I saw them play Cray Reserves at Grassmeade in1969, a Kent Amateur League match that the Wands won by the odd goal in five.
UPDATE 2025: Stansfeld O&B merged with Eltham Palace in 2016 and currently play in the Southern Counties East League Premier Division (the successor to the Kent League) and groundshare with our neighbours from 'down the road', Cray Valley Paper Mills at the Badgers Ground in New Eltham.
SHEPPEY UNITED
In their heyday, Sheppey United boasted not one but two teams at senior level. When I first started watching Cray in the 1960s, both the Wands and Sheppey were in the Metropolitan League, but United also had a team in the Kent League at the same time, which was eligible to play in senior rather than intermediate competitions. Quite a rare occurrence. Sheppey United were establshed in 1890 and quickly became a useful side in Kent footballing circles. The Ites were original members of the Southern League in late Victorian times, but moved to the first incarnation of the Kent League in the same year that old Queen Vic died (1901). A couple of more trips back and forth between the Southern and Kent Leagues, with a stint in the Met League sandwiched in between, finally saw their first team disbanded during the 2000-01 season and their Kent League record expunged. Losing their Botany Road ground may have had something to do with it, along with some custodial issues around the same time, but Sheppey United regrouped again in 2003 as AFC Sheppey and currently play in the Kent County League Division One East. They changed their name back to Sheppey United in 2010.
UPDATE 2025: Since I researched and wrote this piece on Sheppey United, the club has risen through the pyramid and currently play their home games at Holm Park, in the Isthmian League Division One South.
BRITISH OIL & CAKE MILLS (BOCM)
This was a works team for a famous company that I'd never heard of, until they came to Grassmeade one miserable Saturday afternoon in 1969 and got spanked 5-0 by Cray Reserves. That was another Kent Amateur League match. I have looked in several places on the internet for information on this club, but it appears that they disappeared in a puff of smoke sometime in the 1970s.
AYLESFORD PAPER MILLS
The original club was formed in 1911 and soon became a strong force in Kent amateur football. Aylesford PM disbanded in the 1960s, only to resurface again in 1974, changing their name to Reeds International in the 1980s. This was closely followed by the club folding for a second time. New hope dawned in 2003, when the Aylesford PM phoenix again rose from the ashes in the identity of APM Mears FC. They have played in the Kent County League ever since. Only the lack of floodlights at their enclosed Cobdown, Maidstone, ground stops them from progressing up the non-League pyramid.
UPDATE 2025: The Aylesford Paper Mill finally closed down in 2015, but the football team continues under the name of Sheppey Sports and groundshare at Sheppey United's Holm Park, whilst retaining the 'Paperboys' nickname of the original Mill team. They also briefly played under the names APM Contract and then K Sports during the 20-teens. Their current league status is as members of the SCEFL First Division.
ORPINGTON ATHLETIC
I once heard Kentish Times reporter Ernie Ogilvie refer to Orpington Athletic as 'that other football team'. Perhaps that sums up that Cray Wanderers were reasonably successful and Orpington Athletic were not. And, of course, Cray were the much older and established club in the area. Athletic enjoyed several seasons in the Kent League in the 1960s, but the club folded at the beginning of the 1970s. As far as I am aware, they have no connection with the current Orpington team that plays in Swanley.
UPDATE 2025: More recent information seems to indicate that Orpington Athletic were expelled from the Kent League in 1969 because their ground was not up to the then required standard of that league. Orpington Athletic were playing their home games at Goddington Park (an open space recreation ground) at the time. Despite my earlier research about Orpington Athletic (above), however, there are now reported potential links to the present Orpington club whereas the information I found during my previous research categorically denied this. They currently play in the Kent County Division 2 West League and their colours are... amber and black! They currently list their home ground as 'Goddington Lane', which is where Goddington Park is (and is still not a fully enclosed stadium), so they appear to have come full circle.
DOCKLAND SETTLEMENT
I am still haunted to this day by the shock 3-0 defeat at Grassmeade against Dockland Settlement in a Kent Amateur Cup tie in 1973. The defeat came at a time when Cray, under the managership of John Biddle, were enjoying a string of good results in the Met London League. Dockland Settlement have now tagged an OB (Old Boys) suffix onto their name and they are still playing in the Kent County League.
UPDATE 2025: Dockland Settlement now appear to have either folded or maybe merged into another club. There are no recent fixtures or results available that mention their continued existence.
STANDARD KOLSTER
This was the works team representing Kolster Brandes, an American electronic compnents and radio manufacturing factory that was once situated opposite the old Sidcup Bus Garage in Foots Cray. One of my brothers worked at Kolster Brandes for a short while before he ran away to join the Foreign Legion. Well, the Royal Corps of Transport (RCT), really. This team, which played in the Kent Amateur League, probably folded when the Kolster Brandes factory closed down in the late 1960s.
CROCKENHILL
This spritely club is still going strong, despite suffering heavy defeats against Cray in pre-season friendlies in 2010 and 2011. Another club like Cray Wanderers; they get knocked down, they get up again (hmmm. I think I could write a song with those lyrics). After withdrawing from the Kent League in the 1990s, when the 'all grounds must have floodlights' ruling was introduced, the Crocks dropped into the Kent County League and spent a period of time there spanning two decades before being accepted into the newly-formed Kent Invicta League at the start of the 2011-12 campaign.
UPDATE 2025: The Crocks have sufferered a series of unfortunate relegations in recent seasons and now currently play in the Kent County League Division Two Central. With little chance of floodlighting being installed, it seems that our once-competitive neighbours are destined to stay in the lower reaches of local football. I used to like my visits to Wested Meadow to watch our two neighbouring village teams play. Yet, the very fact that the club is still going and they play at the same ground, shows dedication and resolve by those involved in keeping Crockenhill alive. They certainly deserve much better fortune.
SLADE GREEN ATHLETIC
A former railway works team that played near Dartford (or was it Crayford?). Either way, they folded a couple of years ago (2000s), I think during the season, while they were struggling in the Kent League. By then, though, they were just known as Slade Green.
ALMA SWANLEY
Started life as a Sunday pub side... and some people often believed that they still played like it. Their prime years in senior football were between the late 1970s and mid-1980s. After following Cray into the Kent League in the early 1980s, Alma folded at the end of the 1993-94 season.
SURDOC
This team from the Surrey Docks, or Surrey Quays to give it the adopted modern name, played in the lower divisions of the London Spartan League. Later, they became Victoria Surdoc, at which time several ex-Wands players moved there to continue playing after their appearances in the amber and black of Cray Wanderers began to ebb and ebb some more. Technically not a Kent team, but neither were Sporting Bengal United or Croydon, yet that didn't stop them from playing in the Kent League.
UPDATE 2025: It definitely appears that this football club is no longer in existence, although Surdoc Social Club is still quite a prominent venue in Bermondsey.
DARENTH HEATHSIDE
Formerly known as Heathside Sports, Darenth Heathside played their home games at Horton Road in Horton Kirby, near Dartford. The club transferred to the Kent League from the London Spartan, at the same time as Cray Wanderers, for the start of the 1978-79 season. Although their ground itself was nothing spectacular, the surroundings were quite picturesque with a backdrop of a Victorian viaduct, supporting the main Dover to London railway line, spanning the Darenth Valley. The club was another victim of the Kent League get tough ruling on floodlighting requirements. They resigned from the Kent League in 1995 and seem to have disappeared after that.
UPDATE 2025: The most up-to-date information I can find is that Darenth Heathside moved out of their old Horton Road ground and shared facilities at Dartford for a while before folding in around 1995 (which confirms what I found out before). They had apparently purchased another plot of land but lack of planning consent made the project untenable. The old ground was sold off for redevelopment, so it seems that it no longer exists as a football ground.
BRETT SPORTS
I'm still trying to work this one out. Brett Sports were in the Kent League in 1969, when they came to Grassmeade and somehow sneaked a 1-0 win in the Kent Amateur Cup with an early goal, in what was one of the most one-sided games I ever saw at Grassmeade as Cray pummelled the Brett defence for 89 minutes. Two seasons later, Brett Sports were nowhere to be found, although I do believe that the parent company that spawned the football team changed its name to Brett Waverley. I found a reference that the team played under that name for a while in the Kent County League before disappearing from the footballing radar.
UPDATE 2025: Brett Sports, it seems, drifted into Sunday football (Whitstable & Herne Bay League) after their period in the Kent League. Nowadays, they are tentatively linked to the current Canterbury City FC, who now play at the former Brett Sports ground at Bretts Corner in the city. There appears to be some confusion over whether Brett Sports FC was absorbed into Canterbury City FC and whether or not it was the present day CCFC or the previous incarnation of that club. Either way, Brett Sports no longer exists in name.
HOO INSTITUTE
This club sounds more famous than their current status would indicate. They presently play in the Rochester & District Saturday League. Hoo itself is a small bivalve near Rochester in Kent and is not to be confused with a village of the same name in Suffolk.
UPDATE 2025: The more I delve into the whereabouts of these clubs, the more confusing the information gets. According to information I have recently researched, Hoo Institute FC morphed into a team called Hoo Vets in 2017 and play in something called the Southern Vets League (no, me neither!) as an over-35s FA accredited club.
279 CHISLEHURST
After finishing as runners-up to Muirhead Sports (later renamed Policrom) in the Metropolitan London League Second Division at the end of the 1971-72 season, 279 dropped out of the league and folded when their manager John Biddle, secretary Micky Hunt and their entire squad of players migrated to Cray Wanderers FC, to fill the places left vacant after the complete Wands' 1971 Metropolitan League Cup winning team walked out on the club midway through the same season. The appointment of John Biddle as manager was ultimately, at that time, the latest in a series of actions to keep Cray Wanderers Football Club alive.
UPDATE 2025: An interesting snippet about 279 Chislehurst being blended into Cray Wanderers was the fact that 279 used to play their home games at The National Dock Labour Board ground, more affectionately known nowadays as Flamingo Park, the now forever-home of Cray Wanderers. Football has a funny way of turning the tables sometimes...
UPDATE 2025: New additions to my original article:
LEYTONSTONE
Former winners of the FA Amateur Cup, Leytonstone of the Isthmian League merged with Ilford, also then of the Isthmian League to form a new club called Leytonstone-Ilford in 1979, following a groundshare after Ilford had lost use of their Lynn Road ground. Subsequent to that, the newer club sucked in struggling Walthamstow Avenue and became Redbridge Forest. Thereafter, another former Isthmian League club (Dagenham) absorbed Redbridge Forest to become Dagenham & Redbridge. So, in effect, when Dagenham & Redbridge played in the EFL they were theoretically representing not one but four former well-known non-League clubs. And then Ilford went and re-formed in 1987... Cray Wanderers met each of these clubs in their original formats in cup matches during the 1960s and 1970s.
CRITTALS ATHLETIC
Formed as the works team of the old Crittall Windows factory in Braintree, Essex, Crittalls Athletic changed their name to Braintree & Crittall Athletic in the late 1960s. In the years that followed, other name changes included Braintree and finally Braintree Town, which they have been playing under since 1983. The last two name changes removed any mention of the original club, except that they still play at Cressing Road in the town. Cray Wanderers have met this club in various competitions over the years since the 1960s, when both the Wands and Crittalls Athletic were members of the old Metropolitan League.
HIGHFIELD
A bit of a 'pain in the side' team where Cray Wanderers were concerned, Highfield came to prominence in the mid-1970s when they had average success in the Metropolitan London and London Spartan Leagues. They won the London Spartan League Senior Division in the early 1980s, which saw them promoted to the LSL Premier Division, but the club folded abruptly when they lost the use of their Turkey Street, Enfield, ground in 1984.
BYNG ROAD OLD BOYS
Most Wands supporters from the 1970s probably remember this club as 'BROB Barnet'. They played their home games at Barnet's old 'Underhill' ground and appear to have dissolved into thin air when the EFL Division 2 club upped sticks and moved to their current 'Hive' stadium. Although not quite the whipping boys of the Metropolitan London and London Spartan Leagues, they did seem to undergo some severe whippings against Cray Wanderers, including an 8-0, a couple of 6-1s and a 7-1 during the 1970s. We all enjoyed those games but I doubt that the BROB Barnet goalkeepers did! There was a school near the 'Underhill' ground that was called Byng Road, now called Foulds Primary School, some students of which formed the basis of the Byng Road Old Boys (BROB) club.
Trevor Mulligan