"Old Bealonians Football Club", now known as 'Bealonians FC' was founded in 1936.
"Old Bealonians Football Club", now known as 'Bealonians FC' was founded
in 1936. We are an FA Chartered Standard Club at Developement Level,
soon to be pursuing the Community Level.
We originated from 'Beal' school in South Woodford, Essex , and up until
1997 we operated out of the clubhouse in Wards Rd , Ilford. Essex . We
have gone from owning our own clubhouse for many many years, to first
becoming residents at 'Elmbridge Sports & Social Club' in Forest Rd ,
Hainault. Essex and then in 2004 a new move to Redbridge Sports Centre
for the foreseeable future, which is also in Forest Rd, but further down
next to Fairlop Station.
We are currently running 8 adult teams. 7 sides in the recently formed
'Amateur Football Combination ' and a Vets side in the 'Vets Football
Alliance'. We also occasionally put out a Super Vets side (over 45's).
The AFC was formed from the amalgamation of the Southern Olympian League
and the London Old Boys Football League, in 2002.
The Senior side of the Football Club on a whole in the last few years
has done quite well for themselves. 1996-97 saw the 3rd Xl win the
League, the League cup and came runners-up in the AFA cup. In the
1998-99 season the 1st & 2nd Xl were both league division winners and
the 3rd Xl were runners-up in the League Cup. Season 99-2000 has seen
the 3rd X1 once again take the SOL Junior League Cup. 2000-01 wasn't a
good season for any club, because of the terrible weather we all had but
it did see the 5th X1 win the league and the 1st X1 lose out in the
final of the Essex Senior AFA Cup. 2001-2002 saw the 1st X1 and the 5th
X1 win the league, the 5th X1 also runners-up in the League Cup. 2002/03
season saw the beginning of the newly formed AFC and our 1st X1 were
doing pretty well in Senior 1 right up to the last few games. No silver
for season (2003-2004) for us, after seeing our 3rd X1 lose in the final
of the London Old Boys Cup. But we are going forward in development for
the teams and we should see the results coming in soon. 2004-2005 saw
our 1st X1 get promoted to the Premier division after winning the Senior
1 division. They have stayed up there since the last 2 seasons and were
in the running to possibly win it this last season 2006-07. The 3rd XI
won the league this season as well under Carlos O Connor and Graham
Shepherd.
Club training for the seniors is at at Redbridge Sports Centre, on a
Tuesday evening. We are trying to encourage more players to join
(younger players) and replace some of the ageing (but still skilful and
energetic I might add) playing members we field today. As everybody
knows, you need youth to carry on the future and to maintain an even
balance between the teams therefore we encourage and support them as
much as possible. Hopefully we look to our youth sides coming through
into the seniors to maintain the club for many years to come.
We started our Youth Project in 2001 and have approx 232 youngsters
attending our coaching sessions on Saturday mornings as well as during
the week in the evenings, from 4yrs old to 15yrs old, playing their
matches on Sundays. We started playing our first youth league matches
for season 2002-2003 in the Echo League and the Barking & Dagenham
League. Gary Lazarus is Secretary of this section of the Club, and
because of the size of the club now, we also have a Football Development
Officer, Bill Blackwell . Bill has also been selected to be the
Coach/Manager for the AFA U18 side this coming season 2007-08. We need
to plan ahead for both the Senior and the Youth sides. Incorporating
this idea has just seen the club reach a total of 39 qualified
Coaches/Managers at different levels. Hopefully we can progress from
here and raise the standard of football across the whole of the club.
On the Youth side, we saw four Cup finals in the season 2003-2004 but
unfortunately had no wins there, and the last season, 2004-2005 saw us
in two cup finals, both won by us, and we had three league winners, with
one of the teams doing the double.
The club tries hard to ensure we have a Senior club tour every 2 years.
2002 saw the Club on a Football Tour of Antwerp ( Belgium) and Bergen (
Holland ). Luckily everyone got back in time for the start of the
season. A few hiccups in Belgium which were soon sorted by lending the
opposition a couple of players but Bergen as always put on a splendid
show for us in football and hospitality and everyone thoroughly enjoyed
it! 2004 saw the Club on a tour of Cologne ( Germany) over the May Bank
Holiday. The score lines were justified, but the referees were
definitely not and the hospitality left everything to be desired. Not
one offer of a beer from any team we played, even to buy from them! 2006
and we had our first 'tour in the sun' when 53 of us headed off to Spain
and stay in Lloret De Mar. Unfortunately we only won 1 game and drew 1
out of 5, but we certainly did some male bonding over the 4 days.
Unfortunately you have to be there to see what went on as 'what happens
on tour, stays on tour'!
We have a limited number of functions throughout the season, which we
use for fund raising and sometimes just for fun, which can be seen on
the functions and events page of this website for dates etc.
Members, friends and family are all welcome. Our main function each year
being the Annual Presentation Dinner (Saturday) normally held in May or
June, where we all dress up in our finest attire, We also have a full
array of trophies to present to the worthy winners of the season. The
Youth team's presentations now vary as to what activities are
introduced, due to the amount we have.
2006 saw the club celebrate it's 70th Anniversary and hopefully we shall
all be around to celebrate it's Centinary as well.
