Chipstead Juniors FC and New Pavilion
The turn of the century has seen significant changes within the club, with the establishment of a junior football section and the replacement of the old wooden pavilion with a superb brick built one.
The junior football section was established in September 2004 with the help of a few keen parents of children at the local Chevening Junior School. Starting with a group of approximately 25 boys and girls aged 5 – 10, Saturday mornings were dedicated to football coaching. The club committed to achieving the FA Charter Standard kite mark, so parents were enrolled on FA Level 1 coaching courses and a Club Welfare Officer appointed. As we approach the end of the 4th year (April 2008), the junior football section now has a membership of 250 with 10 teams (2 x U9 and 2 x U11 mini-soccer teams, plus 2 x U12, 1 x U13, 2 x U14 and 1 x U14 Girls teams). Summer football schools are also run from May – July for children in school years 1 – 6. We never in our wildest dreams envisaged being so successful!
The other major project during the 2000s was the replacement of the dilapidated pavilion with![]()
a new brick built one. A Project Steering Group was established in 2003 with representatives from Chevening Parish Council, Chipstead Football Club and Chevening Amblers Cricket Club. After much research and hard work, funding was eventually obtained to enable the building of a new £350K sports pavilion to commence in April 2006. Having played the first half of season 2006/7 at Cudham, the football club finally moved back to Chipstead in January 2007.
Now, hot food and drinks are regularly provided on Saturday mornings during the winter months, enticing many parents to stay and watch their children (often from within the comfort of a lovely warm social area). And the senior club is now able to offer food and beverage to visiting teams after matches, something they were never previously able to do.
It is fair to say that the club has been completely transformed in the past 5 years – the future of Chipstead FC is extremely bright!
March 2008 saw Chipstead entertain Dutch junior club MSV Flakkee in a 4 team tournament on Easter Sunday. Despite the awful weather, the visit was an outstanding success and we look forward to forming a long term relationship with our Dutch friends.
Season 2007/8 ended with noteable successes for our senior teams with 3 out of 4 being promoted at the end of the season, our 1sts achieving Intermediate status for a first time.
There were also successes for our junior teams, with our U13s winning their league in style, while our mini-soccer teams continued to do very well.
A new club shop was opened in 2008/9, selling merchandise on Sat mornings to our 5 - 10 year olds. We hope to be able to extend the venture to older age groups. On the pitch, it was our mini-soccer teams who led the way, our U9s going through their league season unbeaten, and also winning one summer tournament and finishing runners up in three. Meanwhile our U10s won their league and one tournament whilst our U11s finished runners up in their mini-soccer league pre-Xmas and winners of their 11 a side league post-Xmas.
May 2009 saw two of our junior teams visit MSV Flakkee accompanied by Sevenoaks Town Juniors FC. The trip was quite memorable with everyone having a great time and being superbly looked after. Our many thanks to our close friends from Holland and to all those parents who helped host our boys and made them feel very welcome during their stay.