SANDHURST TOWN - HISTORY
andhurst Football Club was formed in 1910 and played in the Reading & District League until 1979 apart from a short spell in the East Berkshire Football League.
In 1979, the Club was elected into the Aldershot & District Football League.1984 saw the Club finish as runners-up from whence they became founder members of the Chiltonian Football League and a stepping-stone toward becoming a senior club.
The best season in the Chiltonian Football League was in 1986-1987 when they finished in second place. In 1990 the Club applied for membership of the Combined Counties Football League and was granted senior status by the Berks & Bucks County Football Association. The first two seasons were disastrous finishing in bottom place on each occasion and only escaped relegation back to the Chiltonian Football League at the end of the second season due to the resignation of another member club. However, the form of the Club improved dramatically thereafter over several years with managers Peter Browning and subsequently John Underwood bringing the club cup and league success.
The first ground used by the Club was a field adjacent to the Bull & Butcher public house that may well have been used as the club headquarters. After a few years, a move was made to the Memorial Park where the Club remained until the 1996 close season, apart from a couple of seasons during the 1950s spent on a nearby pitch in St. John’s Road.
The introduction of the National Lottery prompted an immediate bid for funding for a new ground in Bottom Meadow adjacent to the Memorial Park. With support and backing through additional matched funding from Bracknell Forest Borough Council and Sandhurst Town Council, the Club was successful in the first round of allocations by the National Lotteries Charities Board. The new facilities opened in August 1997 at a cost of £265,000. The club celebrated its Centenary season in 2010/11 winning the Combined Counties League Cup final and getting through to two other semi-finals.
This year the club celebrates 110 years of football in the community. Whilst the CoVid-19 pandemic brought last season to a premature close in March and our planned anniversary celebrations/events to be put temporarily on hold there has been a lot of positive and exciting things happening in the background at the club.
Aimed at ensuring the longevity of the club for a further 100 years and beyond a major relaunch of the club and a project is in hand on two fronts namely significantly improving, upgrading, and enhancing our facilities at Bottom Meadow as well as placing a major emphasis going forward on the values of education and further enhancing the social and community value of sport in Sandhurst. Work began at Bottom Meadow in 2020 and we returned to a much-improved home for the start of the 2021/22 season.
In 2022 the club celebrated 110 years of football in the community. Covid-19 pandemic brought the 2021 season to a premature close and anniversary celebrations/events were cancelled. However, there was a lot of positive and exciting things happening in the background at the club. Aimed at ensuring the longevity of the club for a further 100 years and beyond, a major relaunch of the club was completed, namely significant improvements, upgrades, of the facilities at Bottom Meadow, placing a major emphasis going forward on the values of education and further enhancing the social and community value of sport in Sandhurst and throughout Bracknell Forest. Our state-of-the-art 3G pitch, the first of its kind in the UK, that was completed during the summer of 2023, at Bottom Meadow.
In 2023, Jordan Ive took over the reigns as first team manager and led the Fizzers to the Combined Counties Division One title and promotion to Step 5 into the Combined Counties Premier South. Jordan led the team until Xmas 2023 when he made the move up the football pyramid to manage at Step 3.
For the start of the 2024/25 season, Adam Barnard became the new Fizzers manager and was joined by Carl Barrie and Lee Barefoot. Sandhurst Town ambitions remained high. However, ownership and operational changes in the running of Bottom Meadow hampered our progress and we could not muster enough points to avoid regelation back into Combined Counties Division One.
2025/26, we welcomed Bob Ryan as the new Fizzers manage to lead the Fizzers for the new campaign. At the end of the season Bob stepped down and we began the search for a new manager.
We are delighted that Carl Barrie has returned as the new Fizzers manger for the 2026/27 season. Carl, along with his management team will lead the Fizzers into a new era and a new league, after a change in league allocation we join the Velocity Wessex League for the first time.
