Page 14 - CHUFC v Westside

WESTSIDE FC team ended 3rd. Graham decided to
Westside FC was founded by Gra- 5, the Tec Cup, and the
ham Holder, our current Chair- Sportsmanship Cup and
man, in May 1996 and is based at were runners-up in the
West Side Church in Wandsworth. League Junior Cup. Not a bad start and
Graham travelled to the USA in 1994 with Dave Doran scoring 55 goals.
with Ambassadors in Sport to coach and The club grew to have three adult men’s
evangelise in San Jose, California during teams in the KDL with brothers, friends
the 1994 World Cup. While he was there and friends of friends joining. The 1st
he had a vision to form a Christian foot- team progressed through the divisions of
ball club on his return to the UK. the KDL and in 1999/20 were Division 2
West Side Church Champions and were promoted directly
In 1996 this happened. With the team to the KDL Premier Division and won
only having 7 players, it joined Divi- this the following season 2000/01.
sion 5 of the Kingston & District League The club decided to have a further sea-
(KDL). By the start of the season, the son in the KDL Premier and apply for
team had 17 players mainly from the promotion to the Surrey South East-
West Side Church youth group. In this ern Combination Intermediate League
first season the team, player managed (SSEC) the following season. Unfortu-
by Graham Holder, won KDL Division nately, the plan went wrong when the
Mission Tour to Senegal
take a gamble and transferred the team Also, in 2004, the club became the first
into the SSEC Junior 1 and it gained Christian team to take a Mission Tour to
promotion to the Intermediate League Senegal in West Africa. A great adven-
in 2002/03 by winning the last game ture, two years of planning and a diffi-
of the season against promotion rivals cult one for a Christian team in a mainly
Warlingham. Muslim country. The tour was a great
Graham Holder remained Manager un- success and we returned in 2007 with an
til 2008/09 and after 12 years stepped even more gruelling schedule of match-
down to manage the Reserves in SSEC es, coaching and Christian evangelism.
Junior 1. His Assistant Manager, Steve There were some very unusual pitches
Walters took over the job of 1st team and football in the jungle is a real expe-
manager. During those 12 years, the club rience! We also have connections with
won numerous trophies – see clubs hon- Romania and Sierra Leone.
ours page -including being FA Charter We believe that our original vision to be
Standard National Adult Club of the Year a multi team club has blossomed over the
2005/06. years since 1996.
We moved to ground share Won numerous trophies
Steve Walters led the first team to the The club has expanded greatly since
SSEC Intermediate Division 2 title in starting youth and girls’ football in 2002.
2014/15 and Division 1 the following Under the overall control of Jane Walters,
season gaining promotion to the Surrey we now have over 30 youth boys teams
Elite League when we switched to play- from U7 to U18 with teams playing on
ing our home games firstly at Croydon both Saturday and Sunday. All these
Arena and then at AFC Croydon Athlet- teams have also won numerous trophies
ic. In 2018/19 we finished 3rd and gained across all levels of the club – please see
promotion to Step 6 of the National the honours list in our programmes.
Football Structure and entered the Com- Since season 2019-20, we e joined forces
bined Counties Division 1. We moved to with Sean Innes Coaching and formed
ground share with Chessington & Hook three new teams in the Surrey Youth
United and despite a relatively good League.
start, our season like many others was
curtailed by COVID -19.
Colliers Wood United FC
Last season 2020-21 we moved to a
ground sharing arrangement at Colliers
Wood United FC, and again this season
will be playing home games at the same
venue.