Camberley Town

Camberley Town FC is a non-league football club from the Surrey town of the same name which is located close to the borders with Hampshire and Berkshire. The club was formed in 1895 as St Michael's FC playing games at the new Recreation Ground on London Road.

In 1901 a public meeting decreed that St Michael’s should merge with Camberley Magpies to form a new club called Camberley & Yorktown FC who took St Michael’s place in the East & West Surrey League.

The club dropped down to the Aldershot Combination in 1902 before switching to the Ascot & District League a year later, before being as the champions of that competition in 1904-05.

By 1905 the club had moved to a pitch near Southwell Park Road which had been used occasionally in the past before a hat-trick of title wins followed in 1907-08, 1908-09 and 1909-10, the last of which was won at a new ground at Martin's Meadow.

The club returned to their original competition, now called the West Surrey League in 1910 and becoming champions in 1913-14. Camberley & Yorktown became founder members of the Surrey Senior League in 1922.

Following a spell back at the Recreation Ground, a move into Krooner Park came in 1923. The ground was named as such after someone belonging to the club had won money on a horse called Krooner who been victorious in two races at Haydock Park Racecourse in 1920. The winnings paid for the site.

Three successive Surrey Senior League titles in 1930-31, 1931-32 and 1932-33 ensued before the team ended as runners-up in 1938-39, 1946-47 and 1961-62. In 1967 the club merged with former Parthenon League club Camberley Wanderers to become Camberley Town FC.

After a third place league finish in 1972-73 the Krooners moved to the Spartan League before joining Division Two of the Athenian League in 1975. A couple of seasons later a switch was made to Division Two of the Isthmian League.

A runners-up spot in 1977-78 led to promotion to Division One, where they remained until being relegated in 1980-81. Town moved back to the single division Athenian League for the 1982-83 campaign.

Musician Rick Wakeman lived in the town and became chairman in 1983. Two poor finishes in the Athenian League led to a swap back to the Isthmian League Division Two South, where the side continued to struggle.

In 1985-86 the Krooners went on a run to the quarter final of the FA Vase before going out 5-1 away to eventual winners Halesowen Town. Wakeman became a vice-president in 1986 before moving to the Isle of Man a couple of years later.

Camberley finished bottom of the table in 1990-91 to take up a position in Division Three. A fourth place in 1997-98 offered signs of improvement which also saw a run to the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup which ended in replay defeat to Billericay Town.

The following season wins against Wokingham Town, Arundel, Ringmer, Braintree Town and St Blazey took Camberley to the first round of the Cup where they went down 5-1 to Brentford at Griffin Park.

The same 1998-99 campaign also saw a run to the fifth round of the FA Vase, which was ended by Woodbridge Town. Division Three of the Isthmian League became Division Two in 2002 which is where Camberley remained until they relegated to the Premier Division of the Combined Counties League at the conclusion of the 2005-06 campaign.

A third place in the league season of 2007-08 was coincided with another journey to the fifth round of the FA Vase where Concord Rangers roved to strong. Another third place league finish followed in 2009-10 which was exceeded by runners-up berths in 2013-14 and 2014-15.

It was third position again in 2015-16 for the Krooners which again saw a fifth round appearance in the Vase, this time going out at home to Newton Aycliffe. Manager Dan Turkington was replaced by Dean Greenwood in January 2017.

Greenwood resigned in November 2018 before Steve Brown and Carl Garstang were at the helm as Camberley finished the truncated 2019-20 campaign in midtable before the following season was also aborted early.

The club was placed in premier Division South for the 2021-22 campaign which resulted in another midtable finish. Luke Turkington joined the management team in 2021, going on to manage the side alone. The team ended 2023-24 in fifteenth position.

Camberley Town FC will play in the Combined Counties League Premier Division South in the 2024-25 season.

My visit

Camberley Town 1 Ascot United 0 (Tuesday 8^th September) Combined Counties League Premier Division (att: c60)

My regular travel pal Tony had bitten the bullet and was now fully into attending matches below Step 4 of non-league football as it had become apparent that the chances of seeing games higher up the football pyramid looked a forlorn hope owing to COVID.

Our regular text exchange had taken place. I was more than happy with his suggestion of Camberley as it was somewhere new to me and somewhere, I believed to be a decent venue from reading previous reviews. I was on night shift but could be dropped off in time for work after the game.

However, Tony had read that Camberley charged a day membership of £2 or £5 per season on top of the £7 admission charge. We agreed that if they wanted £9, we’d go a couple of miles to the game at Frimley Green instead.

We found Krooner Park behind an industrial unit and got parked up in a convenient spot for departure. It appeared at first glance that the turnstiles were not yet open, but a coach told us to go through the open side gate and pay at a desk inside, though he did warn us that the clubhouse was closed.

When we went to the desk, the lady wanted £6 as it was indeed £2 for a day membership along with a £4 concession fee. I gritted my teeth as the wallet took a far lesser battering than my ego. She had assumed that we were both pensioners.

I'd admittedly enjoyed a hearty long weekend, but I didn't expect to be taken for an OAP. I generally purchase a drink of some kind whenever I attend a game and usually a raffle ticket if they sell them as I appreciate that it’s not cheap to run a football club.

I'm not tight with my cash and understand the costs of running a non-league club but charging a day membership fee to visitors was quite frankly taking liberties. Perhaps the lady on the desk was embarrassed by the extra fee? I tried to convince myself of that anyway!

I saw the period as a great opportunity for clubs to attract new fans. I sincerely hoped that they would grasp it. They would if they offered a safe welcoming environment and offered value for money. They would turn them away if they didn't. It was as simple as that.

We grabbed a hot drink for £1.50 from a refreshments cabin that also offered freshly cooked doughnuts. We declined that tempting offer. Before kick-off we used the loos in the stand. It was a bit of a shock to be joined by the referee.

I immediately took to Neil Keirs. I wished him a good game and he laughed along and said that he’d ruin someone’s night because he simply couldn’t please everyone. The no nonsense Scotsman controlled the game expertly and didn’t suffer fools gladly, trying to let the game flow.

Before the start we had a bit of a worry. We noticed a cherry picker over the far side with a couple of chaps working on one of the floodlight pylons. We had a period where different lights went on and off before they eventually all came on. It was a relief when the game got underway, albeit a few minutes late.

Yellamen keeper Sam Gray kept his side in it in the first half with a series of decent stops to deny the Krooners as he denied Alfie Gibbons and Carlo Santoro, while defender Sam Evans did well to block an effort from Mark Jordan.

Ascot rallied towards the break without really threatening. At the interval we had a walk around the arena before taking back our position to the side of the stand. Along with the seated area, Krooner Park also had a long cover behind the entrance end goal.

It was the turn of Camberley goalie Jordi Wilson to prove his worth in the second half as he commanded his defence who were doing a decent job. The only goal of the game came four minutes after the break.

Star man Bilat Dembele was brought down in the box. Jordan stepped up to put the penalty away before Dembele broke clear shortly after but was denied by Gray in the Ascot net before his side took the ascendancy.

Riccardo Andrady had an effort deflected wide before a Louis Bouwers header struck keeper Wilson. Harry Laflin was later denied and then glanced a header wide as the pressure intensified. Santoro saw his shot saved at the other end before somehow missing a sitter from the rebound.

Ascot came desperately close to grabbing a last gasp leveller in the sixth minute of stoppage time as Laflin saw his header saved by the post by Wilson. We thought the result about right in a tight scrappy game.

We were soon on our way with Tony dropping me at Ruislip so that I could head off to Hillingdon for work.