Royston Town

Royston Town FC is a non-league football club that was formed in 1875 from the town of the same name on the Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire border. Little is known of the clubs’ early existence aside from them playing in local football.

‘The Crows’ competed against another local side, Royston FC, known as 'Non-Cons', short for Non-Conformists around the time of the Great War before Town became members of the Buntingford & District League while the other side folded.

In 1932 Royston Town moved into their new Garden Walk ground prior to joining Division Two of the Herts County League for the 1950-51 season, winning promotion to Division A at the first attempt and then becoming members of the South Midlands League in 1959.

A seventh place in their debut season was as good as Town managed before dropping back down to the Herts County League at the end of the 1964-65 campaign as members of Division One, from which the Crows were promoted twelve months later before being relegated from the Premier Division in 1967-68.

Royston claimed the Division One title in 1969-70 but were relegated again just a year later. Another Division One championship followed in 1972-73 to return to the Premier League, winning that league title in 1976-77.

This led to a return to Division One of the South Midlands League, which was won in 1977-78 to reach the Premier Division and going on to finish runners-up in 1979-80. After gradual progression Town rose to Division Two North of the Isthmian League in 1984-85.

The new competition saw several seasons of struggle, aside from a couple of mid table finishes before being placed in Division Three following league reorganisation in 1991-92. After finishing eighth in 1993-94 the club resigned from the Isthmian League.

The league insisted on further ground improvements at a cost of £20,000 which was deemed too expensive as the club were not attracting many spectators at the time. Instead the Crows re-joined the South Midlands League with former Tottenham Hotspur star Tony Galvin as team manager before Paddy Butcher took over as player-manager a year later.

The competition was extended in 1997-98 as Royston were placed in the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division North with Kevin Pugh and Sam Salamone taking over as joint managers for the 1998-99 season.

Gavin Head took over in 2001 taking the side to eighth place in his first season as manager before resigning in October 2002 to be replaced by Peter Theo. Peter Baker was appointed as manager in March 2003 as he set about setting up a side with a strong local base.

Mark Saggers and Brian Cannon became co-managers for the 2005-06 season which nearly ended in relegation and led to Phil Snowden taking over as team boss. Town were relegated to Division One in 2006-07 prior to Paul Attfield being put in charge of the team in November 2007.

The Division One title was secured in 2008-09 before the Crows went on to become the Spartan South Midlands League champions in 2011-12 to add to a plethora of local cups over the previous few years. Royston were promoted to Division One Central of the Southern League.

Attfield resigned as manager owing to ill health in November 2013 to be replaced by Steve Castle. A runners-up league place in 2014-15 was followed by defeat in the semi-finals of the play-offs to Barton Rovers.

Another second place twelve months later again saw play-off agony as AFC Rushden & Diamonds prevailed in the semi-finals. John Frendo and Adam Murray were added to the squad as the Crows were crowned as champions of Division One Central in 2016-17.

A seventh place was achieved in the teams’ debut in the Premier Division, before they were placed in Premier Division Central following league extension for 2018-19. The following season saw Town reach the FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round as well as the last eight of the FA Trophy.

Royston were in third place when the 2019-20 season was aborted owing to the Coronavirus pandemic, with the following season also ending early. Eighth place in 2021-22 was backed up by a midtable finish as Chris Watters became joint manager next to Castle.

Watters was given the solo role in December 2023 following the departure of Castle after ten years at Garden Walk.

Royston Town FC will play in the Southern League Premier Division Central in the 2024-25 season.

My visit

Royston Town 2 Hednesford Town 1 (Saturday 24^th October 2020) Southern League Premier Division Central (att: 354)

The day can best be summed up as a decent most competitive match at a homely venue in a pleasant Hertfordshire town as part of a really enjoyable day out.

Hendon were without a game as their scheduled opponents Wimborne Town were involved in FA Cup action. I had the weekend off work and earlier plans to meet Nick and Stan to watch Scarborough Athletic at Matlock Town had been scuppered by the latest COVID regulations.

It was probably as well that I hadn’t booked trains as the game in Derbyshire was postponed as the home side suffered from a couple of coronavirus cases. I narrowed my options down to three games at venues I’d not previously seen games at, before texting them to my pal Steve Barnes to see if any appealed to him.

He got back on Saturday morning as I watched the AFL Grand Final, saying he wouldn’t mind a trip to Royston. We arranged to meet at St Pancras International after I’d enjoyed a fine breakfast ready for adventure somewhere new.

The fine new Thameslink trains took us north directly to our destination in just under an hour before we walked through the town to find The Manor House, the local branch of Wetherspoons. The building was better than the choice of beer, though both the Spitfire and then Would Moild from the Wolf Brewery was in good nick.

It was less than ten minutes to Garden Walk, with the two coaches from the West Midlands looking slightly out of place on a quite residential street. The entrance was down a small lane between houses. The Track and Trace App was in operation at the game where admission was £10, with the programme pre downloaded online.

Once inside we found an interesting venue, with six separate sections of cover, two of them having seats. It had obviously been added to as the Crows advanced in standing. Everything seemed to be neat and tidy, with plenty of black and white paint in evidence.

The visiting Pitmen came out in a bright yellow outfit, described as “neon yellow” in the programme which was probably better suited to stewards, of which there were many around the ground on the other side of the pitch ensuring social distancing was adhered to in a calm and pleasant manner.

As the game kicked off the rain began to fall in the brisk wind. We made our way around the ground to take up a position on the far side so that our backs were to the inclement conditions. It was noticeable as we walked that the pitch had quite a slope.

Both sides went into the game at the wrong end of the table. The hosts started well in a highly competitive encounter and went ahead when a Brandon Adams shot was saved by Cameron Gregory only for Joshua Williams to put away the rebound.

Home keeper Joe Welch pulled off a superb stop to push a close range shot over before Hednesford equalised from the penalty spot through Dan Turner on nineteen minutes. Referee Ashley List was getting plenty of advice from players and management before causing more vitriol.

He awarded the Crows a penalty that Jonny Edwards put away on twenty one minutes before the same player somehow missed from six yards after Gregory spilled the ball before a couple of defenders contrived to clear the weak effort off the line.

This was too much for Royston boss Castle who gave the linesman some ridiculous abuse. It really was over the top. We were on our way to the other end shortly after as he still carried on with the rest of his bench. I suggested it was a case of bad finishing.

We continued round and managed to get one of the last seats in the clubhouse at half time. The room was well organised with table service and out pints of Greene King IPA were in excellent form.

We remained at the Clubhouse End for the second half, which was one that we foresaw more goals and certainly saw plenty of action and in which the Pitmen poured on the pressure for long spells.

James Brighton was forced to clear one effort of the Royston line while lots of crosses went into the area without anyone finding a finishing touch. Welch pulled off a couple of good saves, while his teammates also went close at the other end as they eased the workload on their defenders.

We moved near the exit for the final frenetic minutes. Hednesford continued to push for an equaliser, even sending keeper Gregory up for a last gasp corner. The whole team appealed for a penalty for handball and were incandescent with rage when Mr List waived away their appeals.

The final whistle was greeted with relief as Royston collected their first victory of the season. Hednesford would surely consider themselves most unlucky to leave with nothing.

Google Maps was king as we walked across Melbourn Road and went down an alley way known as Butchers Baulk which took us all the way to Kneesworth Street, a short walk from the station as we concentrated on plans for beers.

Steve had checked out a couple of pubs in Hitchin, but they were closed. The Orange Tree in nearby Baldock was highly rated but unfortunately all tables were booked up when my pal phoned them. Instead we settled on getting back to the capital.

I was open to suggestions. Steve offered the King Charles I. It was a fine choice. The small pub was booked up but had a twenty minute space which we gratefully took up. The N1 ale was in fine fettle, as was the waitress and the juke box.

From there we went to The Scottish Stores. I don’t know if I had ever been in a pub that had been transformed as much from a previous guise when I last went in. The entertainment previously offered by The Flying Scotsman had certainly changed!

The ale was OK but the décor and background music superb. Again, the service in difficult times was top class. It was a pleasure to be using pubs in town. We headed to The Barrel Vault Wetherspoons establishment in St Pancras station for at least one beer.

The JHB was perfect. Unfortunately, the Thameslink service towards Hendon was disrupted so our idea of the Midland Hotel had to be abandoned. We remained on site for the rest of the evening, well at least until 9.30pm last orders.

It had been an excellent Saturday out in good company. I certainly slept when I got home!