Away Days

The last couple of seasons have seen a marked increase in the number of fans following Whitley Bay on their travels, this section is designed to give you as much information as possible about our opposition, the local area and also will develop to allow fans to car share, arrange bus travel and offer any other tips to help your fellow fans.

Whitley travel to Chertsey on Saturday 6th February for an FA Vase tie and given the distance involved I was keen to get this page up and running in advance so please bear with us as new features will be added in due course. A big thank you to Chertsey and in particular their secretary Chris Gay for the information.

Transport

Supporters Coach

The club has arranged supporters coaches to Chertsey and these are filling up, we are now taking bookings for the 2nd coach with 1 already full. If you are interested in travelling on one of these buses then please contact the club on 0191 291 3637.

They are due to leave Hillheads at 7.00am and returning after the game at approximately 5.45/6.00pm. They should get back to Hillheads around midnight. The cost is £26.

Independant Travel

If you are making your own way to Chertsey then please be aware than the ground is in a residential area and parking at the ground is very limited. The advice is to park to the North of the ground on Staines Lane where free parking is available.

Further Parking is available in Heriot Road at the rear of the shopping centre, by the health club and in Gogmore Farm Recreation Ground. Walk via Gogmore Lane and Windsor Street.

For Sat Nav users, the postcode of the ground is KT16 9DW

Driving Directions from the M25

• Leave M25 J11 sign posted Chertsey.
• On leaving the motorway take A317 (St. Peter’s Way) sign posted Weybridge.
• At the next roundabout take 1st exit sign posted Chertsey.
• Stay in the left hand lane and turn left at the traffic lights into Eastworth Road.
• At the mini roundabout turn right into Free Prae Road, this will bear left into Pound Road.
• At the junction at the end of the road turn left into London Street.
• Straight on at the next mini roundabout.
• Go past Ye Olde Swan Pub and turn left just after that into Alwyn’s Lane.

It is also worth noting that the England Rugby team are playing nearby at Twickenham that day at 5.00pm so don’t try to go to London via the M3 & A316 at that time.

Walking directions from Chertsey Train Station

On foot from the railway station, walk out of the station car park near the taxi ranks, turn left and head up Guildford Street. At the end of Guildford Street (with the church in front of you) turn left into London Street. Walk along past Ye Olde Swan Pub and then Left into Alwyns Lane.

The Town

The town is quite small, almost a village in fact. The ground which is tucked just behind the shopping area, five minutes walk away (Windsor Street and Guildford Street). These two streets support a number of pubs which are all small. The railway station is about ten minutes walk away

The clubhouse will be open from 1.00pm and is inside the ground so you have to gain entry first. At a real push, it can take about 100.

The Surrounding Area

If anyone has a bit of time to spare, Windsor Castle and Windsor Great Park are about 20 minutes away by car (a good locals boozer The Sun, is in a rural setting in Wick Road Englefield Green TW20 OUF, they are friends of the club). Runnymede Fields (Magna Carta and all that) is just down the road but of little note. The River Thames makes a pleasant visit in summer but is a bit bleak at the moment. Chertsey Lock and weir is about a half hour walk from the ground but there are a couple of eateries adjacent (The Boathouse and The Kingfisher).

A Brief History of Chertsey Town

Organised football was evident in Chertsey well over a century ago but county affiliation did not take place immediately. The official founding of the club took place in 1890 when matches were played in the West Surrey League. The first success came in 1897 when the Surrey Junior Cup was secured. A one year gap took place before football resumed in the same competition which eventually became the East and West Surrey League. A further halt in football took place during the Great War but soon after, in 1919, the club joined the Surrey Intermediate League where it stayed, uneventfully, until 1939 and a further break. An invitation to become founder members of the Surrey Senior League was not taken up in 1923 but membership was later assumed, on attaining senior status in 1946.

The club has played at various locations within the parish (Willow Walk, Free Prae Road Staines Lane and Chilsey Green) before settling down at the present home in 1929. The suffix ‘Town’ was added to its title some 21 years later. The ground was donated by Sir Edward Stern as a football ground to the ‘premier club in the parish’. Next door, a similar trust provides facilities for Chertsey Cricket Club. The main stand was constructed in the mid fifties; the original clubhouse added in 1960 and the first covered enclosure was built some three years later. Cover behind one goal was added in 1994.

Although Chertsey gained membership of the Surrey Senior League immediately after the second world war, it was not until the 1959/60 season that success came with the league championship. This was repeated twice in the next three years, a halcyon period when the League Cup was also won on three occasions. Due to the static nature of amateur football in those days, the club could not progress to the preferred Corinthian League so, in 1963, it was controversially decided to turn professional and enter the Metropolitan League. Although an entertaining three years were then enjoyed, the cost was too much to bear and a return to the lower levels of the Greater London League for one season occurred before a further shift to the Spartan League was made in 1967.

Indifferent results then dogged the club for almost two decades. This situation was briefly relieved in 1974/75 when the club were league and league cup runners up to an up an coming Farnborough Town.. Meanwhile, the fabric of the club was being built up behind the scenes and despite lack of prominence on the park, movement was made via the London Spartan (1975/76) and Athenian leagues through to the Isthmian family with a place in Division Two South in 1984. Instant relegation to the Combined Counties League was suffered but a rejuvenated side won promotion back to Isthmian ranks within the year whilst winning the League Cup on the way.

The club was rewarded with good league positions but further promotion denied at first. The worst season after returning to the Isthmians came when the two Division Twos were split in 1991 and a place in the new Division Three had to suffice. This position was quickly rectified with a runner’s up slot seven years ago. The club also reached the quarter finals of the F.A. Vase, emulating a similar performance in 1987/88. One year later, 102 points and a runner’s up promotion place to Division One was nailed. The League Cup was also secured together with the Carlsberg Trophy in the same campaign along with the League Charity Shield.

Only one campaign was required in Division One before further promotion, to the Premier Division was secured behind Boreham Wood and Worthing. The first season in the Premier Division was one of consolidation with nine points to spare but the second was far more difficult. Although a late rally was experienced, it proved insufficient to avoid the drop to Division One. Two subsequent Division One campaigns saw the side comfortably occupy positions just over the half way mark each time but the third proved too difficult after a very poor first half of the season.

Relatively respectable positions were attained for the next two seasons and then a return to Division One, taking a place in the revised south section in the Isthmian re-organisation. The side was not able to compete at this level and relegation to Division Two was suffered in 2003. After a slow start, a serious challenge was made the following season but the side had for settle for a position just outside a promotion place. With the dissolution of the division, the club was allocated to Combined Counties League in 2006. Similar promotion hopeful situations has been created over the last three terms with the side finishing in attacking positions on each occasion.

Chertsey Town’s nickname, the ‘Curfews’ is derived from a locally famous bell that hangs in the nearby St. Peters Church. The bell has rung out the evening curfew, now ceremoniously of course, for over five hundred years.

The team is currently managed by Spencer Day with Matt Paterson (head coach) and Jack Paterson. The Chairman is Steve Powers. The Under Eighteens manager is Marty Pearce and his team competes in the Southern Youth League. The club has fully amalgamated with Chertsey Town Juniors FC who provide for the younger year groups and all age groups now come under the Chertsey Town FC banner with each age group wearing the same kit throughout.