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Shirley Town make a splash!

After a long hard, but enjoyable, season we finally got the Shirley Town teams to take a BATH! But we had to throw in a few floats, a couple of water slides and a wave machine, as Shirley Town took to the Pavilions Leisure Centre for their 2009/10 end of season presentation. With the different age ranges across the teams you could see that every one was having a great time in the pool, with the older team members trying very hard not to show it to the younger members but racing them to the top of slides every time.

The coaches were thanked for volunteering their time and all players received an end of season trophy, with special awards presented as follows:

Under 9s

Under 12s

Under 14s

All Bowled Over!

On Thursday 14 May Shirley Town FC held its End of 2008/09 Season Presentation Evening. The Evening was held at Tenpin, Valley Park, Croydon, where the players tried a different kind of ball game! Joined by their families, the players enjoyed an evening bowling and a meal, followed by the presentation of the Trophies for the Season. The Club Committee thanked everyone involved for their hard work and team spirit during the season and especially the Managers and Coaches who are needed to ensure the players get the best possible experience. Each player received their own trophy for playing for the Season and special awards were presented as follows:

Under 8s

Under 11s

Under 13s

For the 2009/10 Season Shirley Town is moving up to Under 9s, Under 12s and Under 14s age groups. Recruitment of new players has already started, but if your son or daughter would like to play for their local team, then they need to come along to training and find out a bit more about us! We train on Tuesday evenings at Shirley High School, so please give me a ring and come along. Matches will start in September and all teams play in the Tandridge League.

The Club is always pleased to welcome parents and adults who have an interest in coaching or refereeing and would like to get involved. We look forward to welcoming you.

Click here to see the pictures.

Andy Stephens
Chairperson
020 8777 5506

Shirley Town goes to the Academy

First things first - we have actually started playing matches again. After a run of one game in 12 weeks thanks to the awful weather that seemed to get worse every Saturday evening rendering pitches from Orpington to Tunbridge Wells to Redhill unplayable, Shirley Town‘s Under11s have now played three Sundays in a row: one narrow defeat, one result that didn‘t reflect the balance of the play and one match that, for legal reasons, I shan‘t even comment on, were not the results that Andy and Gary were looking for but the performances have improved and the two new boys, Alessandro and Miles, have settled in well. Notably, the team have been made very welcome by our new hosts, Shirley High School.

As a Christmas present to the players of all three of our teams, we decided to send them all to the David Beckham Academy for an evening‘s coaching. It‘s such a popular place that we couldn‘t get them in until Tuesday 3 March but it was certainly worth the wait. The Under8s, Under11s and Under13s all made their way to the Academy (right next to the O2) on a horribly wet evening - those that chose to come by car and made it just in time were greeted by the calm faces of those of us who went by train and tube and had been there long enough to buy a full DBA kit for our sons, watch a bit of Sky Sports and spot Junior Sports Under11s across a rather crowded reception hall.

All three teams were given their own coaches (the U11s was a former Croydon FC player, coincidentally) who put them through their paces with a well-planned series of training exercises that tested, and hopefully improved, their ball control, passing ability, spatial awareness and reading of the game. I didn‘t spend much time with the U8s and U13s but they seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as the U11s who were playing some interesting variations of the game, including one where they had to pass it a certain number of times before they could shoot and another strange one that seemed to revolve around the goalkeeper having to have a touch of the ball before anyone could shoot. I think that was something to do with the idea of sometimes looking to pass the ball backwards. I think...

As you can see from the photos below, our U11s paid attention and listened to what Dave was telling them and he was very complimentary about how they behaved and took in most of what they were being told. He was amazed when we told them our league position so, hopefully, that might give them all a bit of hope for the remaining 8 games of the season. Don‘t forget you are welcome to come to Shirley High School and see your team in action one Sunday morning between now and the end of April

U11s 1 U11s 2 U13s 1 U13s 2 U13s 3 U13s 4

Sunday 10th August 2008

Shirley Town‘s Unfeasible Growth Spurt

This time last year, Shirley Town consisted of one team of Under 10s. Newly formed and entered into the Tandridge League Under 10 South division, we had no idea what to expect in terms of opponents, results or anything like that. All we wanted was for the boys to enjoy their football: after all, the club was formed with an ethic in mind: It‘s not about making money, it‘s about the children.

The idea was that over the next few years we‘d look to add teams in different age groups, but that there was no rush. If we got to McDonalds/FA Charter Status sooner than expected, then so be it. One year later and we have four teams.

Shirley Town FC now operates sides at Under 8, Under 11, Under 13 and a "Seniors" side (a nicer way of saying veterans and less age specific than Over 35s). The three boys sides are all in the Tandridge League and you keep informed of how they are all getting on every Monday morning by checking the results section of this website. How we came to "acquire" those other three sides are stories in themselves but you‘ll have to wait until they make the film of the Shirley Town Story. Andy wants Sean Bean to play him with Ray Winstone playing the part of Gary. I‘d quite like they actor who played Patrick in Coupling to be me... And Dane Bowers has already asked to play the part of John, the webmaster. We‘ll see.

Despite our rapid growth, the ethic is still the same (except for children bit for the Seniors, obviously). Enjoyment. Yes, good results and are nice and you only had to see the look on the faces of last season‘s under 10s after what was their 8th successive defeat, trudging off the pitch, soaked to the skin, to know that losing is not what it&quo;s all about (whoever said it‘s not the winning, it‘s the taking part was clearly only ever a member of a winning side). But we&ksquo;re not about making money and never will be. Any money this club makes will be hypothecated (one of my favourite words) and used for club stuff. The three older sides all have new kit for this season, the Under 8s have got last year‘s U10 shirts, new shorts and new socks but soon there‘ll be photos on here of all four sides, resplendent in their red, white and black Prostar kits.

We‘re very grateful to Royal Russell School for extending their hospitality to the use of three pitches - Dr John Jennings, Mr Paul Barlow, Mr Patrick Windsor-Brown and Mr Phil Venier in particular have between them made our first season and our first close-season a pleasurable one. We‘d also like to extend our thanks to our new and existing sponsors:

If you are just visiting the site - thanks. If you are with a team we‘re about to play, then may the best team win but hopefully you didn‘t learn too much!

Have a good season,

Kevin
Secretary, Shirley Town FC

Tuesday 11th September 2007

Andy & Kevin have a mayor...

Andy receives the cheque.

We haven‘t even kicked a competitive ball yet and already we have won award. Last night Shirley Town chairman/manager Andy Stephens and club secretary Kevin Borras were presented with a cheque for £250, awarded to us as part of the Barclays Let‘s Do It campaign. A total of 19 awards were handed out, totalling £10,000, and there were times when we did feel a little bit unworthy of our windfall. Other cheques were given to clubs for the mentally disabled and educationally challenged, over 60s fundraising groups, singles clubs (hello to the Twirlies) and a number of Scout troupes, but if you buy this Friday‘s (14 Sept) edition of the Croydon Advertiser you‘ll see us being formally presented with the grant by the Mayor of Croydon and a representative of Barclays. In the meantime here‘s a photo of Andy holding the cheque. We have promised to spend it on "equipment" and both Barclays and the Croydon Advertiser will be reporting on our progress during the season, so spending it all on a parent‘s Christmas party is apparently a big no-no. The award came about while our treasurer and child protection officer Beverley was queuing in Barclays and happened upon a form which spoke of a Let‘s Do It cash award for local community groups. Beverley filled it in, handed it over and Bob‘s your history. Or the rest is uncle. Or whatever. The only downside to the whole thing was that the organisation we beat to win the award is run by Beverley‘s mum, but hey, there‘s no place for sentiment round here...


Monday 23rd July 2007

Following our election to the Tandridge League and placement in the eleven-team U10 South Division we can confirm that our opponents next season will be Chislehurst Wanderers, Croydon FC Youth B, Croydon Junior B Lions, Darwin Evolution, Orpington Blue, Orpington Rovers B, Otford Youth, Redhill Premier, Sevenoaks Town Colts, and Tonbridge Invicta Hurricanes.

There are 8 divisions at this level; A, B, C, D and four regionalised divisions.

The league season starts on Sunday 23rd September and the first two fixtures have been announced.

See Fixtures page for more details.