Colours |
1st Team : Green shirts, black shorts, green socks
Reserves : Green shirts, black shorts, green socks
‘A’ Team : Green shirts, black shorts, green socks
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Club History |
During the 1895-96 football season, whilst Aston Villa was winning Division 1 of the Football League, East Bergholt FC was born! It is believed we played at Eleys Corner. In 1902 the club was known to have played in Red and white striped shirts, it is likely that the team only played in friendly and cup matches as they were not registered with any known leagues.
In 1907/08 we joined the Ipswich and District League and we must have been quite successful in those friendly matches as we went straight into Division 1, there being no premier division at the time. What was interesting was to know was that Division 2 contained the likes of Woodbridge Town and Hadleigh United!
With the problems of the 1909/10 and the outbreak of the Great War, we did not rejoin the Ipswich and District League until the 1920/21 season. The clubs first post war match was at home to Wolsey Works on the 1st September 1920 with a 3.30PM kick off. The pitch was still on Highlands Road and the teams changed at the White Horse Hotel.
Mixed results led to indifferent seasons, however results started to improve leading up to the 1930s and there was also a change of club colours to Claret and Blue. Later on these changed to Green with a White collar, Green and White stripes, Amber and Black before a return to the now traditional club colour of Green.
The 30s were more successful than the 20s except for the season before the outbreak of war where we finished last in the second division.
In the 1947/48 season, we saw a number of young men return to Civvy Street and after playing with professional players in various forces sides, were eager to put their newfound skills to use in the Ipswich and District League. Bergholt found themselves in division 2 and finished 4th with 28 points from 20 games.
1950/51 saw the Ipswich and District League form a Premier Division for the first time and this has continued to the present day and was probably a factor in us going up to Division 1, even though we had only finished 3rd in our section (Division 2B). Mixed seasons followed and at the end of the season 60/61 under rules agreed in the AGM, we should have been relegated to Division 4. However, we were still in Division 3A and rightly so as we nearly took the section title! Unfortunately, Ranelagh Road Old Boys, were just too strong for us, but we did score 111 goals that season and achieved the runners up spot which gave us promotion into Division 2.
1966/67 saw us take our place in Division 1 and the team did not disgrace themselves by finishing 5th only missing out on the runners up spot by 2 points! In 72/73, disaster hit the first team as they plummeted through division 2 and finished second from bottom with only 12 points. In 77/78, the first team got back into Division 1 after finishing runners up to Fonnereau Athletic.
In season 81/82, the first team had a good year finishing 4th in Division 2, just missing out on promotion. Our division was really strong and included both Whitton United and Diss Town who now compete in the Ridgeons League Division 1. In 1986/87 we won the Samford Cup, beating Tattingstone in the Final.
In the late 80s we experienced bleak times and were relegated to division 2 and 3 and only escaped division 4 by the skin of our teeth.
So dawned the 90s with the club at probably its lowest point in its history. However, things brightened up and season 91/92 was successful with the first team romping away in Division 3 only losing one game and scoring 99 goals. Again we won the Samford Cup, beating local rivals Capel Plough 4-0.
In 1993 Mike Bacon (now the editor of the Green Un) was elected to become new secretary and the club experienced an upturn in fortunes. In 1996/97 the senior team had a good season and the first team were the best junior club in the McNeil Cup, losing 3-2 to Framlingham Town in the quarter final and consolidated their position in Division 1.
The new millennium arrived and hopes were high as Tony Hall was installed as Manager and the club were Senior Division triple champions 2003/04, 2004/05 & 2005/06.
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