MICKLEHAM Football Club will soon be celebrating its centenary. The club joined the Dorking and District Football League in July 1913, playing their first match on September 20, away to Ashtead Reserves, although the result of that match is now lost in the mists of time.
Mickleham were soon warned for approaching players from other clubs. Nothing changes in football.
In 1914, the League was suspended ". . . until such time as things became normal".
A similar suspension of the Dorking League occurred during the Second World War.
The club's original colours were red and black stripes which, over the next 100 years, changed to maroon and blue, but the date of the switch cannot be ascertained. By 1988, the colours were green and black stripes and presently are green and white stripes.
"The Micks" have always played "down Swanworth Lane", albeit in three different locations.
The Dorking League Handbook for 1919-20 gives the club secretary as T. Viney of School House, Mickleham, and the dressing rooms as the Running Horse Inn.
Dick Richards, writing in the Dorking Advertiser in June 1970, on the occasion of the opening of Mickleham's new pavilion in Swanworth Lane, talks of George Soane, then aged 73, being one of three former players known to be still living in the village, the others being Tom Abbot and Boy Batchelor.
George recalled changing under a hedge in his day and added: ". . . the players of my day could not compete with the speed and skills of the present day."
Three generations of the Soane family played for the club.
Little is known of the Micks during the inter-war period. They were known as Mickleham "Imps" (or Mickleham Junior Imperial) at this time, but the reason is no longer known to the current committee. Can any readers help with this query or fill in other gaps in the club's history?
The club was re-formed after the Second World War by Reg Haynes, helped by Peter Randell. Reg married Lily Cruickshank, whose family had moved from the north east of the country to Dorking in the 1930s seeking work. The Cruickshank boys, together with the Soanes and Dunns of Dell Close, formed the backbone of the Micks then, with the first team joining the Sutton League in 1955 and the reserves continuing in the Dorking League.
All nine Dunn brothers – John, Cyril, Bill, Brian, Peter, Bumble, Graham, Steve and Malcolm – wore the "maroon and blue". A few years ago, Steve remembered Saturdays in the 1960s and the roles of the brothers too young to play.
He remembered the day he was allowed to carry the match ball down Swanworth Lane, before the "real" job would start, clearing all the cows off the pitch.
"Don't forget to flatten the mole hills" would be another order, Steve reminisced.
"Half time would approach and there would be a mass exodus out of the cowshed. There was bound to be an unfinished cigarette still alight on the ground. Always beaten to them by the bigger boys! "When the football finished and there'd been another Mickleham win, everyone would be happy. We'd get home, get the football back out onto the "rec" and re-enact the game. . ."
Box Hill School arrived in Mickleham in 1959 and took over the existing pitch. It meant the club moving to the other side of Swanworth Lane and playing on a field belonging to club president, Gordon-Clark. This land was later bequeathed to the National Trust with the Micks secure in its use in perpetuity.
The pavilion built here in 1970 is now in poor condition and the teams have used the "old" Box Hill School changing facilities since combining with the school's "Old Boys" to become Mickleham Old Boxhillians in 1999.
The school has been maintaining the pitch and providing players since the late 1960s, when Colin Burn, a newly-arrived teacher, played his first game for Mickleham. His last was some 40 years later.
In 1967, club chairman Ron Etherington was coaching local boys, resulting in a "Micks" youth team being one of the original sides in the Leatherhead and District Sunday Youth League.
In 1971, Mickleham, successful in the Dorking League over many seasons, seeking a new challenge, joined the Redhill League.
A Sunday side played in the Leatherhead League in the mid-1970s.
From the 1970s, the increasing lack of housing in this designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty meant that fewer players were coming from the village. The club now attracted members from a wider area and Westcott provided ace goalkeeper Neil Cheesman and the redoubtable Venn brothers – Geoff, John and David – who, together with a strong contingent of "old boys" from the school, formed the nucleus of a powerful team. The Micks won the Dorking Junior Charity Cup, open to all relevant clubs in the area, eight times between 1989 and 2004.
In 1999 the club joined the London Old Boys League. The first team currently play in Division One South of the Amateur Football Combination (AFC) and the reserves in AFC Division 7 South.
One hundred years on and the Micks still play "down Swanworth Lane". The beautiful game, well sometimes, played in a beautiful place.
The centenary of this fine club will be celebrated on Sunday, September 1, with football activities to suit all ages and a party at the Running Horses pub at the top of Swanworth Lane.
Were you a Mick? Do you know any old players? Send your recollections and come along in September. Contact Chris Kohler on 01306 886407 or e-mail him at cornflwr@corn flwr.demon.co.uk
