CLUB HISTORY
15 Oct 2010

Founded in 1860, Cray Wanderers FC holds the distinction of being the second oldest football club in the world, and they will be celebrating their 150th anniversary in 2010. Sheffield, in 1857, is the oldest club. Notts County, founded 1862, is the oldest Football League club.

The first origins of Cray Wanderers are linked to the construction of the London, Chatham & Dover railway line during 1858 to 1860. During their leisure time, workers kicked a ball around, and that is how the club originated in the St Mary Cray village. The pitch at Star Lane is now a cemetery, and is located beneath the nine-arch railway viaduct that spans the Cray Valley. The industrial belt of the River Cray, especially paper mills, provided much of the club's support up till the 1950s.

Cray Wanderers were a strong force in senior county football at the turn of the century. After being Kent Junior Cup semi-finalists and finalists in 1890/91 and 1891/92 they entered the first ever FA Amateur Cup competition in 1893/94. They had a spell as a professional club between 1895 and 1907. They were a nursery club for Woolwich Arsenal during part of this period. They were one of the founder members of the Kent League in 1894/95, and they won the championship in 1901/02. Other honours included Southern Suburban League champions in 1898/99, West Kent League champions in 1903/04, and Kent Senior Cup runners-up in 1899/1900. Also worth a mention is Cray reaching the final of the Sevenoaks Charity Cup in 1895/96. The match was played at the famous Crystal Palace ground, which was the Victorian equivalent of playing at Wembley! Cray lost to Sheppey in the final.

After World War One, Cray switched to the London League where they remained till 1934. In 1930/31 they won the Kent Amateur Cup. Cray rejoined the Kent League in 1934/35, but their four year stay came to grief when 1937 saw the loss of the Fordcroft ground in Cray Avenue, their home since 1898. Cray were forced to drop into a lower level of football, drifting from one temporary pitch to another while the club committee dwindled to a perilously small number. The team struggled badly in the South London Alliance and the Kent Amateur League.

1951/52 heralded a new era, and an upturn in the club's fortunes, when local businessman Mick Slater took over at the helm. The club was elected to the London League and regained its senior status. Cray moved to a new ground at Grassmeade in 1954. Their stay there was a very successful period in the club's history. Drawing extra support from the commuter town of Orpington, they played in the London League and then the Aetolian League. They were three times crowned champions, won the League Cup twice, and also won the Kent Amateur Cup three times.

Cray switched to the semi-professional Metropolitan League for five seasons commencing in 1966/67. Playing against the "A" teams of Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham, they encountered budding young stars such as Charlie George and Trevor Brooking. Cray won the Metropolitan League Cup in 1970/71. In 1971/72 the Met London League was created by a merger of the Metropolitan League and the Greater London League.

Cray moved to Oxford Road, on the borders of Bexley, Footscray and Sidcup, in 1973/74. Johnny Biddle and Jimmy Wakeling proved to be successful managers. In 1974/75 Cray won the Met London League and League Cup, scoring 170 goals in all matches that season. In 1976/77 and 1977/78 Cray won the London Spartan League championship.

Cray decided to return to the Kent League in 1978/79. They remained there until 2004. Success came quickly because Cray won the championship in 1980/81, having been runners-up the year before. The 1979/80 season will be better remembered for Cray's feats in the FA Vase. New manager Harry Richardson steered his team to the Vase quarter final before defeat by eventual winners Stamford.

After that, the 1980s decade brought only one more piece of silverware, the Kent League Cup in 1983/84. For the 125th anniversary celebration in 1985/86, the Wands staged three prestigious friendly matches that drew an aggregate attendance of more than 1,000 spectators to Oxford Road. The opposing sides were Arsenal, Charlton Athletic and Wimbledon. The ex-England skipper Gerry Francis played in the Wimbledon team.

After finishing Kent League runners up in 1990/91, Cray had a lean period during most of the 1990s, with the exception of 1992/93 when they won the Kent Senior Trophy. On the day that Cray took the field at Gillingham in the final, they were bottom of the table in the Kent League, but they beat Whitstable Town 1-0 and they subsequently improved their league placing.

A new club chairman Gary Hillman arrived in 1994/95 and the club has prospered ever since, althought they had to overcome a serious crisis in 1998/99 when the Kent League enforced their new rule that all Premier Division member clubs must have floodlights. Like many of their neighbouring clubs in the built-up metropolis of North Kent, the Wands couldn't comply. A ground share with Bromley FC at Hayes Lane was arranged, and so began another new era for a club whose name of 'Wanderers' seems to be very appropriate! The club duly played its first team matches at Hayes Lane but maintained its headquarters at Oxford Road for reserve team fixtures.

Ian Jenkins, a Cray player since 1993, was appointed manager in 1999 since which time the Wands have literally gone "onwards and upwards". The 2002/03 season became the most successful ever in Cray's history at that time. It was the season of the "double double". Cray's first team won the Kent League championship and the Kent League Cup. The reserve team repeated this feat, winning the Division One (North) championship and the Division One League Cup. But better was to come in the 2003/04 season, when the Wands retained the Kent League championship and also won the Kent Senior Trophy, having been losing finalists in the two previous seasons. They also reached the quarter finals of the FA Vase again, but were knocked out by eventual finalists AFC Sudbury in extra time. But as champions again of the Kent League, the Wands achieved their key target of securing promotion to the Ryman Division One via the new restructure of the Ryman League in 2004/05.

Finishing sixth in the table in an exciting first season of Ryman League football, the Wands went into the promotion play-offs but were defeated at Horsham in the semi-final. The next two seasons were a slight anti-climax, finishing in mid-table, although Jenko's Army did enjoy a memorable FA Cup run in 2005/06 reaching the 4QR for the first-ever time in the club's history. A 2-0 defeat at Conference table-toppers Grays Athletic was a worthy effort by the Wands.

The push for promotion into the Ryman Premier was renewed in 2007/08, but despite creating a club record of 26 games unbeaten in the League, the Wands could only finish third in the table and were heartbreakingly pipped by Tooting & Mitcham who won the play-off final 1-0.

Season 2008/09 saw the Wands' determination finally rewarded when they secured promotion via the play-offs. After finishing second in the table they defeated Worthing 1-0 in the play-off semi-final and then triumphed 1-0 against Met Police with 37-year-old Simon Osborn scoring the winning goal.

These are exciting times for the world's second oldest club who will be marking their 150th anniversary as members of the Ryman Premier League, the highest level they have ever played at in their history. Moreover, the ambitious Wands have announced a project to build a new ground at Sandy Lane in St Paul's Cray, taking them back to their homeland in the Crays where they started in 1860. The target date is 2014 for playing at the new stadium.