BARNTON FC (Division One)

Club Website: 

Year formed 1946
Year joined MCFL 1948

Secretary: Mike Allen, 12 Chepstow Close, Winsford, Cheshire
Tel: 01606 554553 (H), 07845 375175 (M)
E-mail: mikesuepaul@supanet.com

Chairman: Mrs Barbara Leicester, 73 Lydyett Lane, Barnton, Cheshire
Tel: 01606 75931(H), 07779 332649 (M)
E-mail: peter.leicester@virgin.net

Manager: Mark Came, 37 Newall Crescent, Winsford, Cheshire CW7 3EY
Tel: 01606 863157 (H), 07870 877746 (M)

Daytime Emergency Contact: Bill Perrin 01606 75279
Child Protection Officer: Barbara Leicester
Club First Aider: Mark Came

 

The History of Barnton F.C.

 

The village of Barnton has a football history going back well over a century. An inscription on the Cheshire Amateur Cup shows Barnton Albion as the winners in 1897. Other team incarnations were to follow with Barnton Villa, Barnton Victoria and Barnton Old Boys all tasting considerable success in local league and cup competitions as photographs in the Barnton club house testify. In 1948, Barnton F.C. became founder members of the newly formed Mid-Cheshire League but they had to wait until the 1952/53 season before they tasted any real success when they were league runners-up, a berth that they have occupied a further five times since. It was not until the 1979/80 season that they first became champions, a title they have won eleven times in all, including an unprecedented run of seven successive league championships between 1996/97 and 2002/03.

Barnton have been the League Challenge Cup winners seven times, the first in 1981/82 and the last in the 2003/04 season, and have been runners-up on four occasions.

The most prestigious of the counties amateur trophies, the Cheshire Amateur Cup, has been taken to the village in 1949, 1969, 2002 and 2004 and the club have reached the final a further three times.

The club were also surprise winners of Mid-Cheshire Senior Cup in 1984, a trophy usually claimed by the district’s more senior sides, beating Northwich Victoria in the final.

The pinnacle of the club’s success came with the winning of the  National League Systems Cup while representing the

Mid-Cheshire League in the inaugural competition of 2003/04, beating  West Cheshire, Liverpool Combination and South Western League opposition along the way before defeating the Cambridgeshire County League 2- 0 on their home soil in the final. They then went on to represent England in the UEFA Regions Cup in Slovenia and Bosnia where they won four, drew one and lost one of their games, narrowly failing to reach the final stages of the competition.

From this high point, the club experienced a dramatic reversal of fortune in the following season and came within a whisker of having to resign from the league due to a combination of circumstances. With only a week remaining before the opening of the new season Barnton acquired the services of a new manager and players were signed enabling their fixtures to be honoured and although relegation was only narrowly avoided, the club’s survival must be regarded as a triumph. Barnton consolidated their league position last year and are now looking forward to further improvement in the new season.

Their big strength lies with the work of the people behind the scenes. It is the efforts of these unpaid volunteers that have kept the club up and running through thick and thin for sixty years. It is worth mentioning the fact that in the last few years the title of Groundsman of the Year has been awarded to two such selfless servants of the club. The work continues however and having made substantial improvements to the playing surface during the close season, the club are currently in the process of upgrading the changing room facilities.

With an eye to the future, the club is forging links with Barnton Youth Football Club and their under 15 team will be playing their fixtures on the ground this season. It is hoped that in the not too distant future some of these young players will be turning out for the senior side and help to maintain the long tradition of football in the village.