‘Old Bealonians Football Club’, now known as ‘Bealonians FC’ was founded in 1936.
We are an FA Chartered Standard Club at Development Level, soon to be pursuing the Community Level.
We originated from ‘Beal’ school in South Woodford, Essex , and up until 1997 we operated out of the clubhouse in Wards Rd , Ilford. Essex . We have gone from owning our own clubhouse for many many years, to first becoming residents at ‘Elmbridge Sports & Social Club’ in Forest Rd , Hainault. Essex and then in 2004 a new move to Redbridge Sports Centre for the foreseeable future, which is also in Forest Rd, but further down next to Fairlop Station. We are currently running 8 adult teams. 7 sides in the recently formed ‘Amateur Football Combination ‘ and a Vets side in the ‘Vets Football Alliance’. We also occasionally put out a Super Vets side (over 45’s).
The AFC was formed from the amalgamation of the Southern Olympian League and the London Old Boys Football League, in 2002. The Senior side of the Football Club on a whole in the last few years has done quite well for themselves. 1996-97 saw the 3rd Xl win the League, the League cup and came runners-up in the AFA cup. In the 1998-99 season the 1st & 2nd Xl were both league division winners and the 3rd Xl were runners-up in the League Cup. Season 99-2000 has seen the 3rd X1 once again take the SOL Junior League Cup. 2000-01 wasn’t a good season for any club, because of the terrible weather we all had but it did see the 5th X1 win the league and the 1st X1 lose out in the final of the Essex Senior AFA Cup. 2001-2002 saw the 1st X1 and the 5th X1 win the league, the 5th X1 also runners-up in the League Cup. 2002/03 season saw the beginning of the newly formed AFC and our 1st X1 were faring pretty well in Senior 1 right up to the last few games.
No silver for season (2003-2004) for us, after seeing our 3rd X1 lose in the final of the London Old Boys Cup. But we are going forward in development for the teams and we should see the results coming in soon.
2004-2005 saw our 1st X1 get promoted to the Premier division after winning the Senior 1 division. 2006-07 saw the 3rd XI win the league this season as well under Carlos O Connor and Graham Shepherd. 2008-09 was a great season for the club with the 1st XI winning the Premier Division of the AFC, the 2nd XI winning the league and getting promoted to Senior Football. Our U18’s XI also won the AFA Cup. This season 2009-10 saw the 1st XI invited to the Greenland Cup and went on to win it.
Club training for the seniors is at Redbridge Sports Centre, on a Tuesday evening. We are trying to encourage more players to join (younger players) and replace some of the ageing (but still skilful and energetic I might add) playing members we field today. As everybody knows, you need youth to carry on the future and to maintain an even balance between the teams therefore we encourage and support them as much as possible. Hopefully we look to our youth sides coming through into the seniors to maintain the club for many years to come.
We started our Youth Project in 2001 and have approx 232 youngsters attending our coaching sessions on Saturday mornings as well as during the week in the evenings, from 4yrs old to 15yrs old, playing their matches on Sundays. We started playing our first youth league matches for season 2002-2003 in the Echo League and the Barking & Dagenham League.
Gary Lazarus is Secretary of this section of the Club, and because of the size of the club now, we also have a Football Development Officer, Bill Blackwell . Bill was also selected to be the Coach/Manager for the AFA U18 side for the season 2007-08. We need to plan ahead for both the Senior and the Youth sides. Incorporating this idea has just seen the club reach a total of 39 qualified Coaches/Managers at different levels. Hopefully we can progress from here and raise the standard of football across the whole of the club.
On the Youth side, we saw four Cup finals in the season 2003-2004 but unfortunately had no wins there, and the last season, 2004-2005 saw us in two cup finals, both won by us, and we had three league winners, with one of the teams doing the double.
The club tries hard to ensure we have a Senior club tour every 2 years. 2002 saw the Club on a Football Tour of Antwerp ( Belgium) and Bergen (Holland ). Luckily everyone got back in time for the start of the season. A few hiccups in Belgium which were soon sorted by lending the opposition a couple of players but Bergen as always put on a splendid show for us in football and hospitality and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it!
2004 saw the Club on a tour of Cologne ( Germany) over the May Bank Holiday. The score lines were justified, but the referees were definitely not and the hospitality left everything to be desired. Not one offer of a beer from any team we played, even to buy from them!
2006 and we had our first ‘tour in the sun’ when 53 of us headed off to Spain and stayed in Lloret De Mar. Unfortunately we only won 1 game and drew 1 out of 5, but we certainly did some male bonding over the 4 days. Unfortunately you have to be there to see what went on as ‘what happens on tour, stays on tour’!
We have a limited number of functions throughout the season, which we use for fund raising and sometimes just for fun, which can be seen on the functions and events page of this website for dates etc.
Members, friends and family are all welcome. Our main function each year being the Annual Presentation Dinner (Saturday) normally held at the end of May or beginning of June, where we all dress up in our finest attire. We also have a full array of trophies to present to members who are the worthy winners of the season. The Youth team’s presentations now vary as to what activities are introduced, due to the amount we have and in particular of late, the weather.
2006 saw the club celebrate it’s 70th Anniversary and hopefully we shall all be around to celebrate its Centenary as well!
