| Full name | Camberley Town Football Club | ||
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| Nickname(s) | The Krooners | ||
| Founded | 1895 (as St. Michael's, Camberley) | ||
| Ground | Krooner Park, Camberley (Capacity: 2,500) |
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| Chairman | Ronnie Wilson | ||
| Manager | Darren Barnard | ||
| League | Combined Counties League Premier Division |
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| 2010–11 | Combined Counties League Premier Division, 4th |
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Camberley Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club from the town of Camberley in Surrey. Founded in 1895 as St. Michael's, Camberley F.C., the club was renamed Camberley & Yorktown F.C. in 1901. A further change of name occurred after the Second World War, when the club was simply called Camberley F.C.
During the 1960s Camberley were struggling financially whilst another club in the town, Camberley Wanderers, had money but no home ground. Wanderers had been a youth only club from their formation in 1950 until 1965 when they entered an adult side into the Parthenon League. After two seasons as an adult team their committee decided it made sense to merge with Camberley to become Camberley Town F.C. The merger took place on June 2, 1967.[1]
The club currently runs two senior sides. The first team play in the Combined Counties League Premier Division, the reserves play in the Suburban League North Division.
Camberley Town also make ties with the local community by having a youth section which has achieved The FA's Charter Standard Community Club award.[2] Camberley Town Youth F.C. was originally formed in 1973 as Crawley Raiders. They formally affiliated with Camberley Town in 1993.[3] The youth section now has over 20 teams for boys and girls from the under 6 to under 18 age groups.
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Camberley Town play their home matches at Krooner Park in south-west Camberley. The ground was paid for with the winnings of a horse named Krooner who won two races at Haydock Park in 1920. It was officially opened on December 26, 1923. Before then the team played their matches on a variety of grounds including the London Road Recreation Ground, Martins Meadow and Southwell Park Road. The latter two sites are now covered by housing. Due to financial difficulties Krooner Park was sold back to the local Council in 1939 with the Council guaranteeing the ground be retained in perpetuity and as so long as the club is in existence the ground would be rented to them in priority to any other body.[4]
Floodlights were installed at the ground in 1974 with the first floodlit match being a friendly against Crystal Palace on October 14. The attendance wasn't counted on the night but estimates put the crowd at between 3100 and 3500. This is believed to be a record for the ground. The highest counted and confirmed attendance at Krooner Park was 2066 on November 10, 1992 when the newly formed Aldershot Town visited for an Isthmian League game.
Club honours include various league titles, such as the Surrey Senior League three years running in the early 1930s, and a few local cups including the Surrey Senior Cup in 1979 and the Aldershot Senior Cup, which they have won three times. In national competitions, the club's best performance in the FA Cup came in 1997–98 when they won through to the First Round Proper, before losing 5–0 at Brentford.
Their best FA Vase performance came in 1985–86, when they reached the quarter-finals, losing 3–1 at eventual winners Halesowen Town.
Camberley have only appeared in the FA Trophy three times. Each time ended in defeat and Camberley have yet to score a goal in the competition.
Notable past players include Archie Turner who went on to represent England in 1900 and 1901, current ITV chief executive Adam Crozier who made three appearances for the first team in February 1992, Ron Tindall, Phil Stant and current Basingstoke Town striker Tim Sills.
Ex-Wales international defender Darren Barnard, who played professionally for Chelsea , Barnsley, Bristol City and Reading joined Camberley Town as a player and Director of football in 2007. In May 2010 he became joint manager of the first team along with Paul Miles. In October 2011 Miles resigned his position leaving Barnard as manager.
Another former Chelsea player, Steve Finnieston, made an appearance and scored in a friendly in August 1991 but he never played a competitive game for the first team.
In 1983 Rick Wakeman became the club's chairman while he was living in Camberley. He remained in this post until 1986 when he was elected Vice-President. He left the club when he moved to the Isle Of Man in 1988.
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