Harefield United F.C.

Harefield United F.C. are an English football club based in Harefield in the London Borough of Hillingdon. They joined Division Two of the Athenian League in 1975 and reached the quarter-finals of the FA Vase in the 1989-90 season. They are currently members of the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division.

History

Founded in 1868 Harefield United Football Club is the oldest in the historic county of Middlesex.

The club has had a number of names throughout its history, one of the earliest being Harefield Victoria where the local paper of 1891 has a match report of a 1-0 win over Rickmansworth Rovers, the goal being scored by G Harland. The team was D Collett (goal), C Milton and J Varcos (backs), A Oates and J P Richardson (half backs), C Brown Jnr and G Webster (centres), W Prickett, G Winship, C Armour and G Harland (forwards).

One of the next names was Breakspear Institute FC, who played in the local Uxbridge leagues. The oldest copy of a document is the minutes of their AGM held in 1897. We also have early team photographs of Breakspear from 1903 showing some of the many honours won at the turn of the century. There is also a programme from 1922 when Breakspear and Harefield played against each other in front of 1922 people. The merger with Harefield FC was in 1934 when the team became Harefield United. However, they are one of those longstanding clubs who has had success on the football field but little at the senior level.

Harefield United originally played in local leagues, including the Uxbridge & District League, before the team progressed to the Great Western Combination in 1947. During the years spent in the U&DL Harefield United managed to win Division 3, the Uxbridge Junior Cup and Uxbridge Premier Cup.

The club spent nearly twenty years in the Great Western Combination league winning Division 2 in their first year along with the Chesham Cup. The Club winning Division 1 in 1951 followed this. The Reserves had their success during the 1960s in the Great Western Combination Reserve Divisions. Harefield's next bit of silverware came after a move to the Parthenon League in 1964, the Championship being won in the debut campaign. . After two season the 'Hares' moved on to the Middlesex League and it was in that competition that they had their most successful period to date. The league Championship was won on 4 occasions between 1966 and 1971 and the League Cup was also taken twice in that period.

1975 saw Harefield accepted into the Athenian League where they remained for nine seasons. It was period of slow consolidation for the 'Hares' who eventually claimed the Runners-up spot in 1983/84, so earning themselves the right to a place in the newly expanded Isthmian League. United became founder members of the Division Two (North) in 1984/85 and played in that Division for two seasons before changing over to Division Two (South), the Club being caught up in the no-man's land where the boundaries of the regionalised divisions met.

Harefield struggled to make an impact in Division Two (North), finishing 18th out of the twenty clubs in both of the two campaigns spent in that Division. However, the change to the South section led to better performances and in 1986/7 they finished in 10th place out of 21 clubs, this was followed by a final placing of 13th the next season and then in season 1988/89 the 'Hares' were 5th. They dropped to a disappointing 12th the following campaign, but the final year of the regionalised leagues saw 7th place achieved. This meant that Harefield had made the cut off point for qualification to play in the first year of the newly formed Isthmian League Division Two the following season.

The new division was a struggle for the Middlesex Club and they just missed relegation in the first year, but the next season were demoted along with Southall to Division 3. Despite this setback, the achievements of the Club in recent years have been quite remarkable considering that Harefield is a comparatively isolated location with a small population and consequently small crowds. The record attendance at Preston Park is 430, for a FA Vase tie against Bashley, which the Hares won 1-0. 1995–96 proved to be the last in the Isthmian League. Due to lack of funds to carry out ground improvements, the 'Hares' resigned from the League in November and were allocated to the Spartan League for season 1996–97.

The Hares spent one season in the Spartan League before it merged with the South Midlands League. There were two Premier Divisions in the first season, and the clubs, which finished in the top half of each Division, formed the Premier Division for the following season. Unfortunately the Hares only managed 11th position so they had to play in the Senior Division (now changed to Division 1). However, in 2002 the Hares gained promotion to the Premier, finally missing out on the League Championship by just one point. The consolation was beating the league champions, Greenacres, 4-1 in the final of the League Cup. There then followed more success during 2002–03 season, winning the Challenge Trophy, beating Dunstable Town (the league winners) 4-1 over two legs. The Hares also reached the final of the Premier League Cup and finished 4th. The Club also had good runs in both the FA Cup and FA Vase, beating Isthmian League sides on the way. This success continued during 2003–04 with a SSM Premier League Cup win, 1-0 against Brook House, and getting beaten 2-1 (aet) by Wealdstone in the Middlesex Senior Charity Cup.

External links

• Website