Whilst the town's largest youth football club Tonbridge Juniors head towards their 29th anniversary this summer, the Tonbridge Juniors name has been used before. The team name Tonbridge Juniors was used for the minor teams of the original Tonbridge Football Club dating back over 130 years!
Tonbridge Juniors - Tonbridge Association Football Club - 1888/89
It wasn't until the fourth season of Tonbridge FC that the club decided to run a juniors sometimes called minors for their players aged 13, 14 & 15 for the 1888/89 season. The team played a series of friendly matches against Skinners School, Tunbridge Wells FC and Sevenoaks FC. They played their home matches on the Old Cricket Ground, ie, the old Angel Ground.
Their first few matches, ended up being rather one sided affairs, as the team suffered heavy defeats against much taller and stronger teams. Plus a number of the matches were against mens reserve teams or third teams, where the boys were dwarfed by the opposition.
Such was the one side nature of the matches that the club's Honorary Secretary wrote to the Courier complaining that their opponents Tunbridge Wells, should not publish glowing reports of their 17-1 win, when men were playing against boys. The Tonbridge Juniors were also expecting to play against Tunbridge Wells juniors team, not their men's thirds team.
However the team gradually improved over the season, as detailed in the following Courier report on their match from the 14 November 1888.
"SKINNER’S SCHOOL v. TONBRIDGE JUNIORS. This match was played at Tonbridge, on Wednesday last and resulted in a draw. Against the wind, the School scored two goals to one. After half time, with the wind, they added third goal, and then seemed to think that the game was finished. In fact, so slack was the general play that the Juniors benefited thereby the extent of two goals. A fourth goal was kicked for the Skinners immediately after the whistle had sounded, which consequently did not count. For the Juniors Hutchence and Rice were most prominent, both playing excellently. The teams were follows:
SKINNERS: B. Gillett, goal ; S. S. Weekes, W. F. Hoptroff, backs T. D. Field, W. E. Balding, S. W. Buss, half-backs; F. T. Balding, F. O. Cole, H. R. Pochin, Lester C. Norman, forwards.
JUNIORS:W. Cole, goal; V. Rice, A. Hutchence. backs ; W. Vane, T. Gray, W. Gale, halfbacks ; F. Reynolds, F. H. Rush, A. Reynolds, T. Wooley, T. Vane, forwards
The club's end of season meeting reported that the Juniors finished the 1888/89 season having played six matches, winning two and losing four, albeit it appeared to miss out the draw against Skinners. Unfortunately this Juniors team did not continue for the following season, probably in part to the lack of junior association teams in the local area to play matches against and the lack of appetite to endure such one sided affairs again.
The club did not run the Tonbridge Juniors team for another 35 years. Locally the Tunbridge Wells Lads League started up in 1911 and whilst three junior Tonbridge teams, Tonbridge Excelsior, Tonbridge Junior Conservatives and Tonbridge Church Lads Brigade played in the League's inaugural season, the lack of junior team from the town's Tonbridge FC was a notable absence. The League went onto change its name to the Tunbridge Wells Minor League in future seasons.
Tonbridge Wednesday Juniors - 1924-25
The town's Tonbridge FC Juniors team finally returned to football circuit for the 1924/25 season, albeit playing in the men's Tunbridge Wells Wednesday League. The team played their home matches on the Racecourse Sportsground. The club used the Wednesday League for this season as a stepping stone for the junior players for this season. An incomplete league table is below.
Tunbridge Wells Wednesday League 1924/25
1 Tonbridge Half-Holiday 10 9 0 1 61 25 18
2 St James 10 6 0 2 51 24 16
3 Tonbridge Wednesday 8 3 0 5 30 36 6
4 Mayfield 9 3 0 6 30 41 6
5 Rusthall 9 2 1 6 18 41 5
6 Crowborough 10 2 1 6 21 64 5
Unfortunately it was another false start for the Juniors, as they didn't compete the following season.
Tonbridge Juniors - 1927-30
Why it took club 42 years from its formation in 1885 to fully embrace minor football (Under 19s) under Tonbridge Juniors banner is a bit of a mystery. But when the club embraced minor league football they did it style. As they were crowned championship winners of the Tunbridge Wells Minor League every season they completed in. During this period they were also regularly referred to as Minors as often as they were referred to as Juniors.
Their opening game on the 17 September 1927 was against Rusthall Minors. The team romped home to win the league with a game to spare, with league table below. Unfortunately the Juniors didn't quite complete the double, as they lost 3-2 to High Brooms Juniors in the final of Parsonage Hospital Cup. The club also ran a second team at the Under 17s team level for the 1927/28 who played in Division Two (Under 17s) of the Tunbridge Wells Minors League.
The following season the Juniors managed to secure the league and cup double. However the season hadn't been without controversy as they were fined and ordered to replay five matches, following playing two over age players in the first half of the season.
The photograph below is from the Courier dated April 1929 show's the club's winning team at the final of the Parsonage Hospital Cup. The Juniors beat Pembury in 4-0 in the final on Easter Monday at the Lower Ground in Tunbridge Wells. The Tonbridge goals came from C Dobson, Georgie Knight and two from Fenner. The captain R Knight received the cup from Cllr T A Allen (KCFA)
By the 1929/30 season Tonbridge Juniors continued league dominance in retaining the league championship for a third season in row. However for the second time in three seasons, they lost in a cup final. This time they lost 3-1 to High Brooms Junior in the Minors Charity Club again on Easter Monday at the Lower Cricket Ground.
This was last Tonbridge Juniors team, as a number of the players moved up in the reserves or joined over local clubs such as Dowgate. The club's venture into minor league football had been an overwhelming success, but the club's finances were struggling. The club had been hit by a significant loss of income from their grandstand, which had blown over the autumn gales in 1929 on the Racecourse Sportsground and needed repairs to bring back into use. Unfortunately the club decided it could not to continue the experiment of running a Juniors team for the following season, nor in any remaining season's before Tonbridge FC was wounded up in December 1936.
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