The cub scouts
It is quite bizarre now when we look back to the 1970s, 1980s and even until the mid 1990s, when Under 10s and Under 11s footballers were made to play 11 a side matches on full sized pitches, with full sized goals in local leagues. So it is not really surprising that cub scout football was such a success in providing young footballers a more sensible sized playing format of 6 and 7 a side matches for primary school aged kids. Tonbridge Olympic owe much to the boy scouts football scene for their formation.
As in the summer of 1990, Geoff Bassett & Tony Palmer approached North Tonbridge Juniors about setting up a second squad for their age group as their boys had finished playing cub scouts football. Unfortunately North Tonbridge Juniors turned down their request. With nowhere for their boys to play, they decided to set up the new football club named Tonbridge Olympic.
A wider group of parents came together to form the club's committee, with Tony Palmer as Chairman, John Elliott as a Club Secretary, who went onto become a league official for the Crowborough & District Junior Football League for over 20 years and David Kirk as Treasurer. In addition, Geoff Bassett, Bill Dawson, David Drake, Lauraine Elliott and Andrew Irwin all served on the original committee.
First season 1990-91
Olympic entered two teams into the Crowborough & District Junior Football League and played their matches on the Racecourse Sportsground on the old Ramblers & Urban pitches.
An Under 11s team was managed by Bob Large & Tony Kent, whilst an Under 12s team was managed by Geoff Bassett & Trevor London.
The Under 11s played in the single division and appeared to have finished mid table and notably finished above North Tonbridge Juniors, from the league table below from April 1991:
Second season 1991/92
Such was the success of the new club, that for their second season they had doubled their number of teams from two to four, through the creation of an Under 10s team managed by Michael Elliott & Keith London and the Under 11 team managed by Kevin Brooks and local architect Mike Kilgore. Amazingly Michael Elliott & Keith London were just 16 year old lads managing the Under 10s team and probably by some way the youngest managers in the League.
Following their successful previous season, the photograph below shows the Under 13s team proudly displaying their newly sponsored match kit by PK Motors of Tunbridge Wells.
Photograph is courtesy of John Elliott, whom has very kindly provided a list of the players, with further assistance to players names from Richard Palmer.
From top left: Charlie Baker, Simon Varley, Dean Stoner, Andrew Elliott & Scott Stokes
From bottom left: Adam Rendel, Richard Palmer, Jamie London, Nick Coxon, Jamie Basset & Liam Dawson
During their these early seasons, the teams featured Dan Couldridge who is now the Tonbridge Angels website & programme manager and Stephen Spicer whose father Reg Spicer who went onto to become the chairman Tonbridge Juniors by the summer of 1993 and he is still there today 28 years later.
Up to the 1995
Between 1992 to 1995 the club continued to grow and at its peak ran six teams in the 1993/94 season. The club expanded to lease an extra pitch at Pippins Playing Fields in East Peckham to add to their two pitches on the Racecourse Sportsground.
The teams were successful on the playing front, both in their competitiveness and their fair play.
1992/93 season:
Under 11s Division B runners up
Under 12s Division B winners
Under 13s Tournament Shield runners up
1993/94
Under 14s Cup runners up
1994/95
Under 11s Division B Sportsmanship Award
Under 12s Division B Sportsmanship runners up
Under 14s Division A Sportsmanship runners up
Under 16s Division A runners up
Committee constitution
When the club was set up, it was written into their operating rules, that no committee member would serve more than five years, which meant that all of remaining original committee members had to step down by the end of the 1994/1995. The intention was to ensure that there was always fresh blood and ideas coming into the club's committee. Ray & Denise Dolley, both of whom were and continued for many years to be part of the 1st Tonbridge Baden Powell Scout Troop stepped up to take on a number of key roles within the club as the committee structure evolved.
Heading towards the millennium
The 1995/96 season started with the lost of two teams and before a ball was kicked in ernst, the Under 12s also withdrew from the League. This left the Olympic club with just two teams, their Under 13s and Under 15s teams. Both these teams continued into the 1996/97 season, but languished towards the bottom of their divisions. However both teams played football in the right spirit and were both duly awarded with the Sportsmanship Award in their division.
For the start of the 1997/98 season, the Olympic club was down to a single team managed by Ray Dolley, whilst Denise continued in her role as the Club Secretary. The team on pitch had a slightly better season finishing eighth.
| Under 16s C Division | ||||||||
| 1 | Edenbridge United | 14 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 37 | 17 | 29 |
| 2 | Jarvis Brook Juniors 93 | 14 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 41 | 20 | 28 |
| 3 | Willingdon Athletic | 14 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 47 | 33 | 25 |
| 4 | Sandhurst | 14 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 40 | 25 | 24 |
| 5 | Tonbridge Olympic | 14 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 38 | 31 | 22 |
| 6 | Forest Row | 14 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 21 | 29 | 20 |
| 7 | Broad Oak United | 14 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 13 | 36 | 8 |
| 8 | Leigh Rangers | 14 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 16 | 62 | 3 |
So by the middle of the spring 1999, the Tonbridge Olympic team and club had played their last match, with Ray Dolley taking the the team as far as they could go. It was now time for the players to go off and ply their trade in the adult football leagues.
It was also rather fitting that the club created out of cub scout football to bow out with their last manager Ray Dolley being the Scout Master for the 1st Tonbridge Baden Powell Scout Troop for many more years to come.
The club had shone very brightly in their first few years but the growth of a number new clubs Tonbridge Invicta in 1992, Tonbridge Juniors in 1992, Tonbridge & Sevenoaks Juniors in 1993 and Tonbridge Origin in 1997 meant that Olympic team struggled to compete within the "market" for a finite number young footballers in the Tonbridge area.
Tonbridge Olympic faded away after nine seasons but the club had served its purpose at the time. The club had provided organised and structured football for young footballers in the Tonbridge and the surrounding villages and no doubt provided numerous happy memories for hundreds of players, parents, managers and supporters.
Many thanks for the contributions and assistance from John Elliott, Ray Dolley & Dan Couldridge.
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