Hexham Football Club

Hexham Juniors F.C was formed in 2002. It was created from the amalgamation of the two junior sides in the town. The Bears and the Tigers had been competing against each other for many years. Some years the Bears had the better team and other years the Tigers were the leaders of the pack. So a meeting was called between the two committees at the Old Tannery and after a short meeting it was agreed that on the 1st July 2002 the Tigers and the Bears would be no more and Hexham Juniors was formed.

The Club colours would be Green and White hoops, green and white shorts and socks. These were the colours of the now extinct Hexham Hearts who were one of the top senior clubs in the years after the Second World War

We would play in the Tynedale and Coast Colts League from season 2002 / 03 with five teams. In a short space of time we now have ten boy’s teams and two girls and we now also compete in the NABC and the newly formed Northumberland Girls League.
From the first season the club went from strength to strength increasing our membership until we had teams playing at all age groups from under eight to under sixteen. The demise of the Coast colts league meant that all our 11 a side teams competed in the NABC until season 2010-11 when circumstances prevailed that the club could field a stronger team on a Saturday instead of the normal Sunday so that side entered the relatively new organisation North East Development League based at Killingworth. During this time the club fielded the majority of their junior teams in the Tynedale Mini League apart from one season where an under ten team had a great time in the Newcastle Mini Soccer League.
On the field success did not take long to arrive and the club started to appear on the honours list at West Division and Tynedale level. Once the club found it feet within the NABC several teams progressed through the divisions by means of promotion, the major cup success was in 2008/09 when our under 14 team won the NABC League Cup in a thrilling final v Newcastle City Juniors. One year later the same age group provided the first all Hexham West division final when the Greens took on the Whites on St Georges Day, a game which was played on the Wentworth Leisure Centre pitch
The club in the early years strived to achieve Charter Standard Status, which entailed ensuring all our coaches had at least a FA Level One qualification and all the Child protection regulations are complied with. In mid 2005 our application was submitted and by November of the same year we were celebrating “Charter Standard Development Club” status which was the second highest level achievable. Hexham FC was only one of eleven clubs in the County with this award. This is reviewed every three years and in 2008 was again rewarded for their efforts when the award was once more bestowed upon the club. Part of the renewal application was to progress to Community Club Standard, this unfortunately had to be put on hold until 2010 as the Club officials were working very closely with local authorities to provide extra facilities for the ever growing membership.

Long before the two junior sections merged in 2002 both clubs had been lobbying the council to improve the facilities in the town without much success despite the backing of Leisure Tynedale (Who were to become North Country Leisure). Now the two clubs were one this gave them a uniform voice and they began to campaign for support from town councillors and the local paper the Hexham Courant. This had the desired affect and very soon meetings were taking place and a possible site of Shaw’s Park was discussed. However securing the land was a problem and the focus of attention was fixed on some land at Dukes house.. Eventually with help from Tynedale Council, North Country Leisure and the Northumberland FA plans were drawn up funding was received from the Football Foundation and Tynedale Council. The club raised £30,000 from various sources and building work commenced in November 2009 and completion date was set for September 2010. Total cost for the project was £3/4 million, but as the development started taking shape it looked well worth the time and money spent.

Over the early years the club have been able to send teams abroad on friendly tours and national competitions in the UK thanks to the hard work of coaches and parents. Teams have travelled to Skegness and Ayr and come back after having a great time and with fair play awards one year and twelve months later winning the competition playing against some excellent sides. 2008 saw the club venture into Europe when a side travelled to France and took on teams from Chef Boutonne & Melle and returned with three victories and a load of memories and new friends.
In 2009/10 the club managed to field another girl’s team at under 12 level to add to the two existing teams at u14 and u16. These teams play in the Northumberland Girls League which experienced a rocky spell on the organisational front but all being well they should progress in the coming seasons but as all junior clubs Hexham have had problems with a lack of volunteers coming forward to administer the girls section
 
The natural progression for the club was to move up into senior football and in 2006 the club was renamed “Hexham Football Club” dropping Juniors from their name even though they were a vital part of the set up and will always be so. This allowed everyone to share in the benefits of having a senior team would bring, extra publicity and financial help with insurance and grants. That August the club played its first game in senior football taking its place in Division Two of the Northern Football Alliance, home of the old Hearts set up from many decades earlier. The team consisted of a majority of players who had come up through the ranks of our junior teams so the average age was just below twenty. So four years down the line from that the team has progressed year on year and in the season coming up has high hopes of a top five finish
July 2010.