Raynes Park Vale F.C.

The first notable prominence of the football club in the Raynes Park community was as early as 1925 when Southern Railways Football Section was formed. The club was originally based at Raynes Park Sports Ground, Taunton Avenue, which is less than a mile away from the current club's home. The club played in the Surrey Senior League and were a part of a notable tour to Belgium to play fixtures against Ostend V.G. Club & Bruge FC in 1925. Sadly little is known about these sides other than Railway had success in the 1932/33 Middlesex League and were also double winners in 1936, taking home both the Railway Athletic Association Cup and the Southern Railway Orphanage Cup. The Southern Railway Team unfortunately fell victim to the notorious 1963 Beeching spending cuts, a national review into modernising the UK's railways. Southern Railways 1950's home kit was Gold and Green quarters, the company colours.

Southern Railway Football Section eventually reformed a year following Southern Railway's deformation in 1964 as Raynes Park Football Club, also based at Taunton Avenue, SW20. Raynes Park FC home shirt colours were Red and Black stripes (similar to AC Milan) and specific testament to this was made by the newly formed Raynes Park Vale in the 20/21 season where they played their home games in Red & Black Stripes for the first time since their formation in 1995 . Raynes Park FC's alternative kit at the time was light blue shirts and white shorts. Raynes Park FC ran five senior teams on Saturday's, of which, the 1st and 2nd XI's played in the Surrey Premier League whilst the 3rd team played in the Surrey South Eastern Combination while the 4ths and 5ths played in the Kingston & District League. They also ran an over 35's team and youth teams aged 14 to 18.
Source: Former RPV FC President, Robert Hallett Senior, who was instrumental in the formation of both the Raynes Park and Raynes Park Vale football clubs.

Malden Vale FC was founded in 1967 by the then Chairman Stephen Pearce. They spent their first decade of existence playing in the North Surrey Youth League, the Sunday Sportsman League, South Thameside League & the Surrey Combination League. Malden Vale won a total of 37 honours at junior & intermediate level. Malden Vale gained senior status in the 1977-78 season and was duly elected to the Surrey Senior League. Malden Vale have the honour of being the last ever winners of the Surrey Senior League in 1978 before the league vanished in a reorganisation and emerged as the London Spartan League. The following season the league changed its name to the Home Counties League. After one season in the newly named league, Malden Vale applied to join the London Spartan League a league in which they finished 4th twice and 2nd twice, most disappointingly in 1984, when they lost out on the title to Hanwell Town on goal difference. Vale then left for the Combined Counties first incarnation and at the first attempt, won the title. The only league title on either side’s resume. Ten seasons later in the 1988-89 season Malden Vale finished runners-up to BAE Weybridge in the Dan Air League and was promoted to the Diadora League Division 2 South. All of the club's members worked extremely hard to gain C Grade status for entry into the league. The club survived for 5 seasons in the Diadora Isthmian League. At the end of the successful 1993-94 season, managers Mick Brown & Ged Murphy left the club to join Hendon. Unfortunately many of the players followed them and Malden Vale finished bottom of the table the following season.

The new merged club immediately joined the Combined Counties Football League and currently play in the league's Premier League, Tier 9 in the national league pyramid. Their best finish was in 1997–98 when they finished in fourth place at tier 9. They have participated in both national Cup competitions apart from a brief period at the start of the 2000s.[1] The club's reserve team won the Combined Counties Reserve League in 2002–03 and 2005–06 before it joined the Suburban League for the 2006–07 season. The reserve team was disbanded for financial reasons before rejoing the combined counties reserve league for the 2011-12 season under the management of Terry Tuvey. In the 2012-13 season the reserves achieved the league & cup double. The cup being won with a 2-0 win against Worcester Park Reserves in the final. The Reserves also won the fair Play award in both 2011/12 & 2012/13, the 1st team winning the Premier award in 2011//12. The combined counties league took the decision to disband the reserve league at the end of the 2012/13 season so for the 2013/14 season they have re-joined the Suburban League. Midway through 2013/14 Lee Dobinson stepped down as 1st Team Manager to take over as Club Chairman from Fred Stevens. Former AFC Wimbledon Player Gavin Bolger stepped up to take over as 1st team Manager. Gavin Bolger played 107 times for AFC Wimbledon from 2002 to May 2005 scoring 27 goals from midfield.[2]

Southern Railways Football Section 1925
Raynes Park FC 1964
Malden Vale FC 1967
Raynes Park Vale FC 1995

Final Combined Counties Division 1 Position: 5th out of 19- earning promotion in this season

All games Played 47, Won 29, Drawn 3, Lost 15, Goals Scored 61
League CCL1 P36, W24, D3, L9, Goals For 94, Against 48, Points 75 out of 108
Cup Games P11, W5, L6, Goals For 16, Against 26

Most Appearances 2017/18
J.Williamson 44, N.Lewis 42, J.Curran 41, E.Fraser 40, S.McKillop 38, J.Smart 33, J.Kirsten 27, R.Turner GK 27, C.Forbes & C.Turner 26.

Most Goals 2017/18
J.Williamson 32, S.McKillop 15, T.Smith 10, C.Turner 7, B.Bouglas-Letts 6, C.Forbes 4, N.Lewis 4, M.Springall 4.

Raynes Park Vale were promoted back into the Combined Counties League Premier Division on 25 May 2018. RPV finished in 5th place (with 75 points) but were promoted in the 3rd promotion spot as Champions Worcester Park (91 points) & 4th placed Sheerwater (77 points) could not be promoted due to lack of floodlighting at their existing grounds as stipulated by new FA ground rules. Also promoted were Cobham FC in 2nd place & Badshot Lea FC in 3rd place. Both with 79 points.

Players player of the season was left wing back Nathan Lewis.

Goalkeepers
Tony Davis, Reece Turner
Defenders
James Curran CB, Danny Alderton CB, Shane McEntaggart CB, Marcus Dowdeswell CB, Charlie Marus CB
Nathan Lewis LB, Massimo Agostini LB, Johann Kirsten RB, Louie Stanton-Cockle LWB, Thomas Bentley RB, Joe Bell CB
Midfielders
Jerome Smart (Captain), Calum Forbes (capt), Eoin Fraser (capt), Seanan Mckillop, Bertrand Marti-Pique
Pat Gibson, Jordan Holmes, Ben Jordan, Sam Jordan, Tom Harland-Goddard, Okeme Nelson, Geordie White, Kane Macey, Roy Gayle
Strikers
Jack Williamson, Conor Turner, Byron Douglas-Letts, Max Springall, Simon Moore, Victor Okunowo, Paul Osew, Alexander Owuadey

Final Combined Counties Premier League Position: 5th out of 20 - Highest finish since 1998

League CCL Premier Division P38 - W17, D9, L12; Points: 60 out of 114; Goals For 47, Goals Against 48

Most Goals : Jack Williamson 15

Raynes Park Vale recorded their highest league position in 21 years (1997/98) by finishing 5th in the CCL Premier.
They were in 18th place out of 20 on 12 February 2019 and without a league win in 2019 but 5 wins in a row took them up to 9th by 26 February and up 9 places in 2 weeks. By 26 March the Vale had gone 2 months & 10 matches (W7,D3) unbeaten when they lost to Southall away 1-0.
The good form continued till the end of the season, 27 April 2019, with a 1-0 away win at Camberley Town.

In the FA Cup in August RPV beat Lingfield 3-0 at home in the extra preliminary round.
In the preliminary round Raynes Park drew 1-1 at home with Spelthorne Sports but lost the away replay 4-3.

In the FA Vase RPV lost 0-1 at home to Cobham in the 1st round qualifying on 1 September.

Player Awards 2018/19
Players player of the Season: Ato Okai.
Fans player of the season: Marcus Dowdeswell.
Managers player of the season: James Curran.
Jack Williamson won the Golden boot for the 2nd year running.
Young player of the season: GK Daniel McKerracher

Appearances 2018/19
Goalkeepers:Reece Turner 14, Billy O'Carroll 8, Daniel McKerracher 16.
Centre Backs:James Curran 36, Marcus Dowdeswell 30, Danny Alderton (captain) 24, Charlie Marus 9
Full backs: Nathan Lewis 27, Archie Harland-Goddard 24, Louis Stanton-Cockle 17 & Bertrand Marti-Pique 14.
Midfielders: Eoin Fraser 36, Jordan Holmes 33 (5 goals), Seanan McKillop 32, Tom Harland-Goddard 30, Sam Jordan 13, Pat Gibson 8
Forwards: Jack Williamson 37, Ato Okai 29, Conor Turner 29, Nathan Chambers 19 & Josh Gwam 15.

Despite finishing 5th, RPV scored the fewest goals in the division with 47 and tied 4th least for goals conceded, 48.

References