Primary Schools Football Association
Affiliated to:
English Schools Football Association (ESFA)
Inner London County Schools Football Association
(ILCSFA)
The Bermondsey & Rotherhithe Primary Schools
Football Association (B&R PSFA) was founded, as many similar Associations
were, over a hundred years ago. The Association functioned up until the
1970s/80s with inter school leagues and a District team. During the 1980s
school sport suffered a decline and there was less activity. The Association
was revived by a small group of local teachers about fifteen years ago, who
reintroduced inter-school football, and in 1994, the District team.
Only primary schools in the Bermondsey and Rotherhithe
areas (SE1 & SE16 with a couple of local exceptions) are eligible for
membership of the Association. Schools pay a small affiliation fee and only
those schools are able to take part in the Association's activities. There are
twenty-six primary schools within the Association’s area, but in most seasons
only about half of them actually affiliate.
PURPOSE:
The purpose of the Association is, quite simply, to
promote and develop football at all levels in Primary schools in the area. This
will include matches, tournaments, friendly festivals etc. between local
schools, the development of football for girls, and of course, the District
team. (In the past, the Association has also organised activities in other
sports.)
There is a small committee of local teachers that
organises the activities. The District Team is now well established and there
is a range of organised inter-school football events. Some of those teachers
who have helped in the past are unfortunately no longer around but we have
managed to continue. Officers of the Association must be teachers, and they all
act in an 'Honorary' capacity, i.e. they are unpaid volunteers.
SCHOOLS:
The schools that are eligible to affiliate to the
association are:
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Alfred
Salter |
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Boutcher |
Cathedral
C of E |
Charles
Dickens |
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Eveline
Lowe |
Friars |
Grange |
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Ilderton |
Joseph
Lancaster |
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Pilgrim’s
Way |
Redriff |
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|
Rotherhithe |
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St James |
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St John’s |
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St Jude’s |
Snowsfields |
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|
Townsend |
1900 – 1920s
The creation of the London Schools
Football Association towards the end of the nineteenth century saw the coming
together of the smaller District Associations that had been springing up all around
the capital in the preceding years, and whilst Bermondsey Schools were not one
of the original members, it would have been around this time that organised
football between the areas schools would have started.
Early records are very difficult to obtain
– a number of Associations lost their records during war time bombings –
Bermondsey’s records may well have suffered such a fate. However, it is known
that by the 1920’s the leading secondary schools in the area, Credon Road and
Bermondsey Central, were competing in the Deptford and Greenwich League and
schools were also representing Bermondsey in the London Football Associations
Dewar Shield.
1930s
The 1930’s saw the first reporting in the
local papers of the time of structured leagues for the Bermondsey and
Rotherhithe Schools Football Association, citing a Mr Ernest Lowe as being one
of the representatives. Ernest Lowe was to be the driving force behind the Association
for the next thirty years with a teaching career spanning, Neckinger, Tower Bridge
and Grange schools. The Association was by
now affiliating to the London Schools Football Association with Mr George King
Esq. as chairman. The nomination to represent Bermondsey in the London Schools
Dewar Shield was now decided by holding a knockout competition called the
Weston Shield with the winners advancing to the
For the 1934/5 season the schools were arranged in
leagues as below:
Senior Intermediate
Junior
St Josephs Bacon’s Fair Street
Keetons
Chaucer
Paragon
Dockhead (St Michael)
During this season trial matches were
played between played between pupils representing Bermondsey and those
representing Rotherhithe which were also referred to as
The following season saw Bermondsey
& Rotherhithe enter the London Schools FA Corinthian Shield for the first
time along with the competitions they had entered a year earlier. Though it was to be after the war before the team developed sufficiently
to be able to progress beyond the early rounds of these highly competitive
events.
As well as running the schools league
and district sides the Association was also running numerous cup competitions.
The Millwall Shield and Sweetland Howard Shield were the major competitions for
secondary schools with the finals often held at Millwall FC’s Den in front of
crowds of several thousand.
1940s
Naturally the outbreak of war in 1939
curtailed footballing activity in the capital at all levels. However – with
many of the original evacuees returning to
League A League
B League C
Bermondsey Cent Bacons Galleywall
St James Weston Paragon
The play off for the league finals at
Aylwin School between Webb Street and Bermondsey Central Schools, attended by
the Mayor of Bermondsey (Mr A C Starr – after whom the trophy was named), was
in fact suspended for an air raid and completed on the all clear siren being
sounded after the players and spectators had all sought refuge in a near by air
raid shelter.
With the war over the 1945/6 season saw
a resumption of many of the cup competitions for District teams and for the
first time Bermondsey & Rotherhithe entered the prestigious English Schools
Football Association Schools Trophy (often referred to as the Schools Shield)
although they were knocked out by South London in the opening round by a 4-2
scoreline in a game played at Aylwin School.
By the end of the decade District teams
representing the Association were regularly competing at under 15 level in the
ESFA Schools Trophy, London Schools Corinthian Shield (Under 15), Sun Shield
(Under 14) and Gill Shield (Under 13) as well as the Kent Schools FA Fletcher
Trophy (under 15) Presidents Shield (Under 14), whilst Under 12 squads and
primary squads played a series of friendly fixtures with other districts.
Amongst the venues for home games were the “dry pitches” at
1950s
The 1950s can be seen as the halcyon
days of the Association. A surge of interest in schoolboy football saw large
crowds attend District matches across the country. The Association made a
flying start to the decade when in the 1950/1 season the Under 15 side advanced
to the national stages of the Schools Trophy for the first time, meeting
Southampton Schools at The Dell (home of
Southampton FC) where they were beaten 4-1.
The feat of reaching the National
stages was matched at the end of the decade when Kettering Schools finally put
pay to the cup run with a narrow 2-1 victory.
In between the Association encountered
its first silverware for a District team, winning the
The highlight of the decade involved
the
For an Association as small as
Bermondsey and Rotherhithe to have a player receive international recognition
was testament to the services of Ernest Lowe who having organised the league
structure for schools back in the thirties still remained at the helm of the
Association going out of the austere fifties into the swinging sixties. So
there would no doubt have been no prouder district secretary than Mr Lowe, when
in 1959/60 season he witnessed not only a Bermondsey & Rotherhithe player
again represent England but actually skipper them. The schoolboy in question
was Alan Dennis, who made 6 appearances for the
1960s
The sixties saw the end of an era as
far as schools football in Bermondsey was concerned. The creation of the
The primary section continued, now with
Mr A Rider overseeing the Association following the retirement of Ernest Lowe
after forty years of sterling teaching service in Bermondsey. Upon his retirement he lamented that his one
regret had been that he had been unable to secure a suitable grass pitch for Bermondsey
schools within the Associations area. Forty years later of course we still travel
to Dulwich to play home fixtures!
During the sixties, entry was made into
the Kent Primary Cup as well as the London Schools Crisp Shield. It was inter
schools competitions however where most energy was placed and the Primary
Schools Neckinger Shield became the Association’s flagship competition, with
Albion and
1970’s
The seventies continued with Mr Jim
Cheeseman, head of
1980s
The teaching unions’ industrial action
through the eighties saw schools football nationally go into decline and the
Bermondsey Schools Football Association disbanded and ceased its affiliation to
the English Schools Football Association.
1990s
All was not lost however, as by 1993/4
school sport was once more on the up. The area was lucky to have a fresh
impetus of teachers willing to give up their time after school to carry on the
hundred year plus tradition of schools football and with Bob James, already an
experienced District team manager from his teaching days in Tower Hamlets, the
driving force, the Bermondsey & Rotherhithe Primary Schools Football
Association was formed and affiliated once more with the English Schools
Football Association, encompassing the boundaries of the old association.
That first season saw three friendly
fixtures played by a team drawn from five primary schools and the following
season a more representative district squad was entered in the Inner London
Schools Kay Trophy.
County success soon followed with an
appearance in the Kay Trophy final in 1997/8 (losing to Tower Hamlets) and
regular final appearances in the county round of the national seven a side
competition.
2000s
Nothing could support the decision to
reform the Association, and prove that the district of Bermondsey and
Rotherhithe was worthy of a district team than the appearance at Wembley
Stadium and at the turn of the century this was achieved with an appearance in
the National Final of the English Schools Adidas Predator Seven a Side
competition. Having battled through both the county and regional rounds,
Bermondsey lined up with fellow regional winners, Nottingham, Chester-le-Street
and
Whilst school teams are thinner on the
ground than back in the halcyon days of the thirties and fifties, the
Association still runs competitions and festivals for schools with the Sid
Harker Cup now the premier event with the winning school representing the
association at the Inner London Davies Cup competition.
Throughout the above history it must be
remembered that schools football can only exist through the efforts of
teachers, who for over one hundred years have freely given up their time to
allow the pupils of Bermondsey & Rotherhithe (and countless similar
Association’s up and down the country) the chance to play our national game.
Hopefully the teaching profession will continue to provide such generous
attitudes for well over another hundred years.
If you have any memories or stories of
schools football in Bermondsey and Rotherhithe we would be only too pleased to
hear them. Contact us at brpsfa@hotmail.co.uk