IN the early 1960’s for all young football enthusiasts the summer months were boring with no football. Unless you were a good cricketer there was not much to do sportwise on a Saturday afternoon.

In those days Football Association regulations forbad the playing of organised Club football over the mid-summer months from the end of May.

Crediton United had already been in trouble back in the mid 1950’s when Exeter City came to Newcombes Meadow to play a fundraising friendly out of season, organised by City’s Crediton players Fred Davey, Keith Harvey and Bill Ellaway as a result of which the Club was seriously reprimanded.

One of the few popular summer alternatives was the local “Summer Fete”.

These were organised by local clubs and charity groups in Crediton and surrounding villages to raise funds for their cause. They were very popular and there was always one every week either in Crediton or in the surrounding area.

To attract more people to their annual event local villages began running “Six-A-Side” football competitions as the main attraction to their fetes. So with several of my Crediton United team mates we decided to fill our Saturday afternoon’s competing in these events.

One of our very first trips out was in 1962 to Meshaw, which is in the middle of nowhere and where none of us had ever been before.

As several of us were still in our teens we didn’t have enough cars for transport so hired a mini-bus and driver, which was probably wise as no-one knew where Meshaw was!

Some of the competitions we visited were in villages with no football teams or pitches so the organisers had to arrange their Six-A-Sides with a local farmer to coincide with the hay harvest to get a playable pitch with shortish grass and a reasonable playing surface. Meshaw was one of these!

As the competitions were straight “knock-outs”, you might be unlucky enough to be drawn in an early match then lose and your football afternoon would be over for the day!

Some of the opposition teams would be just local lads who didn’t play regular football but invariably there were always one or two good footballers amongst them.

This proved to be the case for our team at Meshaw made up of Ian Grinney, Graham Lee, Dave Blanchford Geoff Lee, my brother John Gillard, Mike Mills and myself.

Having won our first game we were drawn against a “mates team” which included a few players from Crediton amongst them John Boddy and some of his friends.

They happened to be one player short so John’s dad Len Boddy, who must’ve been well into his 40’s, stepped in to fill the team. Len had played football for several pre-war Crediton teams but had switched to playing Rugby.

What appeared to be an easy game turned out to be a nightmare as Len was the best player in either side and his team beat us to end our hopes. However we did enjoy the afternoon and a few beers on the way home in the, long since closed, Gidley Arms pub.

Another regular Six-A-Side competition we attended for several years was at Winkleigh – one of the most popular competitions.

Games were played on their normal Club full size pitch, which was a real test for fitness. Again the event was a part of the local Annual Fete.

The competition was always organised and seemingly run by just one man – George Bolt. There were several good teams playing in their competitions, some with the odd one or two top players who played their serious football for teams like Tiverton Town, Bideford, Torrington and Barnstaple.

One of the better teams was Morchard Bishop including players such as Walley Rice, his goalkeeping brother Geoff, Gordon Kelly, and Geoff Burrows.

The day’s organisation was a little bit “flexible” though and one year the matches dragged on so much that by the time the final was played it was getting dark. Luckily lots of cars were facing on to the pitch and switched their headlights on to allow the game to be decided.

Amongst other villages and towns that used to organise competitions were Dolton, Copplestone, Bow, Spreyton, Burrington, Elmore Eagles in Tiverton and Coldridge, the latter being organised by Lewis Quick and held in a neighbouring farm field.

Lew was a good footballer himself and played for several years for Lapford Football Club.

In 1962 Crediton United’s committee decided to organise a six-a-side of their own at Newcombes Meadow with side shows to raise funds for the Club.

This was no mean feat because, apart from advertising for entrants, all the equipment was stored in the Club’s changing rooms and Committee room 500 yards away.

Fred Davey was involved with the Club at that time and he organised a team which included a couple of former City team mates.

Fred’s former team mate at Exeter City – Maurice Setters turned up on the day to watch his team win and become the first holders of the magnificent Cup which had been donated by Hugo Sandford a keen football supporter from Yeoford. Ted “Spud” Lane used to kindly set up his P.A equipment which made the organisation of the games a lot easier.

The competition was held on the first Saturday in June and then every year until 1976 when the Club moved to Lords Meadow.

The competition was always regarded as one of the best in Devon and continued for many years afterwards at Lords Meadow.

When the Club first moved to the new ground there were few facilities there so for at least one summer the competition was held jointly with the Crediton Rugby Club on their ground.

The only snag was carrying the Club’s goalposts and nets across to the rugby ground, erecting them, and also marking a pitch, always immaculately done by Bill Ellaway. It worked well though for a while as the Rugby Club were good at raising money and we were good at organising the event.

There was however always one annual problem as the Devon County FA insisted on the Club obtaining special permission to hold the event and paying a fee for the privilege. Devon County F.A registered Clubs were not supposed to play during the summer months.

The annual event remained at Lords Meadow for many years on and off up until 2011 by which time the ground and facilities had been developed and the club helpers needed a summer rest from the hectic work involved.

Fortunately the youth section was developing rapidly and eventually they began to run a competition themselves which has now grown to be one of, if not the best in the South West.

Now able to use the whole of the Lords Meadow sports field to set up eight or more smaller pitches they are able to run a two-day weekend competition for both boys and girl of all ages.

Rather than a knock-out competition the event is run on a mini-league basis enabling the players to enjoy several games rather than being knocked out in their first match.

This is now the Youth Section’s main source of fundraising without which they would struggle to exist.

Chris Gillard