Ormesby Lads celebrate 25 years

John Polston (left) and Andrew Eagle (right) unveil the club's first shirts (Image: Archant)

The reunion was held at the Bermuda Club, Hemsby, on Saturday, October 3, with players and officials from past and present coming together to reminisce about the club’s 25 seasons in the Norfolk and Suffolk Youth League (NSYL).

Current club secretary Phil Myhill was a part of the group which came together to help create Ormesby Lads back in 1991. He said: “The idea of forming the club came from Chris Colman, who was involved in running the local cubs football team which both mine, Chris Tooth’s and Jeanette Wright’s sons played in. As the boys were in their last year with the cubs, Chris came up with the idea of starting a new local football club so that they could carry on playing together.” Mr Colman went to the NSYL annual general meeting where he was given approval for the club to the enter the league and the Ormesby Lads’ story began. News of the clubs arrival was met with a positive response, with many players from the cubs team joining the under 11s team, along with many of their school friends. The team were sponsored in their first season by Hamilton Hardware which was owned by Andrew Eagle, who is now vice-chairman of the parish council, with the shirts presented to the team by former Norwich City player John Polston. Mr Tooth attended the reunion and was the club’s first manager back in 1991 as the club entered an under 11s team into the NSYL second division. He said: “The reunion was great, it was so good to see people associated with the club that I hadn’t seen for a very long time. It felt a little bit surreal to see some of my original players all grown up, at the same age I was when I was managing them, with their own families.” Mr Tooth, 60, also led the club to their first domestic title, taking the under 14s to the division two title in 1995. Mr Tooth added: “It was a tremendous achievement and I was full of pride after bringing the title to the club. It was such a pleasure to see that the children were being successful and were enjoying the game.

“I remember that we took the children over to Holland after that season had finished to play against a couple of Dutch teams, which of course went down really well with the whole team.” One of the club’s newest managers is Mark Holsworth, 35, who looks after the two under seven teams and is proud to be a part of the long-running club. He said: “It is really exciting to become a part of such a well established and respected club. I am looking forward to getting the children involved as much as possible because the most important thing for myself and the club is to ensure that all the children are playing football and are enjoying it. “One of the good things about the club is that they do not put pressure on the children to deliver titles and cups. To them it is more important to help develop the children through the age groups so that they can improve their skills and have a good time doing it.”

This season the club has eight teams in the league and over 100 children at the club including their ‘little viking’ group for children aged between four and six who are coached by club chairman Tim Kitson.

Ormesby Lads hold training sessions every Saturday morning at the Edgar Tennant recreational ground on Station Road, Ormesby St Margeret. For anybody wanting to learn more about the club or is interested in playing contact Mr Myhill on 01493 731788.