Chertsey Town

Chertsey Town Football Club is a football club based in Chertsey, Surrey, England. The club was established in 1890 and, from the Surrey Senior League, joined the Metropolitan League in the 1964–65 season. They are the current holders of the FA Vase, having won the 2018–19 competition. In the 2005–06 season, they played in Division Two of the Isthmian League, but as a result of the restructuring of non-league football, they were sent across to play in the Combined Counties League Premier Division. In the 2010–11 season, Chertsey Town finished 2nd in the league and were promoted to the Southern League Division One Central ahead of local rivals Guildford City, following a dispute over the suitability of Guildford's ground for higher-level play.

History

Beginnings

Organised football was evident in Chertsey well over a century ago but county affiliation did not take place immediately. The official founding of the club took place in 1890 when matches were played in the West Surrey League. The first success came in 1897 when the Surrey Junior Cup was secured. A one-year gap took place before football resumed in the same competition which eventually became the East and West Surrey League. A further halt in football took place during the Great War but soon after, in 1919, the club joined the Surrey Intermediate League where it stayed, uneventfully, until 1939 and a further break. An invitation to become founder members of the Surrey Senior League was not taken up in 1923 but membership was later assumed, on attaining senior status in 1946.

1950s–1980s

Although Chertsey gained membership of the Surrey Senior League immediately after the Second World War, it was not until the 1959–60 season that success came with the league championship. This was repeated twice in the next three years, a halcyon period when the League Cup was also won on three occasions. Due to the static nature of amateur football in those days, the club could not progress t