Colney Heath FC (England)

Colney Heath is one of those nice little Home Counties towns not too far from London, which is pleasant enough, but never harbours too much in the way of excitement. So it was a great surprise when a place so usual that it considers nearby St Albans the big city saw their football team promoted up to the ninth level of English football.

Formed in 1907, Colney Heath FC are yet another team in stripes who are otherwise known as The Magpies. Like many of the English clubs on this list, they did very little for the first 100 odd years of their existance, but it was the turning of the 21st century that saw them finally achieve a little to be proud of.

In 2001 they had their best ever FA Vase run, when they made the second round, and they went and won the final of the Bingham Cox Cup in 2006, when they beat local Hertfordshire rivals Park Street 3-2 after extra time in the final. It was also the decade that saw them reach their highest ever level of league football. Like the town they come from, there's not too much to speak of in their history book, but that they have soldiered on for so long is testament to a proud club with a long history.

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Warlingham FC (England)

Warlingham are a Combined Counties League team based the tiny Surrey village of the same name right on the South-Eastern border with London. They were formed in 1896 and for years were based in the village, but more recently have taken part in ground-sharing agreements with first Merstham FC and latterly Whyteleafe FC as their original ground in the village didn't come up to scratch for the tenth level in the English game. Which was a shame as they are a club who were intrinsically linked to their place of birth.

The village itself is planted bang in the middle of The South Downs, at an elevation of 650 feet above sea level. As such it is one of the few places that snow will settle in the South of England, and a constant annoyance for the club over the years when their home games were cancelled when the rest of the league got to play theirs, leading to constant fixture pile ups at the end of many a season. Thank heavens for then them that it's a bit warmer these days, then.

They gained promotion to the Cherry Red sponsored league after a fabulous win in the Surrey South Eastern Combination, and have every intention of both moving their way up the tables and returning to their spiritual home once they've got their own Warlingham Sports Club facility up to scratch with those pesky league rules.

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Swaffham Town FC (England)

Swaffham Town are one of many Suffolk clubs who play in the famous black and white striped kit. Quite why the strip is so popular up that way is unclear, but still very welcome. At this point in their development they play in the Eastern Counties League - the tenth level of English football - where they have been for most of the last decade - although they first reach this level back in 1990.

Known locally as The Pedlars, they were formed in the tiny Suffolk town of Swaffham in 1892 - a place perhaps most famous for being the location for Steven Fry's Norfolk-based legal drama Kingdom - although they changed the name of the place to Market Shipborough for the series.

Back in 1959 they splashed out and bought the one and a half acre site that they turned into their Shoemakers Lane Ground, for a princely sum of £250, and built their first proper clubhouse on the site in 1967 after getting a loan from a local brewery for the building work. Recent years have seen them improve the facilities greatly, in the hope that they will eventually be able to work their way up the leagues on the pitch. But with many of the clubs at this level, most of the work is done on a volunteer basis by the fans, committee and players themselves. Fan involvement plays such an important part at this level, and it's the foundations that grassroots are built on. Good on 'em all!

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Long Melford FC (England)

You may not have heard of them, but Long Melford are one of the oldest clubs in England, and indeed the world, having been first formed in 1868 in the village of Melford on Suffolk's southern border with Essex. At the time of writing they are about to start their seventh season in the Eastern Counties Football League Division One, the tenth step on the pyramid.

Their biggest successes have come in the Suffolk Senior Cup, having won the knock-out a total of six times right across their history. They started with a pair of quick wins in 1894 and 1895, waited until the fifties, when they held it three times off the bat starting in 1953, and then again more recently in 2003, when they hammered Stanton 5-0 in the final. They also have five Essex & Suffolk Border League titles, and three league cups from the same organisation under their belts.

They play their home matches at one of the best stadiums at this level in the modern and pretty well-appointed Stoneylands ground, where you can enjoy the delights of the local cult eatery, Sam's Snack Bar. Newly decked out for the 2010/11 season, they're noted for their bacon and egg bapss - in fact, they'll put bacon in pretty much anything you ask them too - but they'll also serve you with a rather more classy cappuccino too, and as such have perhaps the best catering in the entire tenth tier.

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Woodbridge Town FC (England)

Woodbridge Town started their footballing career with a bang when on 7th November 1885 they beat St Helens (Ipswich) a cool 10-0. The same year they became founder members of the Suffolk County Football Association, as well as the very first winners of the Suffolk Senior Cup, beating Ipswich Town 3-1 at Portman Road in a second replay, after draws of 2-2 and 0-0 in the first two games, under their original name of Woodbridge Combination.

The following years saw a string of trophy wins in a scattered variety of local and regional leagues and cups, and theirs is a pretty busy trophy cabinet, holding in total 29 portions of silverware. They play at Notcutts  Park in the town of Woodbridge, a tide harbour town on the River Debden. The area gained international notoriety in 1980 when unexplained lights let to a number of UFO sightings in what came to be known as the Rendlesham Forest Incident. It is unclear whether they were real UFOs, secret aircraft flying about at the nearby US Airforce base RAF Woodbridge or just the floodlights of Notcutts Park on a misty evening.

Many teams who play in black and white stripes have nicknames connected to the ainimal world. There are dozens of zebras, quite a few magpies and a good few assorted badgers, ravens, penguins and friesians. But Woodbridge's nickname is a little more unique and more related to their name than their colours. Come on you Woodpeckers!

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Dereham Town FC (England)

Dereham Town are a Norfolk club who play their football in the Eastern Counties League Premier Division, part of England's ninth tier They were formed in 1884, in the clock-making town of Dereham, some 15 miles West of Norwich. They have played nearly all their football in either the Norwich District or the Norfolk Senior Leagues, and it is only relatively recently that they started to work their way up the pyramid a little.

They purchased their 3000 capacity Aldiss Park facility - named after the science fition author Brian Aldiss, who was born in the town - in 1991, with a view to progressing to a higher level of football. And the scheme worked, as they they achieved Eastern Counties League status after winning the Anglian Combination Premier title in 1998 - their first full season at their new home.

They are perhaps most famous in the area for their hospitality and their battling but fair spirit, and they frequently win the region's annual Sportsmanship Trophy - which is about as nice a title as any club could aspire to. Their slightly colleagues from across the way, Norwich City are regular pre-season visitors, and despite treating them to frequent hammerings, manage to break their club attendance record every time they come - although officially it is always numbered as 'just over 3000' for health and safety reasons...

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Chipping Norton Town FC (England)

Chipping Norton Town come from the picture book Oxfordshire town of Chipping Norton, and have a long and successful history in the lower leagues in the South of England. Established in 1893, they were founder members of the Hellenic League in 1953 after winning the Oxfordshire Senior League for two season before that. They went on to win the Division One title of the league in 1961 and 1971.

But it was the late 1970s that saw their really glory days. They won the Helenic Premier in 1978, taking a couple of Oxfordshire Cups around the same time, before working their way up to the Midland Combination. A couple of seasons later in 1981 they won that title, proving to be like a non-league Spurs in winning a title in a year ending in a one. Sadly though this terrific run saw them reach too deeply into their pockets and financial difficulties forced them to drop back into the Oxfordshire leagues rather than go out of business.

However, recent years have seen them drag their way back up to the Helenic Premier, and were well on their way to a dream of reaching an even higher level of football when things took a curious turn of events. Chairman Sean Robson announced that because of a lack of interest by the local residents, it wouldn't be commercially viable to continue at their current high level, and promptly resigned the club from the league, and continue at a lower level. This time it wasn't for financial reasons, but what the club called a 'lack of physical resources'. Whatever the reality of the reason, we hope that they soon wake up the good citizens of Chipping Norton into realising that they've got a passionate and very watchable football team on their doorstep and go an help them out. After all, how could you not love a team whose nickname is The Chippy!

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Ledbury Town FC (England)

Ledbury Town come from the beautiful Herefordshire market town of Ledbury. The club was formed in 1893, and in keeping with the rural nature of their surrounds, as well as the black and white colour of their strip, are known as The Friesians to their fans.

They've got a curious history of working their way up the regional leagues, only to resign and go back down to county level. They joined the West Midlands Regional League in 1974, and were promoted almost by accident four years later, when despite finishing fifth they were considered to have better facilities than the clubs above them and bumped up a division almost against their will. However, in 1983 it all got a bit too much for them and they dropped out of the league altogether to go back to local football for the next eight years.

In 1991 they decided it was time that they moved back up into the biggish time again when they joined the Midland Combination, but soon tired of this and switched back to the West Midland Regional League again, where they got as high as the Premier Division until 2010, when they decided to shrink operations back again and join the Herefordshire Football League. But give them a couple of years and no doubt they'll start flipping their way through the leagues rather indecicively again.

Unusually though for a club at this level they've had an active international on their books, when Latvian cap Alex Volosanovs put in a small stint for them. But the biggest day of their footballing lives was when a reasonably strong Manchester United side visited to play a benefit match for a local family who'd lost members in a motorway crash. Ledbury made a good account of themselves, and even got a couple of goals, but lost 4-2 in the end. It's not mentioned in Van Der Sar was in goal or not though...

Stone Old Alleynians (England)

The Old Alleynians were originally formed as an Old Boys club from the Alleynes Grammar School in Stone in Staffordshire in 1962. Former pupil Dave Bonnett figured that it would be a good way to keep in touch with his old school chums and got the team subsidised by the institution's Old Boy's Society to buy shirts - although they had to supply their own socks and shorts.

But despite being made up mainly of teenaged recent school levers and the odd teacher they soon made their mark on the local leagues and started picking their way up the divisions. In 1966 they won their first silverware when they took the Mid Staffs League Division One title with their third 100+ goal tally running.

They changed their name in the mid nineties after their second string started doing well and the local FA deemed that they had to have distinct and different names. The reserves became Alleynians FC, while the seniors added their home town to the front of their name and they from then dubbed the rather regal sounding Stone Old Alleynians. During the club's most successful period on the 1970s they played in yellow and green, but for the last 15 year have reverted to the far more agreeable black and white stripes. Their Springbank Park ground has recently been renamed the Motiva Stadium, and they currently play in the West Midland League Division Two, the twelfth tier of the English game.


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Tipton Town FC (England)

Tipton Town are a rather onomatopoeic sounding club from the West Midlands. They were founded in 1948 under the name of Ocker Hill United. Despite Tipton's position between Dudley and West Bromwich, they started their footballing life in the Wolverhampton and District Amateur League. In the mid sixties they were taken on in the West Midlands Regional League, and deceided to change their name to their current title so as to attract more people from their home town to come and watch them play.

In their early days they played on the rented the works ground of Lee Howl & Co, but in the early seventies they banded together with some other sports clubs in the region to create the Tipton Sports Academy, a multi-sports facility built on an old landfill site. The stadium is licenced to hold an even 1000 punters for footballing affairs. They currently play in the Midland Football Alliance, the ninth stage on the pyramid.

Their titles have been few, having won both divisions of the West Midlands Regional League once each, and a few local midweek cups here and there. But they are perhaps best known as being the club that spawned an English cult hero. Ex-England and Wolves goal machine Steve Bull started his career here, and soon earned the nickname the Tipton Terror. Indeed, he was born only a few streets away from Town's ground in the nearby Moat Farm Estate. He went on to score over 300 goals for Wolves in all competitions - a feat rare in the modern game - and it all started at this small but homely club.

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Hayling United FC (England)

Hayling United could almost count themselves as an international representative side, as they come from that curious place called Hayling Island in Hampshire. Shaped like an upside down letter T (or Lisa Simpson doing the splits, if you prefer), it's just along the coast from Portsmouth, and is a popular holiday desitination - made even more attractive by the long held rumour that it is the only place in England without any wasps.

United, the island's principal football club, were formed in 1884 as simply Hayling Island, although they've always been known by the quaint nickname of The Humbugs. They changed to their current name in 1999, clearly hoping such a move may sway FIFA to consider them as the national side of the island!

They play at a dinky little ground in the grounds of Hayling College, and play their football in the Wessex League Premier Division - part of the vast regionalised ninth level of English football. 

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Whickham FC (England)

Whickham FC are a rarity among English clubs in that they were founded in 1944 - smack in the middle of World War II. And like many of their peers who play in black and white stripes, they had a background in coal. Originally called Axwell Park Colliery Welfare, they come from the small North Eastern town of Whickham, some four miles east of Gateshead. Perhaps tellingly of who made up the bulk of their team back in their formative years, they were more commonly known as The Home Guard Team - a nickname that has stayed with them to this day.

Over the years they have won a number of local leagues and trophies, including the Wearside League, the Northern Combination, the Northern League Division One, and the delightfully-named Ernest Armstrong Memorial Cup. But their biggest successes have come in the FA Vase. In 1979 they made the semi-finals, losing to Almondsbury Greenway at the final hurdle. But in 1981 they went two steps further and won the competition, coming from two goals down to beat Willenhall Town 3-2 in a Wembley final. An estimated 5000 Whickhamites made the long journey down to London to cheer them on. This makes them the last club from the North-East to win a Wembley final.

These days they play their football in the Northern League Division Two - the tenth level of English football - and they call the Glebe Sports Ground on Rectory Lane their home.

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Spennymoor Town FC (England)

Spennymoor is a middle-sized former mining town in the Wear Valley in County Durham. It is perhaps only famous for three things: It was the place that Henry Bessemer discovered a process for the cheap and easy manufacture of steel; It was the home of local MP Robert Shafto, immortalised as Bobby Shafto in the 18th century folk song; and as the home of Spennymoor United - Spennymoor Town's historic predecessors. However ill health forced them to merge with another local side, Evenwood Town, in 2005 - although Evenwood fans would have it that it was just a straight take over.

United were formed in 1877, and in their day got as far as The Northern League - then the top flight of English non-league football - which they won seven times over the years. They were also FA Cup regulars, their best run coming in 1936, when the lost to West Brom in the third round. This era was also noteworthy because they had a chap playing for them called John Collins - whose son went on to become the comedian Frank Skinner.

Evenwood Town had a pretty successful history too. Winners of the Northern League three times, they formed in 1931, and despite not having as illustrious career as United, had a pretty strong fan base in their own right. After the merger, things picked up almost immediately, and the newly formed Town won Division Two of the Northern Premier League. Three years later they won Division One, becoming on the second club in the league's history to reach 100 points in a campaign. Sadly their 6000 capacity Brewery Field ground wasn't considered up to scratch to gain promotion to the seventh tier, but with a lot of work happening to their ground in the closed season, things are looking up for some more successful seasons in the near future.

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Grimsby Town (England)

This week Grimsby Town were relegated out of the English football league for the first time since they were elected to it 99 years ago. That they didn't make it to their centenary is something of a footballing tragedy for a team with such a long history and great fans. But it's not always been doom and gloom for The Mariners.

Formed in 1878 as Grimsby Pelham, they play, not in Grimsby itself, but the nearby East Lincs seaside resort of Cleethorpes, and in their beautiful old Blundell Park stadium have the closest ground in the UK to the coast. They came together back in the early days of association football when the members of Worsley Cricket Club decided they fancied taking up the new sport to keep them busy on the long Victorian winter nights.

Their first spell of league football started in 1892, when the English game first stretched to two national divisions. Indeed, they even made the top flight for two seasons in the early 20th Century, but after a couple of bad seasons found their way out of the structure for a couple of years until they found their way back in 1911. Back then only they and Hull City were officially allowed to play on Christmas Day, because of the curious demands of the fish trade. That tradition was never revoked, but neither club has called on it for a great many years now.

Thier highest ever league position was when they came fifth in their second stint in the old first division in 1935. And in 1939 they lost an FA Cup semi final to Wolves at Old Trafford in front of 76,962 - to this day still the Manchester ground's highest attendance. Since then the club has regularly yo-yo'd up and down the leagues, narrowly missing out on promotion to the top flight on more than one occasion.

Blundell Park's Main Stand, running along the north side of the ground, is said to be the oldest stand in the football league, dating back to 1901, while the more recently built Findus Stand that lays opposite, offers spectacular views of the shipping traveling up and down The Humber Estuary, if the football gets a little difficult to watch.

Noteworthy former players include Wimbledon's FA Cup hero keeper Dave Beasant, Tony Ford, the all time record holder for an outfield player in England, with a massive 931 appearances, the free-scoring Clive Mendonca, Wales international John Oster and orange-hating England manager Graham Taylor. They've also got a pretty impressive roster of former managers. Southampton's cup winning coach Lawrie McMenemy saw some early action here, Hungarian Elemér Berkessy became the first foreign manager on English soil back in 1954, but most impressively, Liverpool legend Bill Shankly put in a three year stint at the club in the early 1950s.

Grimsby Town is a great old club, in a fine part of the world and with some of the friendliest and funniest fans in the country. I hope their spell in non-league is a temporary one and they bounce right back and climb their way back up the leagues as soon as they can. 

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Bath City FC (England)

My minor obsession with the teams who play in black and white began a few years ago when I first stepped onto the terraces of Twerton Park - the historic home of Bath City FC. As an exiled West Ham fan in the West Country I'd turned into somewhat of a ground hopper, touring all the local grounds within easy rail travel distance in the search of some footballing thrills.

Living in Bristol but working in Bath, I'd pass City's ground on the train every day and always thought I'd have to make the trip one day. Indeed, my mate Jimmer at work had been badgering me to come along, saying that if I came once I'd be hooked for life. I chortled under my breath, thinking how quaint it was that someone apparently smart and grown up could get so obsessed by a team languishing in the Southern League.

But then one fateful Saturday in September I bit the bullet and went along - and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. It was a meat and spuds early season game against the now sadly demised Kings Lynn, who held City to a slightly undeserved draw. But there was something about the ground, the players, but most of all the fans - seemingly sparse as they were - that instantly got under my skin... and as Jimmer warned, I was hooked.

I didn't go to every game straight off, but as the season progressed I became a more frequent visitor, and by the end of the term, as it became more apparent that the stripes were going to make promotion to the exhalted heights of the Blue Square South league - the second tier of Non-League football in England - I was even going to the away games too.

It was a great season to start following them, and the more I went, the more I discovered what in interesting club they were.

They formed way back in 1889 as Bath AFC, having a brief spell as Bath Railway before settling on the name Bath City for keeps a few years later. For much of their history Bath City have been in the upper echeolons of the non-league system, narrowly missing out on election to the Football League proper on a number of occasions - most notably in 1977 when as Southern League champions they missed out on a place in the big 92 by three measly votes to a little outfit called Wigan Athletic.

The stripes have got a grand FA Cup tradition too, having reached the fabled third round on no fewer than six occasions, beating full time opposition the like of Crystal Palace, Millwall, Notts County, Exeter City, Southend, Cardiff City, Hereford, and most recently fellow stripes Grimsby Town along the way.

Past players of note include the legendary Charlie Fleming, a Scottish international who had spells at Sunderland and East Fife, who scored a club record of 216 goals in 300 appearances. Former Blackpool and England ace Stan Mortensen had a spell in Twerton at the end of his career, and Jason Dodd, Tony Book, Paul Bodin and former Lavian international captain Andrejs Štolcers have also graced the hallowed turf.

There was also a young chap called Bobby Zamora, who spent an exciting month on loan to us from neighbours and one-time tennants Bristol Rovers back in the year 2000. His run of six games saw him bag eight goals, and marked him as true star for the future.

City also saw the greatest living Frenchman, Eric Cantona, visit the club in 2009. Sadly he didn't pull his boots on, but came to promote his film Looking For Eric, directed by staunch Stripes fan Ken Loach, who frequently holds premieres, benefits and film nights for the club.

For a little team who never quite made the big time Bath City have a long and proud history, and one of the most loyal, supportive and, to be fair, slightly bonkers fanbases in the country. If you're ever passing through town and there's a game on, make sure you get yourself down to Twerton Park. You might not see the kind of Rolls Royce football you see on the telly, but you'll experience a team with passion and grit, and share the terraces with a right friendly bunch.

Come on you City Boys!

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