HEYFORD AFC –CLUB HISTORY
The club was formed in 1908, for many years the club played on the village green, but in 1989 moved to a newly developed sports field on the edge of the village. Changing facilities were provided in the Baptist Church Rooms and later the garage at the Forresters Arms.

J.E.Cameron was the first Secretary of the club followed by many other well-known Heyford family names. H.F.Thorneycroft and Bill Nickolls both served on the old Village League Executive and Tom Rolfe was a league Vice President.

In its early years they played in the South Northants league with the Reserves winning or runners in the South Area cup on 6 occasions between 1925 and 1932.

Heyford was a founder member of the Central Northants Football Combination in 1953 when the Mid Northants and Central Village leagues merged. The founder clubs paying subscriptions of 20/- in Division 1 and 10/- in Division 2 were:

Division One
Bugbrooke, Denton United, Heyford Athletic, Harpole, Kislingbury, Long Buckby Athletic, Milton, Pitsford, Spratton and Wootton

Division Two
Bugbrooke Res, Cottesbrooke, Cogenhoe United, Cold Ashby Res, Overstone Park, Ravensthorpe Athletic and Spratton Res

A string of strong administrators have successfully run the club with a small break in 1965/66 when no teams were fielded. Long serving secretaries include:

W Nickolls, A Nickolls, H F Thorneycorft, J T Blood, P Brown, M Collins, I Hudson and C Varrier who retired in June 2012 with over 30 years’ service to the club.

Successful Managers include Eric Miller, Chris Clarke and Ade Miller who brought several trophies to the club. Alf Parker, Pete Simmons and Mick Collins have given excellent service in various roles.

Outstanding service to the club has been given by K Banner, P Whittaker, M Carnague, A Mattacola and R Pancoust who all received Long Service awards from the Combination.

Eric Miller was the main architect of the clubs recovery from near extinction in 1966 when he worked hard to restore its old status and reputation. He dedicated much of his working life to Heyford Athletic gaining total respect of all who came into contact with him. Quite rightly in the clubs Centenary programme he is quite rightly referred to as 'Mr Heyford'.

The 1st Team of 1975-76 seasons under Eric's guidance won every trophy they entered. First they clinched the Premier Division title on 3 April, the following Saturday they won the Lower Junior Cup, followed by the Byfield & District Bethell Cup on 19 April. Then on 21 April saw the culmination of the season when the won the Premier KO cup - what a season, what a month!

Adequate changing facilities were erected adjacent to the Village Hall and these were developed with a £6000 expansion programme to provide showers and Lounge in 1976.

In 1988 after much debate it was decided to set up new facilities on the new Village Playing Fields. Whilst the old character of playing on the Village Green was lost the club had one of the best playing surface and club facilities in the area.

In 1994 the club house was extended with the addition of the Taylor-Juland bar and the new Patio which has become a popular viewing area. The work load was mainly done by Hughie Taylor, Dave Juland, Ian Smith and Barry Nickolls. Training lights were also installed where the Bowls club car park now is.

Under the management of Mick Parker the 1st team won the League and Cup
Double in season 1995-96. The following season the Reserves managed by Paul Retief and Richard Marshall won the Res Div. 2 Cup and the Area Cup.

At the beginning of 1996 season Heyford United linked to Heyford Athletic where formed to play Sunday football. Dave Jeffrey managed them in the first season. The same season new training floodlights were installed at the Cricket end of the playing fields.

A veteran’s side was entered into the Milton Keynes league in 1998 and in its short existence was very successful winning the League once, League Cup twice and the Plate Cup once. It had pulled out of the league at the end of the 2005-06 season due to a lack of new veterans.

The 2008/09 season was the Blues Centenary. It was celebrated by holding an afternoon and evening for officials, players, supporters and friends past and present at the clubhouse. A Centenary programme was also produced and a copy of which can be viewed on the Video & Photo's tab.

At the beginning of the 2012-2013 season, despite having a very strong mini and youth set up, the club was on the brink of ceasing to exist due to a lack of senior players and committee members. Fortunately, the club managed to quickly recruit a new chairperson who then convinced the small group of existing committee members to continue for one more season.
The club slowly started to re build during the 2012-13 season but unfortunately the 1st team came bottom of the Premier Division and where relegated. However things off the field had been steady and with a strong committee to take the club forward there was plenty of optimism for the next season.
The 2013-2014 proved much more successful for the First team and saw them win their League Cup Final through one of their finest performances in front of a good crowd. The Second Team got stronger as the season progressed and finished confident about the future. The Cup win and the progress of the Second team was a fitting reward for everyone on and off the field who had worked so hard to pull the club back from the brink of extinction!
At the end of the 2013-2014 season, the club organised and played a game on the village green in memory of two club stalwarts who had passed away during the season. Whilst the main aim of the game was to pay a tribute of remembrance, it was also about bringing football back into the heart of the community and, hopefully, encouraging people to get back involved with the club. We were blessed with great weather and were thrilled that so many people turned up to watch the game - it was an opportunity for both ‘old’ and ‘young’ players to display their skills.

The football club is integral to Heyford Sports Clubs which also consists of the Cricket Club, Bowls Club and Tennis Club. All clubs are fortunate to have really good playing facilities and a lot of work is taking place to refurbish the current Sports Club to get this fit for purpose for the short term. In the medium to longer term, there is a need to expand the facilities and re-develop the Sports Club and this remains a major area of focus for the Heyford Sports Club Committee and a development plan is currently being put in place.

Heyford currently run 2 senior sides in the Northants Combination League with the 1st team in the Premier Division having spent 2 seasons in Division 1 and a 2nd team in Division Four having won the Division 5 League Cup in 2015. There is also Youth set up consisting of U7, U10 (U9 Cup winners in 2017), U13, U15 and U16(U15 Plate Cup winners 2017)sides. The club are in the intial stages of developing a field opposite the tennis courts for Youth pitches (Sept 2017). The field was kindly purchase by the Parish Council.