A short history of Newquay Football Club

It is generally thought that Mr G R Card, a master at Newquay Grammar School, was responsible for the introduction of Association Football to the town. It was in 1890, in the grounds of Newquay Grammar School (now the Pendennis Hotel, Mount Wise) that the first team match took place under the Association Rules. Following this match sufficient enthusiasm was worked up to form the first Newquay Football Club.

The town’s club did not play competitive matches until season 1896/97 when the team were grouped with Truro, Camborne School of Mines, Illogan, St Agnes and Penzance in the Western Division of the Cornwall County Cup (Senior Cup). Newquay won their first trophy in season 1906/07 defeating Looe 4-1 at Bodmin to win the Cornwall Charity Shield. The Newquay club’s nickname of ‘The Peppermints’ evolves during the turn of the century and was first mentioned in 1906, alluding to the red and white shirts worn by the players, which resembled a boiled peppermint sweet of that time.

A milestone in the history of the club was in 1921 when Newquay was elected to the Plymouth and District League. In 1922 the Newquay Urban District Council, under pressure from the general public to provide a football field for the town, sought permission from the Ministry of Health to lease a piece of land (originally acquired for allotments) to the club and so from that date Mount Wise has been the home of Newquay Football Club. In 1927, the financial burden of travelling to Plymouth on a regular basis proved too great and the club withdrew from the P&D League.

In season 1931/32 Newquay Rovers played in the newly formed Cornwall Senior League and in 1935 win both the League and Cup for the first time. The Newquay Club was reformed in April 1946 following the Second World War and the First XI played in the Cornwall Senior League until 1951 when a new senior league was formed, namely the Cornwall Combination League, the Newquay Club was again a founder member and the reserve side played in that league up until 2017-18 when they joined East Cornwall League. The First XI joined the newly formed South Western League in the same season and eventually won the title on seven occasions.

During the 1980s, the club's members raised funds to erect the clubhouse and changing rooms that are still in use today, floodlights were also added during that decade. In July 1998, the club's record attendance of 3,500 saw Manchester City visit Mount Wise Stadium, other clubs with Premier League experience including Graham Taylor's Watford, Hull City and Harry Redknapp's Portsmouth all brought quality sides to take on the Peppermints in the years that followed.

In 2007, Newquay AFC First XI joined the newly formed South West Peninsula League (West Division) when the South Western League merged with the Devon League. They were runners-up in the new league in 2008-09 and were eventually crowned champions in 2011-12 this securing promotion to the Premier Division, Step Six in the National FA Pyramid, the highest level the club has ever played.