AFC Westend was established in 2003 to give lads from the local community the opportunity of meeting, training and belonging to a competitive football team. The club is run and managed by volunteers wanting to offer the lads a worthwhile pastime and to play a good standard of football at Grassroots level.

The club are affiliated to the Surrey County Football Association, and our Sunday team are playing in the Leatherhead & District Sunday Football League, our ground and clubhouse are situated in the lovely village of Westend, Esher Surrey.

In September 2006, the club obtained permission to use the Surrey Heraldic Badge as a basis for the design of the new Club badge.

The Heraldic Badge is an emblem which is representative of the County of Surrey, with features adapted from the Coat of Arms. The significance and historic background of the various features in the design are as follows:

The shield of the Coat of Arms is divided into halves – one blue (azure), the other black (sable). The blue, and also the gold colour in the design, are taken from the Arms of the Warrennes, the ancient Earls of Surrey. The black derives from the Arms of the towns of Guildford and Godalming.

The interlaced gold keys represent the power of the ancient Abbey of St Peter at Chertsey which once held extensive lands in Surrey. The keys form part of the Arms of the Diocese of Winchester which used to include much of Surrey, and have also been retained in the Arms of the Diocese of Guildford.

The sprig of oak symbolises Surrey’s extensive rural areas and is drawn from the Badge of the FitzAlans, former Earls of Surrey. It also appears, incidentally, in the mouth of the Supporters of the Arms of the Duke of Norfolk, the present Earl of Surrey.

The club has enjoyed their best start to the league campaign since their formation in 2003 and have put together a much stronger squad due to a couple of new signings. The team is currently lying third in Division 3 of the Leatherhead & District Sunday Football League and play their home games on West End Common opposite the clubhouse, usually kicking off at 10.30am.

Sadly, part way through last season, Dave Russell, AFC’s Manager since its inauguration, suddenly passed away. Dave had always been a dedicated advocate of the importance of youth and senior football. He promoted a great sense of team spirit and belonging to the lads and he will be sorely missed. His son, Lee is following in his Father’s boots, and has taken over as Secretary – his Father would be very proud.

This left a vacancy for a new Manager. Dave is not an easy act to follow but the club has appointed Keith Harris. Keith, mindful of his predecessor’s commitment and success, nervously accepted. Five month’s on, Keith feels the squad has worked very hard at their training sessions and this seems to have started to pay off as they are a lot fitter; the lads have a far more disciplined approach to the game and have become much stronger as the weeks go by.

Training started in July, during all the very hot weather and they played quite a few friendly games throughout August and September with a fairly mixed bag of results. So far this season they have progressed steadily in the league and have continued to pick up points along the way with only one defeat so far from eight league games. They also had an excellent result in a recent cup game when they beat a higher division team 3-0.

The club has been successful in obtaining a new sponsor for the season 2006/2007, NPL Printers of Bookham and has, therefore, been able to introduce a new kit in the club’s colours of Blue and Yellow and bearing the sponsor’s logo on the shirts.

Also on the shirts is the newly designed and very distinctive club badge which was created and designed by the new Manager (See separate article).

The club has appointed a new Chairman and they are very pleased that Eric Strange has accepted this important position. Eric is no stranger to the club and is currently Chairman of the West End Sports & Social Club Committee and is also a member of the West End Cricket Club. AFC thanks Eric for agreeing to join them and wishes him luck in his new position.

AFC WESTEND Football Club would like to take the opportunity to thank West End Sports & Social Club, the Committee and everyone who helped with the rebuilding of the fantastic new clubhouse; AFC appreciates the opportunity of being involved and of using the wonderful facilities available to them at their new home.

On a final note, AFC would like to advise you that they have a new website that, hopefully, will be up and running by the time of publication. So why not give it a visit and take a look? Log on at www.afcwestend.co.uk we are sure you will be interested in the wide variety of content available on the site.

Article by Keith Harris