Somersham
Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk
Somersham Football Club was originally established in 1952 as Somersham Boys Club. The current Somersham football club was started by the village Youth Club in the mid-60s, when the new playing field was ready to use - and as SFC entered the Suffolk & Ipswich League in 1983.
The Club is based at the Playing Field, Somersham, Suffolk - and will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2027.
Notable Somersham Football Club officials and players across the decades include: Les Guilder, Geoff Stone, Terry Kett, Mervyn Allen, Ron Watts, Denis Mumby, Melissa Avis, Gwen Kett, Liz Stone, Andy Pooley, Graham Gibbons (Please get in touch if you know of other names, have more information or photos)
Currently, Somersham Football Club has four teams, three are youth teams - the longest established of these is the SFC Dukes U15: managed by Stephen Skeet - s.skeet@sky.com
There are two new teams this season:
SFC Wyverns U12: managed by Tom and Sarah Hitchcock - Somwyverns@outlook.com
SFC U18: managed by Al Chester - al.chester69@gmail.com with Craig Fordham as assistant manager.
Currently, the longest established team for the club is SFC Veterans - many of whom have played for Somersham Football Club since they were teenagers! A Veteran team for male players over-35 in Division Two South of the Norfolk & Suffolk Veterans League.
Captains: Darren Luck / Dan English
Manager/Player: Craig Fordham how_di@hotmail.com
Age-groups are based on a player’s age on 1st September each year - as most of the team are 16/17 years old they can play U18 next season as well. Somersham will always attract great players and supporters!!
All the SFC teams have had a challenging first half to the 2025/26 season - but they’ve been boosted by the attendance of lots of supporters. Many thanks to friends, family, local people and away fans for attending and cheering on all the teams and players!
The Youth teams mainly play on Saturdays, and the Veterans on Sundays - there are both away and home games.
We aim to open the Pavilion for all home matches - providing hot & cold drinks, alcohol and snacks, and access to toilets. On Saturday mornings the Community Shop is also open - though the Shop is closed on Sundays.
The results for all the SFC squads are currently not always going their way, though goals have been scored and matches won! But this is the time for building strategy, working out player positions and bonding. All this is going is going well and good results will follow. The first half of the current season has meant a lot of hard work, and all the players have shown great diligence and determination - they have recognised that groundwork is required in order to build and strengthen their skills and teams.
The SFC U18 team are in the quarter-finals of The Shield Cup, which is a fantastic achievement in their first season! They faced-up a real challenge to keep progressing against the best teams in their age group.
All the teams are gelling, and have confronted and overcome a variety of challenges - at one point the U18s had just 13 players in their squad but it is now up to nearly 20.
For the SFC Veterans there have been a lot of injuries; some of these long-standing. We’re hoping all these will improve and that we also to encourage further players into the squad. SFC Vets had been promoted twice before but last season were relegated, and may be again this season ... Probably reaching their ceiling in Division 1 (one below the top league) and now in Division 2 - and Division 3 beckons, but an aging squad is possibly finding its level. Though I scored a goal against one of the best teams in the Vets League - in fact the first time they’d dropped a goal all season!
Especially once this very cold weather is over, all the teams will soon be training again - Tuesday and Friday evenings. Please contact the managers if you want to join training or to help with the team.
An update on the former SFC First Team - the same management and most of the same players are now Old Newton United in the SIL (Suffolk & Ipswich League) Senior Division, the top division for Suffolk - they are doing extremely well and currently sit at 4th in the table, but have lost only 3 games! - congratulations to them all!
Suffolk FA wants every woman & girl who wants to play football to have the opportunity to do so – SFC supports this, we need to build a management structure of volunteers: please contact SFC if interested
We are pleased to have been working closely with Claydon FC Girls’, Claydon FC U7s, and Somersham & District Community Association - initially via Claydon hiring the pitch and Pavilion for training as well as for some matches - this has been very successful, and the Claydon players, coaching, management, and families are great! There are outline ideas for running a Summer Football Festival together at Somersham - early days, but we will keep you informed.
Safeguarding - your club welfare officer is here to help, email the Club Welfare Officer, Sarah Hitchcock on SomWelfare@outlook.com
All SFC teams welcome everyone as supporters to their Home matches - when the Pavilion will be open.
Away Match supporters are also welcomed!
Please see The Link Newsletter for updates on SFC.
A gentle reminder that dogs are not allowed onto Somersham Playing Field.
Thank you, Craig Fordham
SFC Vets manager, U18s assistant manager, and Sports & Social Club Secretary
(January 2026)
Current SFC officials (2025/26) include Dan English (Chair), Barry Smith (Secretary), Darren Luck (Treasurer) - and the SFC team managers are:
U12 Wyverns - Tom & Sarah Hitchcock Somwyverns@outlook.com
U15 Dukes - Stephen Skeet s.skeet@sky.com
U18 - Al Chester al.chester69@gmail.com with Craig Fordham as assistant manager.
Veterans - Captains: Darren Luck / Dan English
Manager/Player: Craig Fordham how_di@hotmail.com
Chairs of Somersham Football Club over the last few decades: Dennis Mumby, Dave Sillet (Dil), Al Chester, John Hutchinson and currently, Dan English.
In the publication Snapshot of Somersham 2000, Dennis Mumby wrote, “From its origins in the early 1950s, the current Somersham football club was started by the village Youth Club in the mid-60s, when the new playing field was ready to use.
It became Somersham Football Club for the 1968/69 season when they entered the then Sunday Morning Friendly League, a League made up of twelve teams. Nowadays, the Suffolk & Ipswich League (SIL) is home to over fifty football clubs from across Suffolk, all proud to be a part of grassroots football.
Somersham FC is possibly now the only one remaining of the original twelve teams.”
There was a said to be a Somersham football team team during the 1920s, but no records exist to prove it - though Emma has found a newspaper article from the 1920s, which is being checked.
“The earliest records of a Somersham football team in the Ipswich District Division, was for three seasons from 1953/54, 1954/55 and 1955/56 - they played on the pitch behind the old Police House and 7 Cherry Tree Cottages - in what is now the top part of Springfield Road. It was just a field with goal posts, no nets or corner flags - and certainly nowhere to change! Concessions were made in really bad weather to let the team use the Old Village Hall - but only if there was nothing else going on there.”
The team colours were black & red quartered shirts - black & red are continue as Somersham’s main colours….plus the village symbol of a horseshoe.
Player, linesman, referee, and former-Chair of Somersham Football Club, Denis Mumby has been associated with the Club for more than 70 years - with sons and grandsons also playing for SFC!
Several of the players in the team lived in the village: Keith Deaves, John Gibbons, Clive Hiskey, Dennis Mumby, Freddie Pryke, and Andy McDowell in Tudor Grange Cottage, part of Nettlestead.
Notable Somersham Football Club officials since its inception include: Mervyn Allen, Melissa Avis, Graham Gibbons, Les Guilder, Gwen Kett, Terry Kett, Dennis Mumby, Andy Pooley, Geoff Stone, Liz Stone, Ron Watts…
(Please get in touch if you know of other names, have more information or photos)
Thank you!
