History of St Ives Town FC
St Ives Town FC was formed on Thursday 15th September 1887. About 40 people met at the Unicorn Hotel to “consider the desirability of forming a football club”. It was unanimously decided to form a club, to be called St Ives Town FC under Association Rules. The membership subscription decided upon was 3 Shillings & Sixpence including an entrance fee of 1 Shilling to be paid in advance. The kit was chosen to be black with a white star.
The club rose to success by the turn of the century in 1900. Collecting both Hunts Senior and Junior Cups in 1901. The Senior Cup was won again in 1912 and the club continued its success during the 1920’s. Winning the Cambridgeshire League in 1923/24/25. Also, winning the Senior Cup in 1923 and 1926. Also winning the Scott-Gatty Cup in 1923 and 1924.
In the 1930’s, Further success winning the Senior Cup again in 1930 and Scott-Gatty Cup in 1932. St Ives also won the Peterborough League in 1938.
In 1949 the Saints joined the far-flung Central Amateur League. However. Short lived due to travel and decided to move into the much more local UCL 2nd Division. This only lasted a few years before they decided again to move. This time back to Peterborough League.
The 60’s was limited success, but they still managed to win the Scott-Gatty Cup in 1961. In the Peterborough League fortunes were not smiling on them and they slid down the leagues to Division 3. There they remained for quite a few years into the 70’s.
In the late 70’s St Ives turned the corner. They won the Peterborough Division 3 in 1978 and then further promotions the following years into the 80’s, winning the Division 1 and gaining promotion into the Peterborough Premier League in 1982.
Fortunes remained positive in the 80’s as they also won the Hunts Senior Cup in 1982, 1987 and 1988. During this period the club also moved back into the United Counties League Division 1. The revival of the Hunts Premier Cup also saw the Saints reach the final in 1989 losing 3-0 to a strong Cambridge United team.
Into the 90’s. The team reached the Hunts Premier Cup final in 1997 and 1998 although going down to 5-4 to Potton and 2-1 to Biggleswade Town they put in excellent performances against strong opposition. In the UCL Division 1 the team were not doing so well and at the turn of the century in 2000 the team, although doing their best needed a change of fortune. In 2002, they finished the season next to bottom.
At this point the club appointed Neville Nania as the new chairman who had considerable success as both the St Ives Town Colts chairman over 6 years also running the most successful Cambridgeshire colts teams at the time with a group of the same colts from 10 year olds to 16 year olds. Never out of the top 2 and winning the league twice. Neville also ran the county u18 team with Neil King. So, very aware of the excellent youth talent in the area.
Neville stepped down from both roles to take on the senior chairman role and immediately appointed a St Ives legend Warren Everdell as player manager. The idea was to provide a pathway for the many excellent 17- and 18-year-olds Neville had relationships with and blended with key experienced players to start a new beginning.
Warren then recruited Jez Hall a popular member of the club and good communication skills and a fitness and condition coach in Errol McGammon. A dream management team and the project began for the start of the 2003 season. The season went well and finished in the top half. Following a successful 2004-05 campaign the team finished 3rd which was enough for the team to win promotion to the UCL Premier Leaue for the first time in their history and the highest they have been in the football pyramid. The youth were blending well with the experienced lads and things were on the up. Crowds were up and things were looking good.
Modern History
2007-08 Produced another record breaking season with the clubs highest pyramid finish, pushing for promotion but fell just short with a 5th place finish. The highlight of the season the run in the FA Vase which saw a 5th round tie at home to Needham Market produce a thrilling 3-3 draw which was witnessed by a then record 767 crowd. This was only beaten eight years later when it was almost doubled by the play-off final. Sadly the run ended in the replay a week later.
2008/09 was again a very successful season for the club, reaching the 5th round of the FA Vase for the second year running, coming 6th in the UCL Premier, and reaching the league cup semi final. The club reached all three county cup finals, but unlike 2006/07, the team picked up two winners trophies, in the Senior and Premier Cup, losing the final of the Hinchingbrooke Cup thus stopping another remarkable treble.
2009/10 saw the Saints once again getting to the fifth round of the FA Vase, before falling at the same hurdle for the third year running. On the domestic front, the Saints won the UCL League Cup for the first time in the clubs history beating Newport Pagnell Town 2-1 in the final. During the season Saints longstanding Co Managers Warren Everdell and Jez Hall reached their 400 game milestones in charge at Westwood Road.
2010/11 the Saints once again progressed through to the Hunts Senior Cup final but were beaten by League champions; St Neots Town. Also for the second year running they appeared in the final of the League KO Cup but were beaten by the ‘up and coming’ Peterborough Northern Star. A final league position of 11th and one of the highlights in the FA Vase was beating last year’s finalists Wroxham FC away from home with a late goal from Dan Moyes.
2011/12 saw the Saints record their most successful season to date with a third place finish in the UCL Premier Division. After reaching the UCL KO Cup Final for the third successive year, the Saints lifted the trophy for the second time after an impressive 4-1 victory over promoted Kings Lynn Town. Once again the Hunts Senior Challenge Cup was proudly lifted to round off an excellent season with arguably one of the best squads ever to grace Westwood Road. Conor Washington finished the UCL and Club top goal scorer with 52 goals from 50 games. Once again the Saints saw their FA Vase dream shattered but this time after reaching the Quarter Final.
2012/13 saw the Saints First Team once again make history and after a long season the club was promoted to Step 4 of the non-league pyramid for the first time club’s 125-year history. The Saints finished in second place behind Holbeach United but secured promotion as the highest placed Club with the necessary ground grading. The Saints also reached the League Cup final for the fourth consecutive season, but lost out to third place Spalding United in the final match of the season. This season also saw the sale of Conor Washington in October, he also managed to secure promotion – to the Football League with Newport County. Our Reserves were also crowned Cambridgeshire Division 2B champions finishing12 points clear of second place. During this season Warren Everdell & Jez Hall achieved their 500th game in charge together as Co-Managers and Will Fordham and Dan Newman also reached the magnificent milestone of 500 appearances in a Saints shirt.
2013/14 saw the Saints perform well in the Southern League Division One Central against some strong opposition and ended up a healthy 13th in the league. The fans deserve recognition during this season as the stats showed St Ives was the fourth highest attended team in the league. Away from the league the club reached the second qualifying round of the FA Cup, just losing out in a replay to Concord Rangers of the Conference South. In the Trophy, the club also reached the second qualifying round. Finally, the season finished with a trip to St Neots where we ran out runners-up in the Hunts Senior Cup final.
At the end of the season, Warren Everdell and Jez Hall announced they were stepping down from their managerial positions after 12 years at the helm. Most of the club’s successes to date were during their tenure.
2014/15 saw the new management team of Ricky Marheineke, formerly of Huntingdon and Histon and Jack Cassidy, also from Histon take over the First Team squad. The duo re-shuffled the squad bringing in new faces. During this adjustment results slipped, however the second half of the season saw the Saints climb the table and finished a very respectable 9th position. It was decided during this season that the current U18’s team would be replaced by a Scholarship programme, led by assistant manager Jack Cassidy. A Ladies team was also be set up under the management of Darren Marjoram
2015/16 saw the team exceed all expectations by achieving promotion to step 3 of the football pyramid for the first time in their history. The feat was achieved in the most exciting fashion possible via the play offs after finishing a creditable fourth place. Having won their play-off semi-final on penalties at Egham they followed up with a final victory against the mighty Rushden & Diamonds in front of a bumper crowd of over 1500 at the Pro-Edge Stadium. A late Danny Watson equalizer topped off by a winner from local lad Ben Seymour-Shove in extra time finished off a fantastic season in the best possible way.
2016/17 saw the team consolidate at step 3 with a creditable fifteenth place finish. This was topped off by a successful run in the League Challenge Cup where, an injury ravaged side, were unlucky to lose in the final to Hayes & Yeading United. The Ives were dumped out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle by the now famous Westfields. But they enjoyed their best ever run in the FA Trophy getting to the third qualifying round before falling to a single goal at Kings Lynn Town.
2017/18 turned out to be a tough season for the Ives with the team eventually finishing twenty second and only being saved from the drop by the reorganization of the Leagues. Early exits from the FA Cup and Trophy only added to the team’s difficulties as on to many occasions they failed to turn promising displays into points.
On a happier note the Ladies side of the Club continued their fantastic run of success with the first team winning the Cambridgeshire Women’s Premier League to win themselves promotion into the Eastern Women’s Regional League
2018/19 saw the Ives surprise a few as they enjoyed their most successful season ever finishing thirteenth in a very competitive Southern League Premier Division Central. League success was topped off with a best ever run in the FA Cup which culminated in a trip to the once mighty York City in third qualifying round. The Ladies success continued as the marched on to the Premier Division of Eastern Region Women’s League one step from the National Leagues.
2019/20 & 2020/21 turned into seasons that did not exist after the Coronavirus pandemic lead to early curtailments both of them.
2021/22 A season that started poorly for the Ives and saw them skirting the relegation zone for long periods picked up dramatically after Ricky was joined by ex Banbury manager Mike Ford as a joint manager in November. An excellent run of results post Christmas ultimately saw the Ives finish a very respectable 14th. Early exits from FA Cup and FA Trophy both at the hands of old rivals Needham Market simply highlighted the early season problems
2022/23 A excellent start saw the club flirting with the play-off places early in the season. This transposed into a historic FA Cup run with Ives unfortunate to fall to ex-Football League club FC Halifax Town in front of over 1000 people at quattro-tech Westwood Road in 4th Qualifying Round. Following the FA Cup exit and an early exit from the FA Trophy league results suffered a dip, but a late season recovery secured a 15th place finish.
2023/24 A fantastic run from Christmas saw the Ives overcome a slow start to the campaign to record their best step 3 finish in ninth place. The Ives also finished leading scorers in the division with 87 goals with Jonny Edwards claiming the golden boot in the Southern League Premier Central table.
Ricky has retained a strong nucleus of players from last season to which he has made some experienced additions to create a very exciting side and top six must be the target for the coming season.