Tuesday, 29 March 2022

BICESTER FC and ARDLEY "UNITE" AND FOLD

The club was established in 1873, a merger of Bicester Rovers and Bicester Harriers. They joined the Oxfordshire Senior League after winning the County Shield in 1903. They won various cups in the county and then in 1953 they were founder members of the Hellenic League, finishing as runners-up in its second season. They were placed in the Premier Division when the league gained a second division in 1956, and won the league title in 1960–61.

The club performed with varied success at this level but relegated at the end of the 2009-10 and despite finishing second in Division One West the following season, it folded after a dispute with their landlords.

The club was reformed in 2015 and rejoined the Hellenic League Division One East for the 2015-16. They held their own here but the club resigned from the league shortly after the start of the 2018-19.

Until World War 1, the club played at several different grounds; starting at the Cricket Field in 1896 before moving to Banbury Road, then Station Road and London Road. Following the war the club returned to the Cricket Field, before moving to a new ground on Oxford Road that had formerly been used as a golf course A stand was built in the early 1930s and later extended, with a clubhouse and changing rooms built in 1960s. By 2004 the ground had a capacity of 2,000, with 250 seated; the record attendance was 955, set for a friendly game against Portsmouth in 1994.


A dispute with Bicester Sports Association, the ground's owners, forced the club to fold in 2011.  When they reformed in 2015, the club started playing at Ardley United's Playing Fields ground.
But then there is a Bicester United FC playing in the Oxfordshire Senior League.
Bicester Colts F.C. organises teams from ages 5 through to 17 at facilities based at Akeman Street, Chesterton, where local cricket is played.




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