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Northam Celtic can lay claim to being one of the oldest, well established, respected teams in the area being one of the founder members of the original two leagues of the old Ipswich Sunday Football League in the late 1960's.
Folklore states that the clubs name came about when one drunken evening, a bunch of Celtic fans decided that they wanted to play in the famous green and white hoops whilst incorporating the Celtic name. Undecided on what the full name could be, they dropped a pin on a map which landed on a village by the name of Northam, deep in darkest Devon. Be thankful that the pin did not drop onto Cuckoo's knob in Wiltshire, Brown Willy in Cornwall, Cocklick End nr York or Fingringhoe nr Colchester!
Dave (above) joined back in 1974 and played for nearly 27 years before his hamstrings gave way and he was buried, only just alive, on the half way line at Northam's hallowed turf, Gainsborough Sports Centre. Other illustrious giants of yester-year include Brian 'Step-over' Saunders, Robert 'herbal/herbie' Green - who always used to arrive in a smokey haze, Mark 'psycho' Ablitt who always appeared at each game with a fresh war wound and the bible worshipping Smithers, who dedicated 16 religious years with Northam, known for his love of swans. Another name worthy of a mention was Mr 'Northam Celtic' Fred Hanniffy (seen on the far left of back row in black top on the picture below) who, like all good club men, done all the dirty work that nobody else wanted to do namely washing the kit, running the line, sorting the ref out and performing a minor miracle in raising the dead on a Sunday morning. Northam have never achieved a great deal of success over the years however they did win the Ipswich Sunday League Division 3 title back in the Ipswich Town FC glory days of 1981/82 and were in the dizzy heights of Division 1 for 2-3 seasons before they came back down to earth with a bump nearly folding in the late 80's when only 3 players enthusiastically turned up for the annual AGM - which is somewhat difficult to put out two teams..!
A major advertising campaign by the Evening Star led to a flurry of transfer activity which eventually led to a number of future Northam stars namely Banny, Jay-boah, Rupert Meikle, Danny Greene, Gavin Day and Andy Arthur arriving on the scene. Also, the welcome formation of a reserve side containing the likes of 'quality' players and characters such as Liam Ramsey, Darren Arthur, Pauly Newman and Nobby. The football was never taken too seriously and played in a friendly way which set Celtic apart from many other clubs. Mind you, some players did take the 'Meikle', wearing hats and even tights on a particularly 'fresh' winter's morning - something that would never have happened in Dave Walker's playing days where players used to start match day with a refreshing swim around the pier at Felixstowe and a healthy fry-up at Jacks café. More recently in the mid nineties, Northam managed to attract a number of 'useful' additions to their playing staff such as Jon 'late again' Ling - the clubs current longest serving and slowest ever player, Gav 'woman breasts' Whitman, Tom 'Morph' Wilcox... ...and Taffy 'crane hand' Benj AKA 'the immigrant'...
...all players noted for their pace, skill and love of food and drink. The club has continued to thrive over the years and has now an excellent nucleus of reliable and enthusiastic personnel holding the reins and driving things along most notably our resident roadie Eddie 'Van Halen' Hazlewood aka 'The Undertaker', Will (not so) 'young' Lawrence and James 'penalty king' Hamilton. In recent years, the legend of the rapidly ageing Dave Walker...
...has since continued with the arrival of his nephew Ryan Jackman and his mates Will and Matt. Although I hasten to add that while Ryan may have his uses on the pitch, his 'off the park after dark' skills are not in the same league as the legend himself!
Recently, Northam Celtic took their show on the road and acquainted themselves with the after hours delights of Amsterdam. Even managing European games along the way. This was something of an improvement on the Northam teams of old who used to make it into Europe most years but never ventured further than the nearest pub never actually playing a single game! This something the club is keen to continue with and we hope to make many new 'friends' along the way!
Northam Celtic like to play football in a gentlemanly manner and have made many new friends over the years with an attitude that is not 'win at all costs'... this has no doubt limited the amount of silverware in our 'bulging' trophy cabinet! One thing for certain is that there is life in this old club yet. We wish all clubs that we play a warm welcome to our home ground and to our watering hole after the game..by the way, mines a pint and a bag of spicy nuts ta!
Lingy |
